AlexDunsdon
@alexdunsdon
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Investor | Founder | Advisor | Boards. Saatchinvest, , Neoswap, Verus, Citymapper, Redbrain. In service of truth, love, beauty & abundance
Joined December 2007
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SEVENTEEN
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Pinned Tweet
@WifeyAlpha
people either operate from love and abundance or fear
i’m on team love and abundance
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Life as a founder is so confusing.
Desperate .
Elated
Sad
Triumphant
All in an afternoon.
It's not a ride for most.
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My single best tip to answer ANY VC question
Simply follow this formula.
1. This is what we know
2. This is the hypotheses we will test
3. + This is what could look like at scale (reframing away from minutiae)
Repeat this formula for the next question
It’s like magic
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This is my favourite quote of all time
“People who live far below their means enjoy a freedom that people busy upgrading their lifestyles can’t fathom.”
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Vc is basically some rich dudes who know some rich dudes to pay young people with more energy to do loads of experiments for them knowing only a couple need to come off.
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How much better would job ads be if they just told you the end point
Ie
We need 3000 new customers paying us £100 a year. I don’t care how you do it. Work it out. Go
Vs
We need a marketing person who has x experience using y tools
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635
Have you noticed how the ‘productivity hack’ gurus don’t have kids.
I guess that’s the ultimate productivity hack
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What I needed to learn in high school:
1 Public speaking
2 Project management
3 Negotiation
4 Conflict resolution
5 Software development
6 Accounting
7 Financial planning
8 Critical thinking
9 Art of selling
10 Storytelling
11 People management
12 Marketing
H/t
@valarafshar
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Unpopular opinion
Most founders are awful at running companies
But have enough money to mask it
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Why do entrepreneurs become entrepreneurs?
Here’s what I’ve found
1/ experienced death early & lost fear
2/ saw parents give up achieving & wanted better life
3/ were poor and lost fear of having nothing
4/ were outsiders, then became observers & questioned world
Thoughts?
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Vcs are basically financial salesmen and (infrequent) options traders who masquerade as gurus and Nostradamuses
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Twitter. Please don’t label me by my job.
Like you, I am large and contain multitudes.
I am vc, entrepreneur, dad, coach, growth hacker, marketeer, son, husband, ADD’er, company director etc. Know me before you judge me. I have lots on medium and Linkedin to do just that.
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Adam Neumann has gone from a demi god to toxic waste in 2 weeks
It says more about us than it does him
Way more...
We are programmable monkeys who believe the stories we are told
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The best presentation tip I ever got
Summarise what you want to say into 10 sentences
Then make each of the sentences the headlines to your slides
Then you have both your ‘exec summary’ and your presentation.
That’s it
1
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I truly believe the world is splitting into 2 camps
1. People who choose to see themselves as victims and frame everything as oppressing them
2. People who choose to see themselves as ‘masters of their destiny’ and frame everything as opportunity
Option 1 = guaranteed misery
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“With my family, I’m a communist. With my close friends, I’m a socialist. At the state level of politics, I’m a Democrat. At higher levels, I’m a Republican, and at the federal levels, I’m a Libertarian.”
By taleb quoted by naval on rogan. Who happen to be 3 of my favourites
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How much better would job ads be if they just told you the end point
Ie
We need 3000 new customers paying us £100 a year. I don’t care how you do it. Work it out. Go
Vs
We need a marketing person who has this experience running these tools
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Should I do a biased list of the Vcs I could actually work with forever
Hence be a guide for the vcs you might actually want on your cap table for 10 years ?
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Im constantly amazed at the lack of curiosity in VC world
Go try to have a conversation about art, epigenitics, consciousness or similar and it’s like “no, but did you hear the latest a16z podcast”
All very odd.
Especially when innovation happens at confluence of disciplines
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My husband has been working from home for 6 weeks. I've learned that he basically gets paid to be in meetings. Speak in meetings, meet with other people about their last meeting, and have meetings to plan for the next meeting. 😬🥱😧
@adriennenakhol
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Im at the airport.
There's 30 cabs right in front of me.
Yet Im waiting 12 mins for my uber.
