When things start to get real

We just hired someone for People Operations here in San Francisco. I always said that when we hire a HR person, that’s when things start getting real.

The word startup can mean a lot of things nowadays. People use it to speak about private companies who have hundreds of employees and some use startup to only speak about early stage companies.

Right now Secfi is coming up on two years since our Series A financing round. I have been associated with the company for over two and a half years as employee #8. We’re getting close to being at over 50 people and growing rapidly.

By all means, I still view us a startup. I don’t think I’ll get rid of the startup label until we’re well over 500 people and running a stable business. With that said, things are starting to get real here.

We’re implementing new policies, adding new benefits, hiring new executives… all the things that have to happen before we knock off that startup label.

I’m excited for the new team members and for our new People Operations hire to get going, but I don’t think I’ll ever get used to having HR-sponsored meetings about expense policies here at Secfi.

Crypto collectibles

One really awesome application of the blockchain is non-fungible tokens or NFTs. In short, they are crypto tokens which are meant to be unique. Naturally, a great application of NFTs is for collectibles such as art, virtual trading cards, etc.

I’ve been a beta user of NBA Top Shot since last July. NBA Top Shot is a platform that allows users to buy virtual trading cards on the blockchain. The company has partnered with the NBA so everything is properly licensed. Each “moment” is a NBA play or event featuring one player. For example, you can aim to collect one of the 5,000 moments of Steph Curry hitting a 3 pointer or the limited 10,000 moments of a sweet Draymond Green assist.

The name of the game here to create value is scarcity and NBA Top Shot achieves that by limiting the amount of moments they create. Users can buy packs of moments at special release dates. Each pack contains multiple and random moments so you may be lucky enough to draw one of the “legendary” moments or just get average common moments.

The platform comes with a marketplace where you can buy and sell specific moments to complete your collection.

Unfortunately despite being a user since July, I sat on it and never went out to buy any packs or moments. Yesterday, I finally caved and waited in the queue to buy the “Cool Cats” pack.

I honestly had a lot more fun than I expected. I was like a kid again collecting trading card/pokemon card packs. This time though, I can see the real value of each of the cards I collected in the marketplace and aim to sell it. I wish my childhood had the blockchain for my Pokemon card collection days.

I’m not positive where NFTs like moments in NBA Top Shot will be in the future. I hope I can view my moments as investments long-term but realistically this could all be a fad that fades before it picks up steam.

Given that, I am bullish on the future of NFTs and think there are many other applications out there. Simply put, everything is going digital and it’s naive to think collectibles won’t follow that trend.

NFTs are one of the best applications of the blockchain that I’ve seen so far and I’m excited to continue to participate in this even though my “investment” may not materialize in the long run.

Countdown to reopening

To be honest, I have no idea what we actually celebrate on President’s Day. I’m just happy we don’t have a racist bigot in the office anymore.

It was Sophia’s birthday on Saturday and then we did a small Valentine’s Day dinner at home on Sunday. The weather has been crap all long weekend.

Crap weather and the pandemic restrictions really make things tough. I feel like we’ve been playing the “so what do you want to do?” game all weekend long.

I know I can’t complain too much. I know others are struggling through the pandemic as well.

I hung out with my 10 year sister yesterday and she has been out of school and away from friends for over a year now. I feel terrible for kids and can only imagine how their development is being impacted. Parents are also struggling through things right now waiting for their kids to go back to school.

I’m counting down the days.

The future of food is...

I just blocked off an hour each day for the next two weeks so I can Tweet. It’s not always rosey, but working for a startup can be pretty cool at times.

On another note, I stumbled into a Clubhouse room where a bunch of guys were talking about the future of food. Like most things on Clubhouse, I found it interesting at first but quickly got bored. It did get me thinking about tech advancements and how they are going to affect food in the future.

There’s some exciting stuff going on and being built right now.

Delivery services like Doordash have enabled cloud kitchens so more cooks can produce food catered towards delivery. I can get a bowl of pho in under 20 minutes now. That’s awesome.

Robot cooks are just freakin’ cool. Yes I’d prefer a hand tossed pizza from an expert pizza maker, but heck the next best thing is a pizza made by a robot.

Tech is going to drive down the cost of food and create massive efficiency in how we get food in the future.

