My day job is growing startups.

I've worked with a few hundred by now.

Here's how to grow your podcast, newsletter, blog, YouTube, and Twitter.

Hope this helps! A thread:

A framework for good writing.

1. Use draft 1 to find your novel ideas, which are:

• Counter-intuitive
• Counter-narrative
• Shock and awe

2. Draft 2 is for making those novel ideas stick—via:

• Stories
• Analogies
• Examples

Writing quality = Novelty x Resonance

How can some people write so beautifully?

1/ Two of my favorite writing techniques:

Writing technique 1: Don't always be direct

Instead of saying "the day was hot," you could write "even the bugs were looking for air conditioning."

That's what I call a second-order description: describe the *impact* caused by the hot day—instead of saying it's a hot day.

Why? Poetic writing is often one step removed from a straightforward description of the events.

The more steps you're removed while still communicating your point, the more "elegant" it might feel.

For example, let's start with a plain statement:

"The day was hot."

With a second-order description, you'd describe the heat by stating the effect it has on its environment:

"The day melted our popsicles." (Without mentioning the heat.)

Readers infer that the day was therefore hot.

As C.S. Lewis said:

"Instead of telling us a thing was 'terrible,' describe it so that we’ll BE terrified."

Let's go deeper now:

THREAD: 10 significant lies you're told about the world.

On startups, writing, and your career:

People don't have short attention spans:

• They finish 3 hour Joe Rogan episodes.
• They binge 14 hour shows.

They have short *consideration spans:* they must be hooked quickly.

Point: Don't fear making great, in-depth content. But, ensure your first minute is incredible.

In observing friends who’ve sold startups and made millions:

After a year, they’re back to toying with their old side projects.

They used their money to buy a nice home and eat well.

That’s it. They’re otherwise back to who they were.

Point: Aim to be fulfilled, not rich.

Reading many books is the most socially accepted vanity metric for adults.

You get zero kudos for reading 100 books a year.

You get massive kudos for learning efficiently and making interesting things.

Bloggers who post frequently (2x/wk) are rarely worth reading consistently.

I read for insights. And no writer can generate profound insights on a fixed schedule.

I aggregate writers who publish sporadically. When they post, they truly have something to say.

School is an astonishing failure of modern society.

We're taught about dinosaurs before learning how to function as people.

Thread: Life lessons I wish school taught all of us.

Schools don't teach us to:

• Think critically
• Nurture curiosity
• Save and prep taxes
• Sustain relationships
• Have difficult convos
• Navigate mental health

Yet they teach how to:

• Differentiate dinosaurs
• Memorize the periodic table
• Make paper snowflakes

Why is school curriculum so broken?

1. Awareness: Those in power don't realize how bad it is.

2. Priorities: It's not a pressing issue. Voters care about the cost of education—not enough about WHAT is taught.

3. What to do: Shout to the politicians and educators in power.

Onto the lessons I wish I was taught.

These are the ones on my mind lately. This list could be 1,000 items long. Add yours to the thread.

Here we go.

Many relationship troubles emerge from one root cause:

Assuming bad intent.

One of the highest ROI things we can teach our children:

Start by assuming good intent: Train your reflex to ask questions before making assumptions.

Always lead with curiosity—never critique.

1/ I'm insanely excited to announce what I've been working on for the last year:

Teamflow, a virtual office that makes you feel like a team again. Coming out of stealth and announcing our $3.9M seed round today 🎉🎉🎉

2/ @getTeamflow lets you see your video in an office where your team can hang out.

You can move yourself around, and only hear and see people around you.

So when you want to chat with someone, you can just drag yourself over and say hi — no more juggling with Zoom links

3/ You can also open apps in the space, like Figma, Trello or Google Docs.

Everybody can see and use them together — so you can meet around your sprint board in the morning for standup.

4/ You can customize and furnish meeting rooms, which persist — so you can create:
- one room for a project launch, with tasks, metrics dashboard…
- one room for each 1:1 with your meeting notes
- one game room with a bunch of online games
[- one room to bring them all…]

5/ I actually had this idea when my team at Uber had to go remote, and I felt both camaraderie and productivity fall off a cliff.

We had an outage one day. Not my 1st, but remote made this one especially painful — jumping from Zoom to Zoom to coordinate ops, marketing, eng…

Last week, I wrote a thread about generating momentum for startups.

Today's thread is on how emerging fund managers can generate momentum for their fund.

Whatever you do, momentum is so impt to get ppl onboard -- for hiring, for sales, for fundraising.

Read on >>

1) First, why does momentum matter?

Think about it from the "buyer's perspective" -- it is almost ALWAYS better to wait and get more information if you can get the same deal. Right?

More info on a potential investment. More info on a new product. Etc.

2) There are few situations where it's impt to be a first mover.

If you're a product buyer, it could be you have a dire situation at your company that alternatives can't handle.

But if you have a decent alternative (alternative product or alt investment), it's better to wait.

3) That means it's YOUR JOB to create momentum. Whether for fundraising, sales, or hiring.

So with that in mind, how do you generate momentum for fund fundraising?

4) In a prior tweet about generating momentum for startup fundraising, essentially I said to limit your supply (the amnt you are raising) in tranches AND to increase demand by packing in mtgs.

Unfort this doesn't quite work well for funds.

9 slides I've used to generate $9M in revenue (steal these):

If you liked this, you will love my newsletter - The Soulful Entrepreneur.

I share tools, systems, and mental models to help you achieve your dreams in life and business.

Subscribe

Why should you start your own business instead of becoming an employee?

Well, being a business owner isn't for everyone.
But it may be exactly the change you need!

Let me give you some great reasons to quit your job and become self-employed.

🧵👇

1️⃣ You become free and independent

You get the ability to steer the direction of your life in any way you want, instead of working for the whims of others.

You also get to manage your own time and schedule.
Who wants to ask for permission to spend time with your loved ones?

2️⃣ You get to follow your passion

In your own business, you get to do what excites you.
Not only does a passion make your job fulfilling, but it also unlocks hidden powers in you!

Why do you work?

❌ Because my boss wants this done by tomorrow.
✅ Because I love what I do!

3️⃣ You can make a lot of money

Of course, wealth isn't everything.
But let's be real, it's important!

By freelancing, you can triple your income.
I take home more than $300K/y on consulting alone.
So can you 🔥

Combine that with selling products!
Only the sky is the limit.

4️⃣ You pay way less in taxes

Earned income (salary) is the type of income that is taxed the highest.
By being an employee, you're a 50/50 partner with the government.

By incorporating your business, you can lower taxes by reinvesting in assets such as stocks or property.