Health

Today I am grateful for my health. While not perfect by any means, my body largely cooperates with me and allows me to live an active life style that helps me be who I am.

My body was completely falling apart earlier this week. Both my achilles and calves felt like they were about to tear and I felt physically and mentally exhausted. With some rest, I was able to run 5 miles today. I know I need to treat my body better in order to be able to keep doing what I love so I’ll try to focus on that in my 30s.

I am about 6.5 hours behind schedule to the hectic work day today. Shit happens.

Reopening SF

Today I am grateful for the city of San Francisco. I was born and raised here so I am biased and I know the city has taken a lot of heat lately. But I consider myself fortunate to be born here. I wouldn’t have wanted to grow up anywhere else in the world and I am glad for everything the city has to offer.

On the topic of SF, the city announced a lot of plans to loosen COVID-19 restrictions including increasing indoor dining capacity and offices for non-essential employees.

I know there’s a lot of mixed feelings here as there is still the virus looming out there but I am really excited to see the city start to reopen slowly. We have largely been very conservative in regards to our reopening given our numbers and I think it’s about time.

The city has largely controlled COVID-19 with low infection rates compared to the rest of California (and the country). There are many businesses struggling and I hope that people can get back on track.

We’re not in the clear yet though and San Franciscans will need to continue to be diligent in slowing the spread. I have high hopes for my city and know that we can do it.

Market sizing

Today I am grateful for the ability to play golf. It’s an insanely frustrating game but even on a bad day, I am out in nature encouraging the fresh air and it sure as hell beats a lot of other things.

I had a call today with a friend of a friend who needed some help with her Peloton stock options. She had a common problem that I’ve heard hundreds of times by now. She didn’t plan around her stock options and now she’s in a tough situation. It’s the main reason why Secfi exists as a company.

In discussing her situation, I heard another common thing I hear from our clients, “I never would have thought the stock price would be where it is today.”

Of course, this is a bit of a product of where the market is right now with tech stocks valued at insane multiples. With that said, one of the most humbling things for many investors I’ve spoken to is how wildly wrong they are on market cap predictions.

People tend to forget that it’s more common for a $1b company to turn into a $10b company then for a new startup to become a $1b company.

This makes sense when you think of human nature.

It’s much easier to say the market cap for a company is a smaller finite number that can be calculated based on some back of the napkin math. It’s much harder to find all the possible flaws in the estimate and market participants that were not included.

Globalization and technology has also rapidly advanced connectivity expanding potential market sizes at exponential rates. Companies are now reaching untapped potential easier and faster. And of course, growth of technology and data has created a much larger market than ever imagined.

I explained to my friend at Peloton about how bullish I was about the company. I told her that yes the company may be 3x what she thought the stock price would be right now, but to come back to in 5 years and see where it is then. She may be even more surprised.

Turning to gratitude

I’m back after a long weekend of activities. I really do enjoy the time spent with friends especially during the quarantine but I’m starting to feel more and more exhausted starting off the week. I am no longer staying out late and generally home and in bed at reasonable times nowadays. Despite this, just doing basic activities like going to the beach and dinner on Saturday can really floor me the next couple days.

I imagine this is just part of getting older and I’ll need to adjust going forward. Perhaps one day or night of activities on a weekend is enough for this 30 year old. My body is speaking to me and I need to listen.

On another note, I started studying for the second taking of my Series 24 yesterday. I now know how the test is structured and how to better study for it… which is to study every damn rule and regulation in the book. Given the need for me to pass, I’m going to be taking it very seriously over the next 8 days and likely overstudying. This goes against my philosophy of studying just enough to pass these standardized tests, but there’s too much at stake this time around.

It’s going to be a tough week and the material is well a bit dry but it’s something that needs to be done. To keep my brain fresh, I’m hoping to write a blog post every day this week and start every post with writing something I am grateful for. It’s something that helps me navigate tough weeks and helps me keep the negative energy at bay.

Today, I am grateful for the ability to work and support myself. While this may seem like a given right, not everyone is fortunately able to work a job that can allow themselves to live comfortably.

Creativity during work from home

Howard Lindzon wrote about his struggle about finding inspiration due to the pandemic. It was a timely blog post as I am going through the exact same feeling right now.

Being at home feels like the same thing over and over again. I see friends on the weekend and go out to eat, but there’s not really that much excitement. I am a people person and like seeing my coworkers and shooting the shit.

I live for in-person work events and am my best being around like minded people.

This unfortunately has gone all out the window during the pandemic. Zoom is a good bridge, but it leaves a lot to be desired.