That sounds great right? Not necessarily.

While efficiency and cost cutting is great, I’m also genuinely worried about the inevitable future of food because of the impact it will have on mom and pop shops.

Small family restaurants that I love may not be able to survive in this not too distant future.

Delivery services will push people towards cloud kitchens because it’s more profitable for them.

A shift towards delivery over in-person will eliminate a lot of the small 2-4 table restaurants or small counter restaurants.

Lower costs due to automation by robots at competitors will outprice small restaurants who cook the old fashion way.

I hope I’m wrong. The optimistic and probably best case scenario is that these small mom and pop restaurants start to go more upscale and start charging more. I’m okay with that but I’m not sure if others will be. Regardless, I’ll miss my $8 bowl of pho in a 5 table restaurant.

Giving people what they need to succeed

I started my morning with a couple of hours of calls and then headed to the driving range to get some practice in. I had blocked off my calendar between 10-3pm to get some work done, but I wasn’t feeling great so I figured I take my mind off of work for a bit.

After a good session of 100 balls, the weather was great and I decided to go for a run around the Presidio. I got back around Noon feeling great with the sun shining. I was driving back when I made the spur of the moment decision to go and grab lunch at Japantown. That lunch ended up being extended when I went to the grocery store to pick up a few things.

I got back to my apartment to eat and the by time I was back at work it was 2pm. Oops.

It was odd as I felt a sense of guilt for taking a 4 hour break in the middle of the work day, but I felt great afterwards. I proceeded to conduct two interviews and made up the work in the evening quickly and efficiently. My to-do list is now the shortest it’s been all week.

It’s time to start rethinking the 9-5 workday. While I don’t condone everyone taking a 4 hour break everyday, we shouldn’t be looking down on people for wanting to take a break. Sometimes the best things for productivity is to take a break and today was a great example.

I plan on making sure my team has what they need to succeed. I want them at their best and each person needs to decide what they need to be at their best. Today, I needed a 4 hour break to be at my best.

Random musings

I just got done working close to a 12 hour day where I had calls starting at 7:30 and kept going for nearly 9 hours. It was exhausting and I don’t really have the mental capacity to write a complete blog post, so I figured I just write down some thoughts from today:

I just joined the “Baddies Only” room on Clubhouse. Unfortunately I wasn’t invited to speak and had no idea what they were talking about.

My Doordash driver took a photo of my food on his bike on the street to say it was “Delivered” and then never left the food. I would love to know what happened here. Perhaps my poke bowl looked that good that he just decided to eat it?

I’ve been meeting a lot of amazing people interviewing for positions at Secfi. Pretty amazingly, I haven’t interviewed anyone in 2021 that I believed should get the worst rating (1 out of 4). Even my “no” entries are getting at least 2/4. Are we that good at filtering or are my standards too low?

Ghost/cloud kitchens are popping up everywhere. It’s the future of food, but will it be the end of mom/pop restaurants that we all love? If it is, I don’t want the future of food.

Scheduling 3 interviews back to back to back is a terrible idea and I should never do it again.

The SF School Board and the Lowell decision

Like many San Franciscans, I’ve been very disappointed with San Francisco and California elected officials lately. It’s been a tumultuous few years and the last few weeks have really set me off.

The talk of the town has been the school board looking to take away my alma mater, Lowell High School’s admission criteria. We are one of the few public schools in the country that accepts students based on merit.

Lowell has been a public school known for studious kids who have ambitions to go to some of the world’s leading universities. Yes, Lowell has it’s problems and yes there is some bias in the testing requirements. Like other schools, we have our issues and there’s work to be done.

But while by no means perfect, I believe the school board is making an awful and short-sighted decision. The decision directly and negatively impacts highly academic students that do not have access to private schools. Some students work their lives with the hope to go to Lowell to learn alongside other students with similar mindsets. These students are largely minority and come from lower income backgrounds.

I do believe the SFUSD has a lot of work to be done across the board. The issue is fixing the other schools to get them closer to Lowell, not bringing down Lowell to the other school’s levels.

It’s a shame to see this school board decide to ruin a great school with history dating back to 1856. I’ll continue to fight this as much as I can. I know the majority of the San Franciscans that the school board is serving feels the same and I hope they come to realize this.