That, my friends, is the power of brand
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Here’s my tip for picking a great investor
Pick the one with great questions over the one with great answers
Their answers won’t always be great
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Fun news
I’m moving to Cascais in Portugal in April
Who wants to come visit?
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I sometimes wonder if startup founders need mentors at all.
Most of the advice is either unhelpful or contradictory (mentor whiplash)
But mostly they need someone to be vulnerable with.
Someone that doesn’t judge them
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I have been obsessing about complexity theory and networks as am convinced 98% of people have grown up with the wrong understanding of how the world actually works
What are the best books / talks to understand networks ?
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I care about founders more than companies more than cash
That will either make me an amazing investor or a shit one
Time will tell
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Unpopular opinion
Remote working is mostly terrible other than for menial non important tasks
You cannot build culture and align towards shared vision
I know so many people who have gone back
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Serious question.
Why don't more tech founders take courses in selling and persuasion?
Investor presentations = selling
Getting new employees = selling
Getting new Clients / users = selling
Am I missing something or is selling still a dirty word?
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Jack Ma's model for life:
When you are 20...work at a good company & learn.
When you are 30...do your own thing & experiment. You can still lose, you have time.
When you are 40....do what you are good at, double down on your strengths. When you are 50.....teach others.
Solid, no?
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Dear Mr/Mrs Founder
You believe VC’s pick companies that they think are the best.
They don’t. That is not the game
The game is to pick the startup they think EVERYONE ELSE will think is the best.
Ie “Who will invest next?”
It’s called the common knowledge problem.
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How much better would job ads be if they just told you the end point
Ie
We need 3000 new customers paying us £100 a year. I don’t care how you do it. Work it out. Go
Vs
We need a marketing person who has x experience using y tools
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"Best founder attributes?
How about:
Humble learning machines
High energy
Super curious
Move on quickly from bad things
Impatient
Can suffer pain
Both non linear and linear
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Being risk averse is such an odd thing
It makes you feel safe
But it has a cost
All the things you didn’t learn and never knowing how great you could be
I’m learning that it might actually be riskier not to take risks...at least on a long enough time frame
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Twitter.
Please don’t label me by my job. Like you, I am large and contain multitudes.I am vc, entrepreneur, dad, coach, growth hacker, marketeer, son, husband, ADD’er, company director etc. Know me before you judge me. I have lots on medium and Linkedin to do just that.
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SF typical career path:
18: Go to Harvard or Stanford for CS.
22: Work at FAANG companies.
25: Quit and raise millions for your startup.
26: Sell your company to a FAANG company.
28: Join a VC firm, invest in people like you, and make predictions on Twitter all day
@TheLexTimes
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I want to gather a group of unique thinkers in the world
Non linear people who don’t fit normality
They make the world a fun and interesting place to be
Where do I find them?
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It’s when google is down and you can’t heat your home that you realise how scarily reliant you are on google
👀
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I’m fed up with Coinbase
What crypto wallets do you recommend?
I use trezor mostly but want a couple of others
Nothing too fancy - just trusted and reliable and easy to use ;)
Thanks so much
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Unpopular opinion: lean startup is not a good book
More unpopular opinion: most startup/mgmt books are repetitive and poorly written, only serving to glorify founderhood.
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PowerPoint decks are a key tool in any persuasion armoury
Yet they are mostly awful. Best advice? I’ll start:
* Write ten sentences. Make those the title slides .
* Tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you’ve have told them..
Any others?
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It’s odd to me me
Most big companies don’t lack innovative people.
Maybe it’s just that Innovative people lack the power and a place to thrive in most big companies
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Im looking for interesting people with 🙌💥🙏 ideas I can make famous.
In 2019 who captivated you in conversation ?
Any name, any subject.
Can be random ;)
Thanks so much !!
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Debate
A friend of mine wants to start a company.
Do you advise:
1. Start now. Take the risk in your 20’s before you start a family.
2. Take risk in your 30’s. Learn in corporate jobs first with some assets behind you
She is very good and 22.
Thanks
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The 5 Core Jobs of a CEO (from Lux team mtg)
1. Nail down strategy for company
2. Deliver capital to pursue that strategy
3. Build team to execute
4. Communicate the hell out of company strategy (internally and externally)
5. Hold people accountable.
@Joshwolfe
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is there a word for being pro bitcoin, anti bitcoin maximalist, pro web 3 experimentation yet anti the greed larping token pump bullshit ?
