David Ulevitch 🇺🇸
@davidu
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GP @a16z — Building American Dynamism 🇺🇸 — Destroying the Anarcho-Tyranny — Anthropologist — Formerly Founder/CEO @OpenDNS — Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu
Seat 2A
Joined July 2006
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Desiderata:
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
🌅 Make today a good one!
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Consider this my good deed of the day:
Back in 2008 two bodybuilders were arguing on the Internet about how many days are in a week.
It is one of the greatest Internet threads of all time.
If you haven't read it, stop what you are doing and read it:
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Look, all Parler has to do is get a datacenter, lay down miles of fiber, set up peering, buy a ton of servers, build an IaaS stack, add a PaaS layer, port their app, and they are up and online.
Easy.
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100% of current hospitalized Covid patients in SF are unvaccinated. This is an incredible triumph of science, and a colossal failure of the media and politicians.
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Can I put this in a job description without being destroyed? "You prefer a job where nobody cares if you need to leave for a dentist appointment in the middle of the day, but you also don’t blink when replying to an email at 9pm while watching Netflix on your couch."
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When hiring your first employees at your seed-stage startup and the candidate says they *need* to make $350k/year, they are really saying they don't want to work at a startup and you should probably listen to them instead of trying to make it work.
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It’s dumb that washing machines don’t just turn into dryers when the washing is done. I’m aware a small set of compact devices do this mediocrely, but it should be the norm.
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One of the most destructive and delusional things a CEO does is that when a fantastic employee quits, they try to then explain how that employee wasn't actually that good or it's not a loss. Don't do that. It's so weak. Just figure out where you went wrong and fix that. 🤯🤯🤯
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How long until we see new homes listed as 3bd/3ba/2office?
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Being anti-nuclear may be one of the greatest demonstrations of privilege and wealth in our go-forward lives. For the next working class, no nuclear means regular blackouts and expensive energy.
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Has anyone ever fact checked a McKinsey / BCG / etc. TAM prediction? Like they made a ton of TAM growth predictions over the last 20 years... has anyone ever done the work to see how accurate any were?
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Went to
@Columbia
campus today to see the situation for myself. It’s a total locked down unsafe quad with groupthink protesters and agitators. An absolute travesty for a once-great university. How difficult it must be to be a Jewish student there right now.
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Is this not normal? Was just told this is both amazing and psychotic by a friend.
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If I was an incoming freshman for the fall semester of 2020 I would 100% take a gap year and find something productive to do instead. I've met a number of folks who did gap years going into college and I've never met one who regretted it and didn't believe it improved their life.
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After using Nespresso pods for years, I was sick of the waste I was generating (and cost) so I bought a coffee grinder and basic coffee brewer. You know what? It tastes better. Way better. It's much, much cheaper and has far less waste, too.
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💪💪💪Even in death, some people still RESIST.
Read this amazing obituary, found by my mom, who reads them all:
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Founders, if you’re telling me you have product market fit, you probably don’t. If you’re telling me you can’t talk because the AWS bill is on fire, 3 employees are crying, and a customer just showed up at the office with a tramp stamp of your corporate logo, then you have it.
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Aeron chair.
BREAKING:
The Taliban in Afghanistan issue an official statement calling on Pakistan and Iran to exhibit restraint and avoid violence
They say they are very worried by recent developments
🇮🇷🇵🇰🇦🇫
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Calling your SaaS application "No code" is the new "We have AI" 🙄
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An unbelievably sad moment in American history. A total failure of these schools. Disgraceful, humiliating, and frightening.
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This guy wasn’t removed for not wearing a mask. He was removed because it’s a free country and his freedom to not wear one is the same as American’s freedom to remove inconsiderate people like this tool.
I was just removed from my flight for not wearing a mask. 1st time this has happened. Not a federal law.
@AmericanAir
staff standing over me telling me it’s THE LAW. So much for “please respect those who can not wear a mask”. When I pointed out this wasn’t a law I was removed.
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Pro tip for winners: The rule of texting someone busy and asking if they are free for a call is to be free for the next 15-30 minutes immediately after you send the text, and indicate if you want that “now works, should be a quick call.”
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🧠🏆 There are two loops of being a great CEO. The faster these loops run, the better:
1)
a) Hire the best people.
b) Reinforce the vision.
c) Don't run out of money.
2)
a) Do people know what they should be doing?
b) Do they know why?
c) Are they doing it?
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One day I will click a LinkedIn link on my phone and it’ll open in the app. One day. 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
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There’s a non-story out tonight that has the wrong headline. I won’t link to it, but here’s the corrected headline:
“Amazingly successful company promises fast-paced work environment and delivered on that promise. But it’s run by a woman, so we’re gonna shit all over it.”
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First time CEOs often confuse empathy and compassion with being soft. People want to work for empathetic and compassionate leaders but they absolutely do not want to work for soft ones.
- Manage out poor performers
- Do not compromise all decisions
- Give people real feedback
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Founders having a tough time: Remember that every great startup was at one point or another (or more likely multiple times), a total and complete dumpster fire that looked and smelled like a turd. Success is never a straight line. 😘
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If you don’t list a Stanford and/or Harvard two week program as part of your education section on LinkedIn so you show up in candidate searches for those school, are you even growth hacking your career?