Eventful two weeks

Oof, I hadn’t written in my blog in about two weeks and I’m beating myself up for it. I got way too busy with work at the last week of January and got into the habit of not writing for the past week. Time to get back on track.

These last two weeks at Secfi have been quite eventful. We closed January with the biggest win in company history. I won’t go into details, but 2021 has gotten off to a great start so far.

Of course, it was a challenge to get there. There were many battles that led to the end of the war. I am so proud of the team for what they accomplished across the board.

Surprises, intense negotiation, legal battles, etc. were all involved and were all complications that ultimately led to this deal going to the last 30 minutes. But ultimately it was done.

The question is how do we bounce back and not get complacent after having a monster January. Admittedly, it’s a bit easier said than done — I am tired and could use a vacation. The show must go on however and there’s the next thing to chase. That’s just how it works in startup world.

Our targets are constantly moving and I’ve already communicated to the team that we have new goals and targets for the quarter now.

For now — I’m headed to golf with the boys. It’s a gorgeous day in San Francisco and I can’t wait.

Clubhouse Mania

Clubhouse just raised their Series B at a $1b valuation a couple days ago led by a16z. The fundraise caught a lot of flak for many reasons but most notably that the company makes $0 in revenue.

My take is that Clubhouse very well could become the next big social media app if it isn’t already. People are quick to point to revenues as a reason for why the $1b valuation is not justified, but investors put money into companies for the prospect of future value, not current value.

Quite frankly, I believe Clubhouse gets a bad rap often for their rollout and the perceived exclusivity. In other ends, many are envious. I can’t help but to admit that I was one of them many months ago. Tech elites and celebrities were quick to get invites while the layman was left reading about what was happening on the app.

I have a hunch that many are sitting on the sidelines resisting because they think they are too cool for the app. That’s okay. I don’t hate the decision to not participate in the next fad. Just remember that things are always “weird and stupid” at first until everyone else catches on. See Myspace, Facebook and Snapchat.

I finally caved this past weekend and joined Clubhouse. I’ve used it sparingly but in the pockets of time that I’ve used it, I’ve come to realize the potential power of the app.

Creators will have another medium. Friends can decide to meet up and have a catch-up conversation quickly. You can meet people quickly and easily. It’s a live podcast.

There are so many uses of Clubhouse that nearly every niche of the internet may have their own way to use it. Not many platforms can say the same thing.

Yes, it may be overvalued at $1b, but no one will be complaining at that valuation when it hits $100b in the next few years. Just wait and watch.

Investing madness

I’ve always been told that retail investors really do not move the needle when it comes to stock prices. Institutions have the most money and therefore have the most control when it comes to the market. It’s been a largely accepted truth in the stock market and it makes sense.

For better or worse, that’s completely all out the window at this point. The new age of retail investors using free-trading apps such as Robinhood most definitely move the needle. If there was any doubt to that statement, then this past week should be the icing on the cake.

A subreddit quite literally drove the stock price of Gamestop up nearly 50% this past week. Citron Research announced that they were shorting Gamestop and the subreddit r/wallstreetbets went to action forcing trading to be halted on the stock at one point on Friday.

I’m not sure what to make of this madness. I’m enjoying watching from the sidelines as the thought that a bunch of people on free trading apps are crushing institutional investors is quite funny. More power to the people I suppose.

I’ll be picking my battles carefully over the next few months. Things are frothy to say the least and there’s still a global pandemic going on. I’m not sure how long this market craze will last, but I’m also not going to be the person to try to bet against it.

Winning

I don’t have a gambling problem, I have a competition problem -Michael Jordan

This might be my favorite MJ quote of all time. I’m not sure if MJ truly has a gambling problem and if he does, I’m glad he’s been able to largely overcome it and live a full life. I do know that MJ has a competition problem.

While I am not by any means claiming I am the second coming of MJ, I do believe I too “suffer” from a competition problem. I just love winning and I hate losing. Of course this means in sports, but this also translates to other areas in life ranging from trivial ones such as board games to meaningful ones such as business.

In the world of Secfi, I crave the feeling of closing a deal but I love the feeling of beating out competitors for a deal and knowing that I beat them. If it were kosher, I would probably try to rub it in their faces like we were on a basketball court.

