✌️Howdy..
OK here’s a challenge. I’m going to try and write a VERY useful and entertaining blog post - that takes exactly 1 minute to read.
I’m calling it the One Minute Blog (OMG).
According to ChatGPT, the average adult can read 238 words per minute. Shieeet, I’ve only got 194 words left!
**OK - here’s a short story that will make you a better leader/CEO by Shaan puri. "**I just hired a new CEO for one of my companies. On Day 1 - he started doing what most CEO’s would do:
- Meet & greet the team
- Get access/permission to our tools
- Start coming up with a Big Picture plan/vision to present to the team.
I pulled him aside and told him about a different way that I learned from Nat Friedman. Nat was named CEO of GitHub, and what he did on Day 1 was amazing. [8 am: everyone in the company gets on a call].
Instead of sharing the vision & multi-year plan. Nat screen-shared and displayed a giant list of 100+ issues & complaints from customers. He said:
- “today, we’re going to find one item on here, and fix it”
- “And tomorrow, we’re going to pick another one, and fix that”
- “And the next day.. And the next.. Until we’ve nailed 20+ of these”
This did 3 big things: 1. Shock Therapy. The team used to “think in quarters and years”. Suddenly the timeline shrinks to “ship something today”.
- Taught Him The Business, Bottoms Up. Where are the problems? Where’s the tech debt? Which teams are good at getting shit done?
- Action Speaks Louder. Customers were worried when Microsoft bought GitHub. Will they ruin it? Should we leave? But immediately seeing the product improve built faith that things will be OK. I call this the ‘Broken Shelf Approach’.
Every home has broken shelves. The people living in the house have learned to ignore it, and just live with it. If you want to make an impression when you move in. Find the broken shelves, and fix them first.
- CT
331 words (93 words over budget!)
Fortunately, there's more... Here're somethings i learned over the week about Investment Bankers and Venture capitalists: IBs
Perhaps no job better embodies the image of business than Investment Banking. It's got fancy offices, screens, and those dress shirts where the collar is a different color than the rest of the shirt.
You see a fellow wearing one of those, and you just know he's got kids he doesn't talk to. But while the image of investment banking is common knowledge, the function is much less common knowledge. So what the hell do these guys really do?
Investopedia defines Investment Banking as a type of banking that organizes and advises large complex Financial transactions such as mergers or IPO underwriting, and they say more, but no chance I'm reading all that.
"Investment bankers advise companies when they're either trying to raise money, either debt or they're selling shares, and then on a day-to-day basis, what does that look like? A lot of Excel Financial modeling and a lot of PowerPoint presentations. A lot of that is sitting around and waiting for comments from your bosses and your boss's bosses," says Steph Moy, the founder of the Financial Service Company Pin and a former Investment Banking Analyst at JP Morgan.
Part 2: VCs
If you're a startup, you need them. If you're on Twitter (X), you've seen them. And if you're the engineer in SFC or Norrseken, they're probably inside of you right now. Of course, I'm talking about venture capitalists. And today, we ask: what do these mostly guys really just invest in companies, or is it something more?
SURE! But over the last decade, the investment arm of the startup community has created a buzzy culture around itself with some of its most successful operators becoming famous in their own right. So do these mostly guys really just invest in companies, or is it something more?
My name is Sheal Manat, and I'm a general partner at Better Tomorrow Ventures," he said. "We find really small companies and give them money and time and hope that they become good companies.
So that's that's pretty much it?
But lots of people finance projects that need money. Banks, the government, my sugar momma... So what, besides designer mushrooms, are these guys doing that's so unique?
"You look for crazy ideas that, if they become true, are going to change the world," Sheal explained. "They would say that they are funding the Innovation Economy. If we didn't have venture capitalists, we wouldn't have Genentech or Intel or Apple or any of the Great American companies that have brought us all of these innovations that we use in our everyday life."
And that's true. You can't dispute that fundamentally, the job of VCs is to take longshot chances on small businesses with huge potential.
So what do venture capitalists actually do?
It's simple. They take cash from investors who are willing to accept risk and use that money to invest in startups. But the pressure to build their profile and land deals can make VCs act like they're doing more than that.
But don't let the VCs fool you. They're humans just like us, which means they only want two things: money and attention. But mostly money.
Speaking of, if any investor is listening, I would now like to take this moment to advertise an exciting new tech startup that helps narcissistic black guys find their purpose in life. It's called ... and it has AI