Brooklyn, NY
Last week I had my first Internet feud. After a couple of decades hanging out here, I guess it was inevitable, or at least a right of passage. It ended with a VC named Vance blocking me and then sending this tweet: Many years ago, I wrote about my brief time at Lehman Brothers in [ ]
In the last few months, I’ve been writing about some of the core attributes I value as an investor and in founders. My last two were on Courage and Trust. This post is about Patience. Early in my venture career, I got the opportunity to sit in on a board meeting with two prominent venture [ ]
Only a few close friends and family know this, but in 2023, I was quite certain I was done with the venture and technology business. Despite our financial success, my first firm Notation did not survive. That doesn’t mean we abandoned it. My former partner and I still manage the funds there together and work [ ]
A few months ago, I wrote that courage is one of the last remaining competitive advantages in venture. But I think there are a few more, and I’m going to write about those too. The etymology of trust is from the word traust in Old Norse, meaning strong. Trust is not a squishy concept [ ]
When I started in the venture business more than a decade ago, it was a competitive advantage to be well read and a student of technology and business strategy. A basic understanding of businesses, markets, moats, margins, and perhaps even an MBA put you ahead of the pack. If you were one of the few [ ]
Asylum Ventures is a new venture firm dedicated to the creative act of building companies. We raised $55 million to invest $1-2 million in early-stage founders practicing the art of making startups. Origins In 2007, I was working as a junior trader at Lehman Brothers. I hated it the dehumanizing culture, lack of creativity, [ ]
Since the pandemic started, in what has been one of the most tumultuous business environments on record, something really special happened for a number of Notation portfolio companies they became profitable. Each of these companies is different across business models, industries, previous capital raised and valuations, growth rates and age and yet [ ]
A few weeks ago, I had a conversation with the founder of a Notation portfolio company that really stuck with me. Over the course of about an hour, he mostly listened and asked questions about our firm, and provided thoughtful advice on how we re navigating the current Covid-19 and the environment. Towards the very end, [ ]
I finished reading The Man Who Solved the Market this past weekend about Jim Simons, Renaissance Technologies, and the quant revolution. The book was alright, but the story of Rentech is remarkable, including annualized returns of 66% since 1988 and over $100B of profits. The thing that really stuck with me however, like many successful entrepreneurial [ ]
I was poking around my old tumblr this weekend and grew nostalgic for the Internet of a decade ago. It was simpler and cuter and not as problematic. Similarly, as I was watching Sacha Baron Cohen s keynote speech at the ADL last week, I was struck by just how much has changed since I first started [ ]