I try to combat this feeling by finding new hobbies like golf and seeing friends on the weekends. But there’s a large void in my life due to work from home.

My plan is to take a remote week of work somewhere in the next month in order to try to get a change of scenery. I’m hoping that gives me some creative juices.

Controlled emotion

We had an all-hands meeting last week where a few of us broke out into rooms and shared what we miss about the office and working together. I came to a funny realization halfway through the conversation when I realized that I was simply just venting to my coworkers about all my frustrations. It quickly came to me that one of the things I miss most about going to the office is the ability to vent to my coworkers.

My job is a bit of an emotional rollercoaster at times. Often times, I’ll be on back to back calls for hours at a time. I’ll go from a deep (and often) heated negotiation with a client to a friendly meeting with a new hire where I need to put a smile on.

Short-term memory is important as it’s imperative that I don’t let one bad call ruin my next. Of course, this is all easier said than done. We’re all human and emotions run deep. Something stuck in my mind can definitely affect the rest of my day and my interactions with people as well.

One of the big tools that have helped me control my emotions throughout the day is meditation. Practicing meditation every day helps me take a step back and realize what’s truly going through my head. When shit really hits the fan, I do a guided meditation that can help even if it’s just a few minutes.

Often times, when I need a break, I’ll go and exercise as well. A quick run, workout video or yoga session does wonders for me in helping control my emotions throughout the day when I can afford a longer break.

And lastly, when things really get bad. I call some of my coworkers to vent. While it’s not the same as turning around and venting to someone in person, a quick Zoom vent session does wonders.

A new day and age

The Nasdaq is rallying among talks about the stimulus. With the Fed printing money, it appears that nothing can really derail this stock market. Even a contentious presidential election may not be enough to turn the Nasdaq away. And yes, there is still a global pandemic happening right now. I for one am ready for the holidays and for 2021 to be over. It’s going to be crazy Q4.

While discussing COVID-19 among friends, we’re all in agreement that this is a new day and age. My view on the pandemic is that it may seem like new trends were created because of coronavirus, but in reality, what we are seeing is an acceleration of trends that were already in motion.

Remote work and teleconferencing were going to be a staple soon enough. Companies were already trending that way. COVID-19 just accelerated that trend perhaps 10 years forward. People complained about San Francisco and New York and bragged about leaving well before COVID-19. They just now have an ability to keep their high paying job while moving to the suburbs so they’re using the pandemic as an excuse to get out.

One thing we can all agree on is that this is a new day and age that we haven’t seen before. The old heads are ripping their hairs out at the insane valuations on the stock market. Yet again, we are only really touching the surface of what tech is able to accomplish. A 100x revenue multiple is quite insane when compared to other comps, but people are forgetting that these companies are now growing faster than ever before due to the leverage of technology.

It has never been easier to start a company or raise capital. TAMs for businesses and industries are growing at levels never seen before. Globalization is growing… rapidly. There are more “unicorns” than ever before. Perhaps the mark of success will shift from being a unicorn to a decacorn. It may sound insane, but it’s coming faster than you think.

My new addiction

I played another 18 holes today. That’s after playing a round on Monday and Thursday. I am officially addicted to golf. Sophia jokingly hates my new addiction as it takes time away from us spending time together and all my guy friends and I do is talk golf when we see each other.

My girlfriend’s needs aside, golf has been an awesome hobby for me. It gives me something to be excited and passionate about outside of work. It’s competitive but at the same time relaxing. There’s really no better feeling then being on the course on a gorgeous day.

Most of all, I love golf because it’s a temporary escape from the day to day. I am focused solely on playing the game and my shots. I leave my phone in my bag and don’t check it for the entire round.

My swing is all over the place and the game can be frustrating often, but even when I play like shit, it’s the perfect escape and I would do it all day long.

Success and envy

I’m not entirely sure most of my friends know exactly what I do on a day to day basis. They know I work for a fintech startup, but most aren’t in the startup or venture capital world so there’s usually glazed eyes when I describe what I do.

The ones that do get it however always want to know what the hottest startup is so they can work there and get some equity. It’s also a bit funny to realize how naïve some people are when it comes to equity. Most underestimate how much people really get paid out at IPO. A lot also don’t realize that it’s when you join a company.

This Friday afternoon ended with news of a company that we work with getting acquired. I had a particularly interest in this company because well, everyone that I talked to from there was just a genuinely good person and I was more than happy to help them with their situation.

Today after the announcement, they are all millionaires and some even multi-millionaires.

I am beyond excited for them as I can only imagine what it feels like to read a news headline and realize that your net worth has just skyrocketed. On the other hand, I am human and am a little bit envious.