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"SF typical career path:
18: Go to Harvard or Stanford for CS.
22: Work at FAANG companies.
25: Quit and raise millions for your startup.
26: Sell your company to a FAANG company.
28: Join a VC firm, invest in people like you, and make predictions on Twitter all day"
@LexTimes
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The words capitalism and socialism are so loaded that you cannot have a decent conversation about them
If I’m a fan of free markets and helping / educating less well off people to be all they can be
What does that make me?
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Why is it that immigrants often make better entrepreneurs? I’ll start ..
They are less scared of having nothing so take more risk
As kids they are ostracised so become observers on the world and spend more time questioning how it works
What else ?
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Suicide
I often wonder how many lives would be saved if people said all the loving things before, not after.
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"Can I have $15,000 to start a business?"
"No."
"Can I have $120,000 to go to school?"
"HELL YEAH."
@CerealEntrepreneur
0
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Month 3 of learning piano
- 6 songs learnt
- Wife = “not f$**ing Adele” again
- Still can’t read music.. I use lights and stickers on the keys
- I really love it 😍
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Founders
I have good news
Never before have VCs had a bigger problem than right now
They have money. Lots of it
It’s actually a problem
They need to spend it
Hence they will spend it on things they wouldn’t have when they didn’t have the problem
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One of my best ideas that no one seems to care about
Start a podcast
Just as an excuse for a sales meeting
Prospect more likely to see you
Prospect feels good and very warm
Doesn’t matter if no one listens
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I truly believe that being at home will cause loads to pause
And reflect
Many will notice the gaping hole in their lives from chasing false gods (money and status) and realise the CEOs we so worship are really sociopaths
We all need meaning
Being busy masks that for many
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Unpopular opinion
Constantly kowtowing to your kids is stifling creativity
Let them be bored
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I love missionary founders.
Why?
Having a real sense of mission makes EVERYTHING easier for you : telling your story, fundraising, hiring, culture.
It becomes an easy lens for all decisions.
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Me: “What do you want to be when you grow up ?”
5 year old son: “Kind”
😍
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The best presentation tip I ever got
Summarise what you want to say into 10 sentences
Then make each of the sentences the headlines to your slides
Then you have both your ‘exec summary’ and your presentation.
That’s it
0
6
56
I don’t have the source for this as I screenshotted ages ago
But its brilliant on ‘sales’
So if you sell you should take note
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Absent minded things not to do on your wife’s birthday...
🤷♀️
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Im bored of funding businesses that help other businesses be a bit more efficient ...
Should i do a climate fund?
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@JeffBooth
’s ‘price of tomorrow’ is book of the year imho
Alas we will stay stuck in the hamster wheel
We’re dogmatic creatures of habit that can’t imagine building new systems of prosperity around our deflationary tech reality
And so we sleepwalk into the future
Tick tock :)
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After money, a VC is most useful as a brand name
A badge of ‘credibility’ to your start up
So It’s amazing how few Vcs have brands
Look at all the sites. Cover the logos. Notice difference?
Maybe no need... ? Successful companies become a ‘reverse badge’ for vc’s anyways
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Coronavirus
Nothing really changed in physical world today
Yet something tipped in the collective minds of humans
This is the madness of crowds
Let’s see how it plays...
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Am not sure startups realise how many Vcs don’t make money on their ‘fund’
In fact many don’t care about this at all
Instead they make all their money on the side by setting up SPVs
Anyone want to know the game ?
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Contention
Vcs are obsesssd with founders ‘whys’.
Yet VC’s ‘why’s’ are far less intrinsic and way more about superficial shit like money and status.
Prove me wrong.
Since most VCs try to understand the “why” behind the entrepreneur and what they’re building, it is surprising that more entrepreneurs don’t ask VCs about their “why.”
If you’re a VC, why are you doing it? What is driving you to be the best VC you can be?
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Overheard: Dude on train said he took acid to remember bitcoin passwords Worth £10m in today’s value. To no avail apparently 😱
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Wow, from Forbes
97% of CEOs say that innovation is a top priority (PWC)...
