At least two of my business partners, past and present, are self-made multi-millionaires. I've also invested in and worked with dozens of hugely wealthy, successful people. Here are 42 pieces of advice for my children that I've learned along the way.🧵

If you work with British people, this guide might come in handy... #british

Is there one factor that influences a founder's success above all else? Maybe it's this: 𝘈 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘯𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘰'𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 - 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦 - 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯. #flowers #Thanks

Think about tracking 3 categories of KPI: #1. 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡: in which direction are total customer no's and revenue tracking? #2. 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: how is each customer performing? #3. 𝐄𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲: are you reducing the cost of your growth?

Can't believe it's already September. Happy Friday!

According to the founder of Match, the best VCs may be looking for these 8 startup traits. Have you considered them? #startups #howtoraisemoney #seriesA

Do you REALLY want VC funding?

VCs are great for people building world-changing companies, but what about people building successful SMEs? That's what we're focusing on at DQventures. #funding #venturecapital #SME

What's more valuable to thee than this? #time

20. Most companies don't die because they run out of money 21. Be nice! Or at least don’t be a jerk 22. Get sleep and exercise - take care of yourself

16. Startups can only solve one problem well at any given time 17. Founder relationships matter more than you think 18. Sometimes you need to fire your customers (they might be killing you) 19. Ignore your competitors, you will more likely die of suicide than murder

13. Avoid big company corporate development queries - they will only waste time 14. Avoid conferences unless they are the best way to get customers 15. Pre-product market fit - do things that don’t scale: remain small/nimble

09. Growth is the result of a great product not the precursor 10. Don’t scale your team/product until you have built something people want 11. Valuation is not equal to success or even probability of success 12. Avoid long negotiated deals with big customers if you can

01. Launch now 02. Build something people want 03. Do things that don't scale 04. Find the 90 / 10 solution 05. Find 10-100 customers who love your product 06. All startups are badly broken at some point 07. Write code - talk to users 08. "It’s not your money"

Since 2005, @ycombinator has invested in over 4,000 companies that have a combined valuation of over $600B. Here's what they consider their most important, most transformative advice for startups...

04. 𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐬 to share their proprietary outcomes data with you by offering preferential rates and/or by providing them with access to outcomes data from other users.

03. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲 for obtaining proprietary data is to have a lot of people using your product. Pick a pricing strategy that encourages usage, like value-based pricing as opposed to charging per seat, which can actually deter usage.

02. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫-𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐦 𝐦𝐨𝐚𝐭 will be 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘢. What data can you collect from users that LLMs cannot access, and how you can leverage that data (with or w/o AI) to create unique, lasting value for your users.

01. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐮𝐦-𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐦 𝐦𝐨𝐚𝐭, especially in the age of gen-AI, will be 𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘦 𝘫𝘰𝘣𝘴-𝘵𝘰-𝘣𝘦-𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘦.

Some of my favourite insight on building a moat came from Jake Saper from Emergence Capital (I'm paraphrasing):

Your job as a founder is probably not to compete against Mistral AI; it's to be better than all the other companies that are similar to yours. Godspeed.