It’s a constant battle at my job. Being genuinely happy for my friends who just made it big, but at the same time wish that I was in their position. Part of my job is to do this every single day. I help people who are paper rich become actually rich.

I can’t say that I’ve completely gotten over the envy, but I’ve learned to deal with it and realize that success is not a zero sum game. These are the same people rooting for both me and Secfi’s success.

My time will come one day and I know these same people that I supported will be there for me when it happens.

For now, I am ecstatic and will continue to support my friends…. and make them buy dinner next time I see them.

The return of Alteryx

Today was my first day back full working since Wednesday. First days back are always tough and today was no exception even though I took Monday off to recover. I have yet to crack how to come back from vacation rested and feeling great, rather than slogging through the day. Hoping I feel better tomorrow as I’ve got a lot to catch up on.

Alteryx ($AYX) is back after closing today 28% up from yesterday after raising revenue guidance and announcing a new CEO. The stock has been a Wall Street darling since hitting the market in 2017. The stock has nearly 10x’d since it’s debut on the public markets 3.5 years ago.

It was holds near to my heart as it was one of my earliest stock purchases and the first one to really take off. I bought in first at $16 close to the IPO and have been slowing adding my position since. So what gets me most excited about Alteryx?

I first used the software back in my days at PwC where I helped hedge funds get more efficient and streamline processes. The beauty behind Alteryx is that it was a completely drag and drop tool that allowed anyone to work with large datasets. It cut out expensive engineers and data scientist and created automated workflows that business users can run on their own.

The first time I used Alteryx was an Oh Shit moment. It took me all about 10 minutes to realize how powerful this tool was going to be within the organization. Within a few months, we had built a team that would sell consulting projects using Alteryx to automate workflows and processes for our clients.

Many don’t realize it, but Alteryx is at the forefront of the no-code movement that will help bridge the gap between my generation and the generation that grows up coding in schools. Automation and AI is coming to the workplace at rapid rates and Alteryx will be a large part of that tech stack to enables change in these organizations.

I remain very long Alteryx and look forward to the software taking over the workplace in the near future.

Joshua Tree

I spent the weekend celebrating my best friend’s birthday at an Airbnb in Joshua Tree. I had never been to the Palm Springs/Yucca Valley area before despite being a native Californian. It won’t be my last time going there however. It’s an absolutely gorgeous park that is hard to compare to anything I’ve seen before in my life.

The plants, wildlife and the landscape was absolutely fascinating. The sunset and sunrise over the mountains was absolutely breathtaking.

It was a long weekend trip that had a little bit of everything. We did a little bit of partying like we were in our 20s, did a lot of nature and a lot of relaxing. It was a great weekend catching up with old friends. I am a bit exhausted and may have taken more than one nap today.

I took tomorrow off as a day to get caught up. I have learned from these long weekends that taking a wraparound day allows me to properly reset mentally and physically. It allows me to hit the ground running on Tuesday feeling much more rested. I plan on golfing in the morning and then I’m planning on spending the afternoon getting caught up on emails and personal errands.

The great recharge and orange man's taxes

I shot a 95 at Metropolitan in Oakland on Saturday. That’s the best I’ve ever shot and while I have long ways to go before I can call myself a good golfer, I’ll take a 95 on my 4th round after not golfing in years. I have the golf bug and it feels great to have a COVID safe hobby.

It’s weird to think about, but I haven’t had a hobby like golf over the last year. I’ve always had my friends, running, and food but it feels quite a bit different than golf. When I’m on the course, it feels like nothing else in the world matters and it’s been a feeling that I’ve missed all year.

I’m taking Thursday - Monday off to meet some friends in Joshua Tree. I’m really excited for some time away to relax and recharge before Q4. I can’t wait to be out in nature.

On to the next…

The talk of the town is the orange man’s taxes that were leaked to the New York Times. I can’t say I’m surprised to hear that Trump hasn’t paid taxes… lots of wealthy people don’t pay much in taxes. I am a bit surprised to see just how much money Trump loses.

We all knew he was the poor-man’s billionaire and full of shit, but if the leaks are true, there’s only one thing that Trump is good at in business and that’s losing money.

The question every person’s mind is just how does Trump not pay any taxes? Well it’s relatively simple.

He claims that his businesses lose more money than they make. Now if he truly does lose that much money on each business, that is pretty downright embarrassing, but it should also be noted that the tax code is very favorable for real estate investors.

The real question is whether these are true business losses or artificial tax losses. It’s really hard to say without digging into the details. There are a lot of expenses that the NYT are claiming such as a $750k consulting fee to his daughter which does not seem like a bona fide business expense.