I’m working on a lot of deals right now and I feel a bit overwhelmed, but the thought of winning not just one or two, but all of them drives me. I want to win so badly that I’m willing to give up a lot of my personal life and time in order to win.

These next two weeks will be tough, but the thought of losing and not giving it everything I had is worse.

San Francisco is dead?

I’m enjoying the banter going on Twitter right now with everyone moving out of San Francisco and to Austin, Miami, etc.

Mayor Suarez in Miami is doing one hell of a recruiting job on Twitter to VCs and execs. Keith Rabois is Miami’s biggest fan and he’s been very vocal about San Francisco being dead and how Miami is the greatest city on the planet.

I met with one CEO this past week who moved to Miami before it was cool (August last year). It was pretty funny getting his perspective on everything. And yes he was meeting with Keith for a drink afterwards.

I can see Miami’s appeal. Great weather. Beaches. Amazing nightlife. I bet it’s an amazing city to both live and work in.

What I don’t get is why someone needs to be on one side of the spectrum or the other. Some people will like Miami better. Some people will like San Francisco better. Yes, lots of talented people will be moving to Miami or have already left. That’s okay. San Francisco is not dead, nor is Miami the new Silicon Valley.

I am very biased as I was born and raised here in San Francisco. I’m not just a tech transplant who came here to build a company or work at a startup. I have deeper vested ties to the city and maybe I am seeing this too much through San Francisco fogged glasses, but I’m happy to put my money where my mouth is and say that San Francisco (and the Bay Area) will still be the center of innovation and technology in 10 years.

The office vs remote debate

One of my tasks right now is coming up with a proposal for the San Francisco office on whether we should stay fully remote, go back to the office or some sort of hybrid.

The hard part about this question is that this is largely based on personal preference. I personally prefer to go into the office with the option to work remote as needed. I know others who prefer to be 100% remote with the option to go into the office.

With that said, the #1 thing that I’ve come to realize is that people want the option to be remote when they want or need to. There will be no option to be 100% in the office anymore. Companies that choose to do so won’t be competitive. People want flexibility and we need to offer it.

The question isn’t whether we will have flexibility but where on the hybrid spectrum we should end up. There’s good arguments both ways.

Being fully remote would allow us to:

• Recruit from a larger talent pool and pay presumably less for equal or better talent than in the SF Bay Area.

• Have better work life balance for those with children or other needs

• Remove a potentially timely and costly commute

Of course there are downsides to the fully remote arrangement.

• Lack of camaraderie and serendipitous encounters

• Those remote potentially feeling like they’re left out compared to those in the office

• The “accountability issue” - where people take too much advantage of the remote work

There’s no right or wrong answer to the office vs remote debate (besides being 100% in the office). It’s a matter of culture and a bit of business industry.

After a lot of thinking and research, my proposal to the management team on Tuesday will be to become a fully distributed team first with the office as an option for those who want it on a “hoteling” basis.

After going through almost an entire year of working remote, I’ve come to the conclusion that we are as, if not more, effective as a collective whole working remotely than we are in person. The pandemic has taught a lot of people that they prefer to work remote and have flexibility and we should give that option to people.

In terms of Secfi - we are already a distributed team with most of our team in Amsterdam. This means calls early in the morning starting at 7 or 8 am. In order to accommodate people to be at their best, we should give flexibility both ways. People can wake up at 7, take a call but use their late afternoons to get a workout in or tutor their kids. It’s only fair.

For those that want to use the office, we will always have one for people to go to. I love going to the office and I plan to use it when it fits my schedule or if we need to come in to collaborate.

This proposal of course will need guidelines to be successful. We need to make sure to accommodate the fully remote employees and ensure that they do not feel left out if everyone else is in the office. We should plan to build camaraderie by having regular meetings with each other somewhere and perhaps meet in person before we hire. We should also have a loose travel budget so people can come meet in person quickly and flexibly as needed.

No matter what side of the aisle you sit on in the office vs remote debate, one thing that we need to come to terms with is that the pandemic has changed things. Remote work is becoming a norm and we should facilitate employees being at their best rather than try to force them to a work style they don’t like.

Crypto Bull Run part II

Bitcoin crossed the $40,000 mark for the first time last week. Ethereum approached it’s all time high of $1,400 over the weekend. It appeared we were entering another crypto bull run similar to the run in 2017.