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No, the A in ARR does not stand for ‘anticipated.’
Annual
Recurring
Revenue
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People are overthinking the precedent or slippery slope issue. It went like this:
AMZN lawyer: “Jeff, we’re providing service to a site that advocates murder and assassinations, and was used to coordinate the capital bldg attack. It violates our TOS.”
Bezos: “Kick them, thx.”
Look, all Parler has to do is get a datacenter, lay down miles of fiber, set up peering, buy a ton of servers, build an IaaS stack, add a PaaS layer, port their app, and they are up and online.
Easy.
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A 12 year old asked me I do and I said I was an investor in early stage technology companies and he asked what I do all day and I said “I reply to emails, all day” and he said he said I should invest in a company to do that for me. And he’s not wrong.
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CEOs often forget that the inner loop of the job basically boils down to:
1) Does your team know what's important?
2) Do they know why it's important?
3) Do they know how they are performing against what is important?
If "no" on any of those, fix immediately. (con't)
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I've been to this party. Infinity times. Flawless.
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Question: How can you cause a Gen X brain to explode with just words?
Answer:
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You know it's really bad when the Islamic Republic News Agency is celebrating
@columbia
. Scary for all of America and humiliating for the school.
The video shows the strike of a large number of professors and faculty members of
#ColumbiaUniversity
, in solidarity with the pro-Palestine students of this university.
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It blows my mind that there’s still not a single Personal FP&A / forecasting tool out there. Nothing that supports multiple account types, loans (home, auto, etc.), various equities and assets (stocks, bonds, tokens, etc.) and does forecasting, scenarios, and simulations.
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Reading about
@Polkadot
parachains this morning. Exciting to read the various ideas people are building against and seeing development here — Plus
@kusamanetwork
is eponymously enjoyable. 😍
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Oof. I’ve been an entrepreneur a lot longer than I’ve been a VC, and I never understand VCs who shit on founders. What’s the upside? A few ‘likes?’ I believe in the future, the misfits, the bold. Those who get in the arena. I’d never take money from a VC who dunks on a founder.
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Someone on my flight is listening to music without headphones.
That’s not socially acceptable right?
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@howard
@itsandrewgao
This is very untrue. Wealth buys access to the best care, best doctors, jumping the line, treatment exceptions, paying out of pocket, etc.
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1/ There was another mass shooting in your neighborhood today. Because that’s what Highland Park is. It’s a neighborhood where you’d want to be from or one you’d want to live in. Same with Sandy Hook. And Columbine. It’s not mental illness mowing people down, it’s assault rifles.
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I’m not a fan of everything Ben says, but this entire 40 minutes (not just this 4 min clip) was exceptional. And yes, he destroys the fake talking points with the clincher at the end (as he does to others in the full exchange).
This was a pretty epic exchange with
@benshapiro
at the Oxford Union.
"If Israel put down its guns tomorrow there would be second holocaust. If the Palestinians put down their guns tomorrow there would be a Palestinian state"
I thought he made his points well. Worth a watch.
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I have an alarming number of friends with very senior executives roles at large tech companies who aren’t using a password manager and aren’t using 2FA for work or personal accounts. How is this possible in 2021? Do I need to write the how-to?
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Right now people in California are thinking about “vaccine tourism.”
The rollout is that bad.
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It’s important that leaders on all sides of the aisle, both government and private sector, condemn what the president said today. There’s zero (0!) evidence of a multi-state fraud. His words are dangerous and people will get hurt. Democracy requires affirmation, not silence.
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Pro-tip: As of today, 100% of people you are scheduled to meet with over the coming weeks are very understanding and supportive of moving it to a virtual meeting. You are not offending them or upsetting them by asking them to take it virtually. In most cases, they appreciate it.
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Mom, you need to learn how to hang up the iPhone after we finish a call... ❤️
...before you start debriefing / opining on my life to dad. 😂
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We saw the first memetic, social-media fueled bank run in history Thursday and Friday. As my partners and I spend the weekend working to help our portfolio companies, you can be sure our foreign adversaries are ramping up social media disinfo campaigns to fuel further bank runs.
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New axiom:
If you have 10 customers paying $10k/year, there is a new one willing to pay $100k/year.
If you have 10 customers paying $100k/year, there is a new one willing to pay $1m/year.
If you have 10 customers paying $1m/year, there is a new one willing to pay $10m/year.
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This is outrageous. SF is a total lawless and violent city, especially around Market Street.
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I'm not a lawyer but here's a VC PSA: If you're working with another VC to drive down the price of a deal, that's illegal, and incredibly shitty. Don't do that and definitely don't let me hear about you doing that. I've been a founder longer than I've been a VC and I will 🔥 you.
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If you recently raised a round and then a 4-8 weeks later a bunch of VCs start asking you to meet it's because they are evaluating your competitor. Just FYI.
