The Year of the IPO

The so-called year of the IPO has been fun to watch as both an investor and spectator. The most popular IPO of the year? CNBC reported that SoftBank is now more than $600m underwater on its Uber investment. With that said, there have been many successful IPOs so far including $MDLA, $CRWD, and $BYND.

Twitter and StockTwits has been going crazy with seemingly everyone chiming in on whether to be long or short on these stocks, whether we’re in a bubble, and when the recession is going to hit. The sheer amount of companies that are losing large sums of money every year is remarkable and unprecedented. The memes and jokes on fintwit have been amazing.

The easy answer is to say we are in a bubble and a recession is imminent. The hard part is to predict when that will happen. The two things I am certain of is that timing the market is impossible and that no one really knows how to value these companies.

I for one am planning to enjoy the bull market and ride the wave. If and when things go south, then at least we’ve got a lot of great memes and jokes that came from the year of the IPO.

Inbox Zero

I always find it quite amazing how much time I spend on email every day. I used to work for a partner that said “you know you made it when you lose complete control of your inbox.”

The popular startup, Superhuman seems to tackling this problem. Superhuman users are almost cultish with their “Sent via Superhuman” tags. It’s almost become a status symbol in the tech industry.

As someone who strives for inbox zero, I do love the idea behind it. I have never used it as I’m a chronic Windows user and it’s only available for iOS, but I’m anxiously anticipating when Superhuman is released for Windows.

In the meantime, I’ve made it a point to continually improve my email experience and learn new shortcuts on Gmail. It may not be Superhuman, but I cleared 100+ emails in 15 minutes today and that’s progress from where I used to be.

There’s going to be a lot of startups that claim that they are the “Superhuman for X” in the near future. I’m excited to see how these startups improve productivity and efficiency.

The Business of Trust

We’re currently in the process of buying software to support some of our business functions at Secfi. I can’t pinpoint the exact moment of when I started feeling this way, but I just don’t trust our salesperson. Perhaps it’s the repeated “discounts” offered at the end of each month or the forced timelines that are imposed on us, but I’m at the point where I can’t believe anything I hear anymore.

A few months ago I met with a client to discuss potential financing for his stock options so he could save on taxes when his company eventually goes public. He was an early employee of one of the tech darlings that is going public in 2019/2020 so he had a lot of interesting insight into the world of start-ups and growth.

One of many interesting tidbits that he mentioned was that he believes that Secfi is in the business of trust. That always stuck with me and has become one of the cornerstones of my approach when dealing with clients.

Everyday we build trust with our clients by offering free tools so they have more transparency and can manage their equity compensation better. Everytime we speak to a client, we build trust by offering genuine help and advice so they can make the best decision for situation. We want to make sure the client knows that we’re on their side and truly want them to make the best decision for themselves.

I’ve never worked in SaaS sales, but perhaps these people can take a page from our book on how to build trust.

The Aura of "Strategy" Positions

For the past month and half, a large focus of my job has been focused on recruiting with the goal to grow the San Francisco office from 2 to 4-5 by early fall. It’s been an amazing, stressful, and exhausting experience. I’ve enjoyed the process, but I’m even more excited for the hires to finally join the team when we’re done with interviews.

One interesting pattern I’ve noticed is that almost everyone, particularly people who come from big company/firm backgrounds and/or have MBAs, mention that they are interested in joining a small start-up for the opportunity to work in “strategy”. I found this interesting as I’m not positive what truly defines a “strategy” role besides a name in their title.

I think a lot of people instantly see the word “strategy” in a title and assume that it must be an important role and they want to be there one day. Everyone has the right to work hard, move up, and pursue roles they are interested in and the beauty of working at a start-up is that it offers you that opportunity.

The problem is that these people don’t know what a “strategy” position really means either. Many of these candidates have the idea that they will work hard in this temporary role in product, operations, sales, or whatever it is for a short period, have success, and since they are at a start-up, they can move quickly up to a “strategy” position. They are misaligned with what working at a start-up is about.

Working in a start-up is about rolling up the sleeves and getting stuff done so you play your part in building your company. By working at a start-up, you’re already in a “strategy” role every single day. You need to strategically plan, prioritize, and execute your (large) role in this small organization so the wheels keep turning. This never changes whether you’re in the position you’re in now or have “strategy” in your title.

Modern Technology

It always amazes me how exponential technology moves.

I built my first website when I was 11. I learned basic HTML and used tools such as Microsoft Frontpage or Macromedia Dreamweaver. I had a lot of fun building multiple websites for various reasons but I’ll always remember how challenging it was and how long it took. Shoutout Geocities.

Fast forward to today and I was able to get this blog up and running with 15 minutes from a bar called the Peacekeeper in Nob Hill. I signed up for a Squarespace account, choose a simple template and made edits, bought the vieje.co domain, and I was ready to go before I finished my cocktail.

I can’t believe building a website used to take me that long. I’m excited for the future when there are more things I can’t believe used to take me that long.

Some items that come to mind: taxes, air and ground travel, transferring money, laundry, and athletic recovery. Just to name a few.

My workstation at Peacekeeper in Nob Hill where I made this blog before my cocktail was done.

Fast Times at Lowell High

On Friday I got to hang out with a bunch of my high school friends that I’ve known for 14+ years. A group of us started at my apartment and then eventually met up with the larger group in North Beach at a bar. We don’t get to hang out that often anymore so it was really good seeing everyone and reminiscing about the glory days.

After we closed down the bar, some friends decided to continue the party at a friend’s house. I know I’m getting older as I realized it was 1:30am and immediately called an Uber home instead of partaking in the postgame fun.

It was an interesting ride home as I started thinking about how fast times change. Just a couple years ago there would be no chance I’d turn down an invite to keep the party going.

One of my favorite movies in high school was Fast Times at Ridgemont High despite coming out nearly 30 years before my time in high school. I can only imagine what high school seniors in 1982 feel like when they see that movie. Time really does move fast.

Freezing Time

Time is something you’re never going to get back. As I get older, time gets more and more scarce.

That is the reason why I am starting this blog. I decided today that I want to preserve my thoughts, activities, and days and therefore “freeze my time”.

Today would be rather insignificant Sunday in my life in the grand scheme of things. No special events or gatherings. I ran errands like any boring Sunday.

Today’s not any ordinary day though. I started my blog and personal diary today.

I was able to preserve August 25th, 2019 as an important day of my life that I can refer back to. I’m looking forward to freezing my time.