Not so fast. We officially entered a “bear market” today with the price of Bitcoin dropping over 20%.

Confused? Many people are.

I wish I had every answer to crypto and could explain everything. Unfortunately it’s beyond my expertise. I am long Bitcoin and Ethereum but also far from someone who’s putting their life savings into crypto tokens.

What I do know is that no matter how you chop it up, both Bitcoin and Ethereum are highly speculative assets at the current moment. We have yet to see widespread adoption of Bitcoin as a currency nor has there been widespread adoption of apps/tools built on the Ethereum network.

I suspect that one day we’re going to see this change as more useful tools are built on the blockchain and adoption starts to take place. Until then, you can expect Bitcoin, Ethereum and other tokens be highly volatile with large bull runs followed by corrections.

Grip it and rip it.

I had probably the best round of golf in my life today at Windsor. It wasn’t my lowest score ever, but it was the best in terms of ball striking and all-around play. I had some amazing shots today. It all started to click for me after I got to relax a little bit and just tried to have fun. My best holes were on the back 9 when I was no longer thinking about my swing or fixing things, I was just in the zone and gripping it and ripping it.

Similar to golf, I love being in the zone when I’m working. Some days and times, it can feel like even the simplest of tasks is a huge struggle. Other times, I can grind out hours of work in a row without skipping a beat doing my best work.

I believe there’s a lot of similarities between being in the zone on the golf course and during work. On the course, the more tense you are, the worst you’ll play as things are out of sync. When I go into a call stressed or worried, it rarely results in a largely positive outcome. My best calls are almost always when I’m relaxed and having fun.

Next time I’m stressed about a call or project, I’ll just need to take a deep breath and remind myself to grip it and rip it.

Chaos and Democratic Senate

Just when we thought 2021 was going to be a better year, the first week included terrorists storming the capitol building. I’m not going to go dive any deeper besides saying that our country is the laughing stock of the world right now.

I was admittedly very surprised to see the Democrats win both of the Senate seats in Georgia in the special run-off election. Given Georgia’s history going red, this is a tremendous feat by the Democratic organizers (ahem Stacey Abrams) and perhaps a testament to how bad things have gotten for the Republicans.

Now that the Democrats control the House, Senate and White House, I expect lots of legislation to pass very quickly. I’m hoping that lawmakers work quickly on things that are much needed such as climate change and COVID relief.

I’m already getting a lot of questions on the potential tax changes, specifically whether Biden will remove capital gains tax altogether.

My guess is that there will not be major tax reform on the docket in the next year. There are too many other pressing issues such as COVID relief. We are still in the middle of a pandemic and leaders will be addressing that head on.

People are quick to forget that both Trump and Obama both said they would eliminate the capital gains tax which obviously did not happen.

Increasing capital gains tax will undoubtedly have a major impact on the market. A crashing economy is possibly the worst thing that can happen for the “blue wave” and I just don’t see the Democrats trying to piss off Wall Street anytime soon.

There is simply too much that can go wrong with raising the capital gains tax and I don’t see democrats touching that and ruining the momentum they’ve had from the past two elections.

Back to work

Despite doing a few emails and a bit of work over the last couple of weeks, I’m largely back at work this week. I decided to ease into things and take half days with me working in the mornings and taking afternoons to snowboard or do some personal things.

I feel really rejuvenated with taking some time off to catch up on life and things I’ve been holding off on and thought that another half-week would do wonders for me.

I’m really excited for this week as I have some places I’ve wanted to visit and books I want to read that I haven’t had the chance to in the past couple of years.

2021 Goals

A day late on my 2021 goal post as I spent most of yesterday having a lazy day with Sophia. I spent NYE at our close friend’s for a crab dinner. It was a great night, but nearly every time I have a late night like I used to in my 20s, I feel top down worse than the time before.

I made 2020 about the year of transitioning into “adulthood”. 2021 looks like it’s going to be the year of recovery.

Like I posted last year, I’m not a big resolution person but rather someone who makes goals that I can work towards. It feels more realistic than taking an arbitrary day and flipping the switch like a “resolution”. These things are works in progress and I hope to use all of 2021 to achieve my goals.