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Free small app idea — Shared alarm clock app. Be able to add alarms and reminders for someone else and have it alert you both or just the other person. I’d pay $2.99 per device for that. (I couldn’t find this existing)
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The best founders treat everything as a funnel. Sales, marketing, recruiting, fundraising, product, support, customer success, employee development, etc. Some obvious, some not obvious. All aspects are best run when thought of as funnels (or for CS nerds, as FSMs).
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A lot of product-oriented founders think they can build their way to growth. That almost never works. Better to just put on the GTM hat and figure out why people aren't buying what's already on the truck.
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If this drug works in the fight against COVID-19, and my dad ends up ranking higher than me in google results for "Ulevitch," it'll totally be worth it. So proud of you dad! And I love you!
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Another day, another nonsensical take / takedown of a wildly accomplished female CEO of a category-defining company.
(NYT, naturally)
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I had no idea that I had so many friends and colleagues who were constitutional law scholars. You never shared your expertise before today. So impressed, you humble polymaths!
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This is not an aberration. My car was broken into in September when I parked on a busy street in SF for 45 minutes. SF is hitting peak 1980's Gotham City.
Are car break-ins on the decline in
#SanFrancisco
? I think not. This morning on Corbett Avenue, Twin Peaks/Upper Market. I stopped counting at 5.
@SFPDPark
@SFPD
@SFDAOffice
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We're not running a process, but we are talking to a select number of firms (5 to 10) and here's our deck, data room, and timeline for the raise.
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The day you throw away an old cord is the day before you need it.
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Someone asked me what an amusing thing about becoming a VC has been, and it's been this, twice:
Me: "Hey long-time-friend, want to grab drinks on Tuesday?"
Him: "Oh, we're not out fundraising."
Me: "Umm, we're friends, I just wanna hang out."
Him: "Oh, sorry. Yeah, sure."
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🚨 Warning: If you watch this video from
@DescriptApp
, your brain may explode at 1:25 when you see how Overdub works. The future is incredible, and it's here today.
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Piecing together headlines it seems like:
Nobody is working but everyone has money and is spending wildly buying nothing.
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⚛️⚡💯 I'm thrilled to announce our investment in
@RadiantNuclear
— a company producing portable 1-megawatt nuclear reactors to make long-term clean energy accessible quickly and globally.
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If you have a co-founder and you aren’t having regular “How are you doing? What are you excited about? What concerns you?” chats in your regular 1:1’s, you’re doing it wrong and will be blindsided when they quit.
Same for founding team.
Same for your execs as you scale.
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"Upgrading you to BCC" is the best reply to an intro I've ever received. 🙏🙏🙏
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Zoom is effective to run the day to day but foundations of trust fray without real time face to face.
Have a dinner. Go golfing. Whatever. Do something casual and unstructured.
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When it comes to SaaS, not demo'ing your product (that you say exists) during a pitch is a massive, almost insurmountable, red flag for me.
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Build a nuclear power plant! Build 20! You could be done and online before the ‘24 election if you wanted!
My message to the companies running gas stations and setting prices at the pump is simple: this is a time of war and global peril.
Bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you’re paying for the product. And do it now.
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CEOs:
When a VC gives specific product management advice, that’s bad.
When you listen to it, that’s worse.
😎
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A grueling exec search is worse than a grueling fundraise. It's way more emotional, way more critical to business, and much more challenging to get right. Fundraising is hard, for sure, but while firms and partners differ in value, cash is ultimately a commodity – talent isn't.
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San Francisco is losing one of the absolute iconic companies of a generation. What an incredible fail.
Stripe, the second most valuable U.S. startup, is leaving San Francisco
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I'd rather have a president with pneumonia than one with xenophobia.
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1/ Here's a contrarian take (or not?): Ignoring the need to sell a role, a great manager can hire A+ people just by looking at a resume and doing about 8 hours of references. No interview needed.
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📣🚀🧵
@KTmBoyle
and I are thrilled to announce our new American Dynamism fund! Since creating this movement we've seen incredible founders flock toward the mission of building in the national interest. More capital means more startups means more winning.
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Instead of calling it a "career limiting move," I prefer to be more positive and refer to it as a "resume generating event."
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In retrospect, it should have been called "The American Technology, Innovation, Defense, Manufacturing and Jobs Creation Bank."
Would have made my conversations in Washington DC today much easier.
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I very stupidly, and very distractedly, left my laptop in the seat back pocket of my
@AlaskaAir
flight this afternoon. Less then two hours later I get a call back, laptop found, and I’m en route to pick it up. Thank you! A thanksgiving miracle! 🙏🦃
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It’s like I always say, if you’re going to build a platform for planning murders and assassinations, and sharing photos with EXIF data of your insurrection acts, don’t use vulnerable Wordpress plugins or AWS.
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OH: “Twitter is LinkedIn for people who want to lose their job.” <— Amazing
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Google is so embarrassing. It should be humiliating for Sundar but I know he keeps his circle full of sycophants who want something from him and just say all is fine. He lacks any real advisors.
every single person who worked on this should take a long hard look in the mirror.
absolutely appalling.
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My partner
@bhorowitz
has many great posts, but this remains one of my favorites. While you may not need this post right now, you or a friend probably will one day, so give it a (re)read:
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