Regardless of these expenses, there’s one thing that we can all draw from Trump’s tax returns and that he is not the successful business man that he claims to be. In fact, he is in a large financial predicament at the current moment.

A week of getting punched in the face

I felt like I was punched in the face about 20 times this week. It seemed to be bad news after bad news. Just one of those weeks where the floodgates were opened early and the bad news poured through.

It started with news of my Oma passing away on Sunday and ended with me failing my Series 24 exam by 2%. Oh yeah, I also got a parking ticket when I got back to my car after my test. There were lots more “fun” events in between as well.

By the end of Thursday, I felt defeated and just wanted to crawl into bed for 3 days.

I don’t know if karma is on my side after this week. I’d like to think so, but waiting for good news to come to me is largely out of control. What I can control is my attitude and and effort and I plan to focus just on that.

In times like these, I turn to mindfulness and positivity to keep my spirits up. Of course, we’re all human and have feelings so positivity doesn’t come overnight. Mindfulness helps me get back to the positive state after digesting everything.

Sometimes the best cure is getting back to work and getting back to that W column. That’s what I plan to do starting on Monday. Failures and setback makes me want to work harder and be even more successful the next time around. I’ve had a few setbacks this past week, but I plan to be getting back to the winner’s circle next week.

Before all that, I plan on getting some rest and relaxation to recharge. I’ve got a tee time at Noon today and I am beyond excited. Have a good weekend.

Priorities

Fred Wilson wrote a blog post titled Priorities today and it resonated with me. There are some weeks of work where I am on back to back calls/meetings all day, every day. Like for Fred, it’s a stressful time for me as I’m not able to spend appropriate time on emails and other work. Also like Fred, I usually use the weekends to catch up on weeks like this.

The past few weeks have been crazy with planning for Q4 while studying to take my Series 24 exam. I unfortunately have not been able to devote my full effort to other things in my life and work has taken a back seat. This kills me as I know there’s a lot of great things to be done for Secfi and I want it done now.

Life will get easier after I take and pass my exam tomorrow, but I know it’s only temporary. Weeks of back to back calls and craziness will continue to happen and possibly even happen more regularly.

I’ll need to look back on my priorities in life when they do happen.

America's addiction to gambling

I bought DraftKings stock shortly after the company was acquired through a SPAC. It was an odd time for an online sports betting website to go gambling because well, it was in the middle of a global pandemic and sports were largely shut down. It didn’t matter for me however and I still bought in early.

It doesn’t take long to see that Americans are addicted to gambling, specifically sports gambling. Barstool and their partnership with online sportsbook Penn Gaming has been seemingly a perfect marriage matching self-proclaimed “degenerate sports gamblers” to an online sports book.

I have friends who love sports that gamble as a way to make it more fun. I have friends who don’t love watching sports that watch sports so they can gamble. I personally don’t dabble in sports betting, but I can see the appeal.

Sports are making a comeback for the most part, albeit without any fans in the stadium. It’s no surprise to see $DKNG up almost 50% over the past month. As states continue to legalize online gambling to get a piece of that tax revenue and sports continue to come back in full force, I expect the online gambling sites such as DraftKings to continue to grow fast.

RIP Oma

I got a text last night from my cousin that my grandmother had passed away in her sleep. She was 86 years old and healthy so the news was unexpected to say the least.

I hadn’t been that close to her as she lived in Indonesia and we did not keep regular contact after my mother died when I was 7. I visited her every time I was in Indonesia and we would exchange WhatsApp messages every once in awhile.

Oma was a very gregarious woman. She had friends she would meet with almost daily even in her old age. She loved her kids and her family, and loved being the matriarch. She’s going to be missed dearly, but I am glad that my Mom now has her Mom up there with her.

I joked a few weeks ago that I felt like 2020 couldn’t get any worse. Unfortunately, it feels like gut punch after gut punch. In times like these, I try my best to stay positive and lean towards gratitude in life. It’s easier said than done.

Competition

It’s Friday. We made it. It was a long week for me, but one that ended on a high note. On top of a huge week of successful IPOs, we had a lot of big wins for the team.

I always this quote from Mark Cuban:

Business is the ultimate sport. In business, as in sport, the one thing you can control is effort.

Business is like a sport in many ways. The competitive nature of business is what makes it fun. The drive to succeed and win is measured by the effort you put in.

Whether it’s a pick-up basketball game or a deal proposal, one of the best feelings is putting in your maximum effort to win and coming out on top.

We won a lot this week and it feels great. Have a great weekend!