Alas, my 2021 goals:

1. Find work-life balance. Work is getting more and more demanding every year and I find myself spending more hours working and taking less time off. The pandemic didn’t help with this. I plan on finding a better balance between my personal life and work so I can be at my best.

2. Drink less. In 2020, I largely cut down on my partying and drinking. There weren’t many places to go out to and I found myself staying in more and drinking less as a whole. With that said, the pandemic made it easy to have a glass of wine or two often. I want to curb that habit and continue my trend of drinking less often. Hoping this leads to better sleep and more clarity.

3. Learn Mandarin. This is something that’s been on my mind quite a bit. I have always wanted to learn Mandarin but have never committed to it. With apps like Duolingo that offer great and fun ways to learn, there’s no excuse anymore not to try. It won’t happen overnight, but I want to start the process in 2021.

4. Practice gratitude. The pandemic has made me realize that I am insanely lucky. I am surrounded by an amazing group of family and friends and I hit the birth lottery. Not many other people are as fortunate as I am. It’s important to realize these things going forward. I’m hoping to practice more gratitude on a daily basis.

I’m excited for the year ahead. It’s going to be another interesting one as we battle through the end of COVID-19 and the country slowly starts returning to “normalcy”.

The new year is the start of new beginnings and I hope 2021 is that new beginning that we all need in this world.

Goodbye 2020

This was clearly a tough year for all with the pandemic. It was a particularly tough year for me. My cat died in January and my grandma passed away in October as well. Like many, I’m ready to wish 2020 a farewell.

No matter how shitty of a year 2020 was, I did feel that I grew a lot as an individual. It was my first year in my 30s and coincidentally perhaps the first year I truly felt like an adult. It was a transition year for me. A big focus of mine going into this year was more self care and learning how to treat my body better. I’ve felt that I’ve largely done that. I got perhaps the most sleep of my life in this past year. I went to bed earlier. I ate healthier and partied less. I worked out a lot more.

I wrote about my 2020 goals last January 1st. They were the following:

1. Continue to deepen my meditation practice including meditating more on weekends and on vacation

2. Develop a habit of writing daily even if it’s a sentence long

3. Eat more vegetables and less bad carbs

4. Make learning about markets a priority and catch up on activity at least weekly

5. Develop better email/work and home/leisure habits

Overall, I am largely happy with my progress. My meditation is still a work in progress, but improving. I’ve written a lot more this year despite perhaps taking breaks. I’ve eaten healthier this year and I’m more routinely catching up with the markets.

Of course it wasn’t perfect. I worked more than I perhaps ever have in my life. Going into 2021, I want to make sure I find more of a balance and make sure that I don’t reach the point of burn out again. I’ll write about my 2021 goals tomorrow.

In the meantime, I’m looking forward to a crab dinner with some friends as we wish 2020 goodbye for good.

Building for the post-vaccine world

I’ve been doing a lot of catching up on articles and blog posts that have been on the back burner for the last month. It’s been great having the time to sit back, read and think.

One common theme that I am seeing throughout is that people are starting to envision the post-vaccine world. Put in other ways, are the trends that we saw and are seeing during COVID-19 long-term trends or fads that will fade?

For builders, there couldn’t possibly be a more exciting time. There are new trends and ways of thinking in the post-COVID world. This creates massive opportunities to build businesses in these spaces.

On the flip side, people need to be able to decipher quarantine reality from the post-vaccine reality. Fads happen. Starting a sourdough starter business may have been lucrative in 2020 but likely to fade in 2021 as people are able to get outside again.

There are a couple spaces that I am particularly interested in watching in the post-vaccine world:

The first is the rise of personal finance and investing. Robinhood and the pandemic created a whole world of new investors. Many of these individuals were simply bored and looking for something else to do. As the world becomes hedge fund investors, many supplemental businesses will be built around this.

The second is the rise of direct to consumer brands, particularly in the food and beverage industry. The 2010s saw the day and age of DTC with suitcases, mattresses, glasses, and nearly everything in between being disrupted. One DTC area that has yet to take a hold is the food and beverage industry. That area is ripe for disruption as more people become brand loyal and turn to higher quality products.

We’re set up for a Roaring 20s of epic proportions. People are going to be hungry to spend their money and live life after quarantine. There is no better time in the history of the world than to build a company than it is right now.