Authors Romeen Sheth
You feel like an idiot 98% of the time - lost, confused and insecure.
I wish I had a playbook on principles for my first job.
So I put one together.
Here are 9 threads packed with lessons about building a career I wish I knew sooner:
1. First and most important - have a clear mind.
Without clarity of thought, nothing else matters.
Here are the most common types of distortions I’ve observed over the years.
Self awareness has helped me catch myself before falling into a trap.
The world's most valuable skill:
— Romeen Sheth (@RomeenSheth) September 22, 2021
Clarity of thought.
The problem? There's no school for this.
It takes time, patience and a lot of early career fumbling.
Here are 10 cognitive distortions I faced early in my career and an insight for you to break through each one \U0001f447\U0001f447\U0001f447
2. Enter the side door
Most people enter the “front door” in their careers.
The problem is - when you do what most people do, you get the results most people get.
If you want a n-of-1 career, don’t take the 1-of-n path.
The ultimate hack to 10x your career:
— Romeen Sheth (@RomeenSheth) November 2, 2021
Enter the Side Door.
Let's break it down \U0001f447\U0001f447\U0001f447
3. Adversity is inevitable
Any journey that’s worthwhile is filled with adversity.
If it was so easy...everybody would do it.
Here’s the way I’ve worked through dealing with the road blocks that are part of every entrepreneur’s journey.
15 timeless principles on how to deal with adversity \U0001f447
— Romeen Sheth (@RomeenSheth) November 16, 2021
4. Learn from the world's best
I love talking to world class people - CEOs, Founders, Execs, Athletes.
There's a lot of commonality in world class success.
Unpacking how these people got to where they are is always inspiring.
I interviewed 100 legendary investors, founders and executives.
— Romeen Sheth (@RomeenSheth) September 24, 2021
Collectively, they have created over $1 trillion of value for the world.
Here are 20 practical career lessons they shared with me \U0001f447\U0001f447\U0001f447
Why do companies like Quibi raise billions, while companies like Peloton get nothing?
Because fundraising is a GAME
And the insiders keep the rules to themselves.
Here are 100 tips the insiders don’t want you to see but will help you win the game:
1. You can’t play the game without nailing the basics.
There are 5 core ingredients to a startup pitch.
Most have 2.
Good ones have 4.
The best have all 5.
There\u2019s a lot of bad advice out there on how to pitch your startup.
— Romeen Sheth (@RomeenSheth) April 10, 2021
Last year, I invested $1M+ and heard 200 companies pitch.
Every great pitch I've heard nails 5 ingredients.
In this thread, we'll go through each to help maximize your chances when fundraising
Let's dig in\U0001f447 pic.twitter.com/FBaUUWHz8L
2. Now that you have a grasp of the basics, it’s time to level up.
Good news - most founders make the same mistakes as each other.
Bad news - these mistakes are really easy to make.
Here's what not to do:
0/ After evaluating 200+ startups this year, I've been in some awesome and not so awesome pitches.
— Romeen Sheth (@RomeenSheth) December 28, 2020
Here are the top 10 mistakes I see Founders make that routinely derail fundraising \U0001f447\U0001f447\U0001f447
3. Ok so you told me what not to do.
So what should I do?
Read below.
0/ Last night I tweeted about the top 10 things Founders do that derail fundraising. It struck a chord. 2,500+ liked the tweet.
— Romeen Sheth (@RomeenSheth) December 30, 2020
I got a ton of DMs asking the opposite question: \u201cWhat are the top things Founders do well when fundraising?\u201d
Here's my top 10 \U0001f447\U0001f447\U0001f447
4. We’re in a really unique fundraising environment right now.
It’s important to contextualize all these tips in the “here and now” of what’s going on in the landscape.
Raising money for startups is wild right now. I\u2019ve never seen anything like it.
— Romeen Sheth (@RomeenSheth) May 5, 2021
Lots of Founders are wondering how to approach it and who they should partner with.
Here are 10 observations / practical tips I've shared with 100+ Founders in the last few months \U0001f447\U0001f447\U0001f447
It’s truly the Town Square of the Internet.
But finding the diamond in the rough voices can be tough.
Here are 20 of my favorite people to follow:
1. Alex Lieberman - @businessbarista
Alex writes extensively about the Founder journey.
The cool part is he’s lived everything he talks about - starting from $0 and selling for $75M with hardly any outside capital raised.
My favorite piece:
A life well-lived is a life-well planned.
— Alex Lieberman \u2615\ufe0f (@businessbarista) July 14, 2021
5 steps to build your own "Life Map" \U0001f9f5
2. Ryan Breslow - @ryantakesoff
Ryan is a Top 1% founder.
This guy is a machine - he’s built 2 unicorns before the age of 27.
Ryan spells out lessons on fundraising, operating and scaling.
My favorite piece:
The biggest lesson I\u2019ve learned in building a $4B company:
— Ryan Breslow \U0001f57a (@ryantakesoff) September 23, 2021
It\u2019s all about the people.
I\u2019m thrilled to announce today that Bolt is the first tech unicorn to officially shift to a 4 day work week.
Here\u2019s why we did it and how we came to the decision \U0001f447\U0001f447\U0001f447
3. Jesse Pujji - @jspujji
Jesse is who I think of when I think “bootstrapping.”
He bootstrapped his company to an 8-figure exit and now shares stories about other awesome bootstrappers.
He’s also got great insight into all things growth marketing:
Welcome new followers!!
— Jesse Pujji (@jspujji) September 16, 2021
Thanks for joining my entrepreneurial community.
To learn more about my journey, listen 2 my convo with @patrick_oshag.
I tell my story about bootstrapping, marketing, DTC and building a culture with conscious leadership. https://t.co/BSg6hCEE0L pic.twitter.com/gH4tAjfFBx
4. Post Market - @Post_Market
Post puts out some of the most thoughtful investment insights on this platform.
It’s refreshing because Post cuts through the hype and goes deep into the business model.
Idk who he/she/it is, but the insights are 💣.
Sweetgreen, ~$400M run-rate in sales (RLM% of 16% in 2019) and 140 units (+20-25 per year).
— Post M. (@Post_Market) October 25, 2021
Lets say 400 units by 2030 @ $3.5M AUV ($2.5M today) and 21.5% RLM. $300M RL EBITDA less $200M in G&A less $25M in maint. capex. is $75M in 'owners' EBIT
Last round at $1.6B. Yikes.