An exploratory narrative on how fundamental advances in science and technology will change the way we live, and impact the value of every company; in industries we know today or discover tomorrow. This is the new renaissance Written by Sumon Sadhu
The worst state to be in is forgettable. A forgettable person is one who you have no desire to stay in touch with again after you meet them once. A forgettable holiday is one where you weren’t able to relax and nothing interesting happened. A forgettable city is one where everything blends together into an unmemorable mass of activity, averaging out to the same thing every single day. To be…
When you are thinking of an idea to work on for a company, the shape of the idea matters. Just like fitting together a puzzle, the skills that you have and what activities give you energy as a founder really matter, how they fit together with your co-founder really matter, and how they connect with the shape of an idea will determine if there is success or not. This is a spatial puzzle. What if…
We have long sought to understand biology through the central dogma of biology proposed by Sir Francis Crick in 1952. The central dogma of biology – where understanding DNA, RNA, and Protein structures as the key information architecture of biology may just be at the wrong level of abstraction to predict exactly what happens in biology. The electronome is a concept that may just upend all of this,…
The Lottery Ticket Mentality plagues us when we make decisions in life. The idea is simple. With a small amount of effort, and if everything goes really well, that lottery ticket leads to some abnormal payoff that means we won’t have to do any work again. The optimism that leads us to take the lottery ticket overrides the potential risks. We are seduced into thinking that this low effort, high…
I’ve been an Arsenal supporter since the age of three. It formed the fondest of childhood memories watching players like Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry bring mesmeric moments to the club, culminating in the Invincibles era. I got busy with work for a number of years and lapsed being on top of what was going on with the club, until 2021, where a behind the scenes documentary on Amazon…
The pandemic had many effects on society but one was in universally educating the general public to become conversant in universal biological concepts - viruses, RNA vaccines, and vaccine development. This has laid the foundation for what I believe is a need for universal biological education that lives outside the traditional university system. Biology has been on an upward trajectory since it…
A strong positive trait of entrepreneurs is the ability to will something into existence. There are circumstances where this is a positive thing, certainly where there are external existential risks around a business for example, getting investors to believe in your company before you have a product, buying time to build the product. Where this situation is a negative is that you have to be…
Every so often after a period of stasis I find myself the need for a creative restart. Returning back to a place of relative anonymity in order to give rise to something new, pursuing a dream or a direction that feels like a fantasy but if it came through would be a dream come true. Creating new things requires not being famous. Not being famous means that there is nothing to lose psychologically…
The early days of hacking growth as a formal discipline came from the work being done to optimize the virality of consumer apps. This is evident in the work of Andrew Chen , Sean Ellis , Brian Balfour and others between 2007 and 2012. As online channels proliferate, sales cycles come down and software is instantly delivered and paid for the boundaries between systematic growth strategies and…
( AngelList Radio ) In the second episode of AngelList Radio, we interview Sumon Sadhu and learn how to improve as an angel investor and why he thinks “national empires” are good investment opportunities. Sumon explains why he’s excited about investing in international startups like Mobius Motors (an African car company), Chaldal (a Bangladeshi delivery company), and ClearTax (a Indian electronic…
The first salesperson for any company has to play the role of discovery sales. This is a role that involves making first contact with customers, establishing the messaging and areas of demand for the product, as well as the feeding back to how the product should evolve to better meet demand to solve for product market fit. Unlike a traditional sales person the discovery sales person has to…
Machine Learning Enabled Marketplaces Building a great Marketplace depends upon connecting two parties that couldn’t do business before. A really key component of that matching of supply and demand is search. Better search depends upon indexing information in a way that unlocks a new kind of matching. Therefore the ability of machine learning algorithms to create new facets or features to index…
sharpshoot : 0 0 1 829 4731 Quid 39 11 5549 14.0 Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE Image is Titian’s The Tribute Money (1518), National Gallery, London - Jesus asks the Pharisees if it is right to pay taxes to the romans. The evidence is the coin itself. Symbolic of the interchange fees under disruption in the card issuer ecosystem Here is an excerpt of an interview I did with paybefore…
In a world where it is easy to move on to the next thing, what we fail to develop is any depth in what we know. Depth is riddled with the paradox of choice. You have to stick to a few things and seeing them through requires patience. But if we pursue these things over others we feel like we may be missing out on what we should learn. The result in not picking anything, and failing to progress from…
Ambition isn’t created equally – it is either natural or unnatural. Telling the difference between natural ambition and fake ambition is key to investing in people or hiring them for your company. Naturally ambitious people have unbounded vision for what they can become, and so make exclusively better people to partner with. Unnaturally ambitious people have some artificial constraints which…
The study of Dante Aligheri - the author of the poem the Divine Comedy. There is more to learn on the internet than ever. Courses, tutorials, primers, introductory guides etc. Its incredibly easy to consume, but in my experience also much easier to forget. Digital delivery and test taking makes it easy to activate short-term memory but does it have the same impact as having to etch the same…
Good friends improve you. Good friends encourage you to be better. Good friends can say harsh things without fear of offending. You are just as honest back. Good friends live close to you. Or at least show up often enough even if they are far. With you a good friend you can pick a conversation back up where you left it. Good friends encourage you to dream. You can’t do smalltalk with a good…
Outside of a monetary contribution and share of your company, one of the most important aspects of raising money is the value of trust. When you take money from an institutional/angel investor, you are really making a decision about: Trust: If you can confide in this person in crisis Honor: If you want to make them rich Belief: If they believe in you regardless of the circumstances Integrity: If…
By design we are experience-seeking animals. Outside of our rhythmic habits, a philosophy which drives me is seeking the net new. It assumes we are building on top of a foundation of what we have already built but looking to add new experiences, activities, skills and results that cumulatively add to our experience on this earth. Net new also refers to something which is original outside of our…
PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT SURPRISES YOU A principle i’ve been employing in the last few years is to pay attention to what is surprising or confusing. Our mental map of concepts need to be constantly refreshed and for most people building stability in these concepts is what is comforting. However, if you want to profit from how the world is changing – it is important to focus on what surprises you, and…