AND
94% are dissatisfied with their current innovation programs (McKinsey).
If true then surely there are few things more broken in corporate world?
What can be done?
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“The meaning in life is to find your gifts. The purpose of life is to give them away”
I love that.
By Picasso
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Why is everyone so angry ?
By almost every measure (read the rational optimist and enlighten now for the data) we live in the greatest of all times
It’s so weird. Would you rather live in 1900?
(Pro tip...turn off the news and hug your family more)
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The more I know startups - the more I think it’s rabbles of people clusterfucking their way through as best they can
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Your job as a start up is to increase your probability of success through rapid experimentation
Most fail because they believe they have to have certainty too soon
The culture (and vc) forces this myth on them.
Do more experiments before making decisions.
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Hello friends
I have some sad and exciting news.....I'm leaving The Bakery.
I will still be SAATCHiNVEST'ing and am messing with new things that I hope to announce soon.
For now I just want to say thank you to everyone who has been part of the Bakery family..
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I swear that all you need in life is good energy and curiosity
If people want you in the room and you never stop learning then everything else just works out
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I have a radical idea.
How about VC's say "no, wed never do this" within the first 30 mins of a meeting.
Not "Maybe with more traction" or "It's too early" Just "no, we'd never do this"
Ironically respect would go sky high.
Also entrepreneur productivity would triple.
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Jack Ma’s model for life :
When youre 20...work at a good company & learn.
When youre 30...do your own thing and experiment. You can still lose, you have time.
When youre 40....do what you are good at, double down on your strengths.
When youre 50.....teach others.
Solid, no?
2
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50
I think I’m going mad
These ‘competitive analysis’ charts are everywhere
But everyone knows that everyone knows the game:
1. Make up an arbitrary label on x and y axis
2. Place yourself top right
3. Make sure there is space between you and everyone else
What am I missing?
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Do you define yourself by your job ?
Im a sales guy / gal
I’m a product person
Etc
That’s cool.
But attaching your whole self to ‘the thing you do for work’ is probably not.
Cos when that breaks, you break.
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I met
@impcapital
last week
I think she has an outstanding mind and going to do insane things in the world
Watch out 😮
(Unless you’re a social impact company and in which case send her your deck ;))
A
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Are you a tech start up ?
I am about to save you loads of time on your forecasting
You will spend 60 to 75% of total costs on people and 10 to 20% on space
I can’t think of any exceptions unless you hold inventory (ie eComm and hardware companies)
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5
47
Serious question.
Why don't more people take courses in selling and persuasion?
Investor presentations = selling
Getting new employees = selling
Getting new Clients / users = selling
Getting a better job = selling
Is selling still a dirty word?
15
4
50
Kafka wrote in his spare time because his parents made him work in insurance
He died miserable at 41 with no sales, no belief and piles of unpublished manuscripts.
Now he’s lauded as a genius
I wonder how many kafkas there are in the world ?
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Startups are a series of experiments to get to PMF
Here is a framework to help you get there,
What is the problem we solve ?
Who is the customer ?
What is the value we provide ?
Then...
Is this the biggest problem?
The best customer?
The biggest value?
From
@StephenMillard
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I’ve read lots of things on diet and nutrition
But I keep coming back to michael pollan on the basis of Occam’s razor
Eat Food
Mostly Plants
Not too much
;)
Any other simple principles ?
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No one ever cares when I say this
But I’ll say it anyway
Loads are taking 💰pre product ie 1m on 4m pre
And spunk it trying to work out a product people want
I’ve got a crazy idea
Bootstrap. Then take ALLLL the money when you know you’ve got something people will buy.
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One of the most powerful drivers I see in founders...
You feel your parents didn’t make the most of themselves
Or didn’t get the opportunity they deserved
And now you can’t stop making the most of yourself. Every second of every day.
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@coryklippsten
“Understanding the usefulness of holding and transfering wealth outside of government control was the winning angle.”
and he went and bought the etf
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How to make your life exponentially better is really boring:-
- eat well
- sleep 7-8 hours per night
- wake up early
- read a new book every month
- forgive people
- smile more
- stop drinking alcohol
inspired by
@zuby
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