Bittersweet IPOs

Well, the Snowfalke IPO came and it didn’t disappoint. The stock closed at $253.93 which was over double the $120 IPO price. This IPO might hit #1 on the all-time IPO hype meter. There was a lot of bearish sentiment at this pricing which was set at over 100x revenue run rate.

It is overhyped and overvalued. But I think Snowflake is different than other overhyped companies lately (see Uber/Lyft) solely for the fact that it’s a pure tech play that is growing like a weed with a path to profitability in the next few years. I’ll still monitor for an entry point.

I did a Tweetstorm on a Snowflake case study from an employee’s standpoint in regards to stock options. Check it out here.

IPOs are always bittersweet. I get to meet some amazingly talented people over the years that help build these companies and I am beyond ecstatic to see them eventually cash in on their hard work. At the same time, it’s hard to watch how much money some people leave on the table in regards to their stock options.

We get to talk to a lot of people in regards to their equity and provide help, but the people we talk to are only a fraction of the employees out there. Days like today are ones that we celebrate but at the same time realize how much more work there is out there for us.

Personalities and burnout

We had a virtual leadership “off-site” meeting today. It was a lot of getting to know each other much more on a personal level and team building activities. I had a lot of fun over the nearly 6 hours we spent via Zoom together. I think we also set a record for longest company Zoom call on record so far.

We discussed each others’ personality types after taking the Insights Test. Most people that have been at corporate jobs or big companies will have likely done one of these tests. The idea is that it characterizes you in a category as a personality type. It’s an imperfect system, but I’ve always found that they are directionally correct.

I for one am described as an extreme “red” type aka “Director”. I have known this for largely most of my life and I suspect that it has something to do with growing up with a single father who was an immigrant entrepreneur. In short, red types are highly competitive and commanding. We want to win and sometimes draw people along with us.

What was particularly interesting is that 3 out of the 9 members on the call (including myself) were classified as red. All 3 of us also discussed problems with burnout and work-related stress. A couple of us have been to the hospital due to overwork. It was an alarming insight into the reality of our personality type.

Of course everyone is susceptible to burnout, but there is clearly a pattern that those red types are particularly sensitive to overwork. This is something that our leadership team is taking seriously. Burnout is dangerous for just for the individual but for the company. I’ve been through it many times before.

Luckily for me, I’ve got a lot of great teammates alongside me. We’ve committed as a team to help each other out to avoid burnout and have a few great ideas in place to execute on that commitment.

$SNOW days ahead

I just bought my season pass for the upcoming ski season and I’m in the process of recruiting some friends. It’s going to be a weird season. No lodges. Reservation only system. Regardless, I’m excited for some outdoor and safe activities. I am airing on the optimistic side on the reservation system, but I can see this being a nightmare if they oversell tickets.

Speaking of snow, possibly the most anticipated IPO since Uber and Lyft is $SNOW which is set to begin trading Wednesday. Snowflake will be kicking off a huge IPO week with Jfrog, Sumo Logic, and Unity following right behind. Also right past this week will be Palantir, Asana, DoorDash, and Airbnb. Wow.

I’m going to dedicate more posts to talking about this IPO season over the next few days, but I wanted to focus on Snowflake in this post.

Overhyped, expensive, best IPO buy of 2020? Possibly all the above. It is the most hyped IPO of the year. Even the King of value investing, Warren Buffet himself is getting in on the action.

(Disclaimer: I have worked with a lot of Snowflake clients over the past couple years and Secfi does have an interest in the company)

So what does Snowflake do? In short, they are a cloud based managed data warehouse. If you want to dig in much more into their product, this article does a great job explaining everything Snowflake.

What’s all the hype anyways? Well Snowflake is growing fast and they are doing it impressively. Revenue grew 130%+ for quarter ended 7/31/2020 compared to 7/31/2019. In addition, the way they are growing is impressive. Their net retention rate is 150+% which means that current clients expanded revenue 50%+ when not even accounting for new logos! If Snowflake didn’t get any new customers in over the last year, they would’ve grown revenue by 50+%.

To add to the bullish sentiment, the market for cloud data storage and analytics is growing at alarming rates. The world of data is not getting smaller by any means. Snowflake is currently riding the gigantic data wave and they’re sitting pretty.

I typically do not buy IPOs, but this is one that I am definitely making an exception for. Buyer beware. It will likely be a very volatile ride for the next year or two, but I remain long Snowflake as I have been for the last two years. The pricing and pop on this one on day one will likely be large. Depending on the price, I may look to start a small position on day one but will monitor this one for dips over the next 12 months.