BC STARTUPS
Saved by @zmbnski

1/ Tuesday was my last day as CEO of @CircleUp. I’ve been CEO since starting the co. in 2011 with my co-founder @roryeakin.

This is a thread about what happened, why and my emotions about it. For more detail:

https://t.co/vYImcm1bTM

Much of this I have never talked about.

 2/ My goals: I hope it helps founders feel less lonely than I did. Little public content about the challenges of transitioning exists, but I longed for it. I’m not here to provide a playbook- just to share my experience. Hope it might build greater empathy.

Here goes….
3/ Why: When I tell people that I’m transitioning to an Exec Chairman role their first question is always: “why?” Short answer: co. pivot + fertility issues + health issues + a false sense that grit was always the answer = burnout. Long answer: is longer so hang in there with me
4/ Over a 12-18 month period that ended in late 2017 I ran my tank far beyond empty for far too long. You know that sound your car makes when it’s sputtering for more gas? It was like that. Worst year of my life. Since then it has felt like bone on bone.
5/ Here is what happened:

Professionally: pivoting a Series C company was a living hell in and of itself, as I’ve talked about before. https://t.co/FiAyJlAKul
6/ Pivoting while also making layoffs, raising a first time fund, dealing with a very difficult board member (see blog for detail) and raising a big round from TPG & Temasek made for an extremely hard year.
7/ Representative moment from pivot: “I arrived 11 minutes before the board meeting started. I went to use the restroom. I slept with my head in front of the toilet until the bell rang.”
8/ Personally: things were harder.

Much harder.

It started with absolutely brutal fertility issues that my wife and I went through, beginning in 2016. The pain from this is hard to describe and difficult to talk about.
9/ If you have gotten this far and think this is a self-indulgent pity party, please just stop reading. I feel uncomfortable sharing some of this but want to be truthful and real, so I’ll keep going...
10/ Countless tests and visits to multiple fertility doctors around the country ensued. With a lot of help we eventually had our 2nd child, but IVF was so intense and emotionally draining. Among the many tests, one revealed something surprising...
11/ I was diagnosed with cancer.

I’ve never said that publicly. Even privately few people were told.

It wasn’t the worst type of cancer you can get, but w/ a 4-5% mortality rate I was pretty damn scared. It was also a complicated case for reasons I don’t need to detail here.
12/ More than scared I felt helpless. Between work and our fertility issues, things were already overwhelming. I remember calling my wife outside UCSF hospital, physically hiding behind a concrete pillar. We were crying.

Neither of us had known they were even testing for cancer
13/ I’ll never forget how afraid she sounded on that call when I told her. She was trying to be strong, but we were both so scared. It was like that scene in a movie when someone is dying and they’re told “everything is ok”, but patently everything is not ok.
14/ Since then I haven’t done a good job of dealing with it emotionally. To this day I still cry every time I go to the Stanford cancer center for my tests. I check in, then the resident will start asking me questions and I cry. My wife still has to come with me every time.
15/ My daily crippling headaches concerned doctors that the cancer had spread to my brain. The 1st MRI only worried them more, but after the 2nd they thankfully concluded it hadn’t. We now think they were caused by exhaustion: Not ideal timing for the CEO of a pivoting company.
16/ I made many mistakes during this time, thinking I could just grit it out alone.

I wish I’d joined a CEO support group earlier or taken time off. I wish I’d looked for a therapist & a mgmt coach sooner. I wish I’d confided in the wider team, not just the board.
17/ For reasons I explain in the blog post, I thought keeping everything to myself would allow me to handle the professional challenges more effectively. I believed that if others knew my personal struggles it would only compound my problems.
18/ Once, in the middle of 2017, our VP of Product pulled me aside and said, “hey, you look really stressed out—is everything OK?” It was such a kind, generous and supportive gesture. I could have, and should have, been open with her. I wasn't. She left 6 months later.
19/ My approach was wrong. For some, the info would have been too much to hear and they would have bailed. But they would have bailed anyway.
I now think sharing that authentic journey would have engendered trust and brought our team closer together.
https://t.co/yMrAiODMhA
20/ I think every CEO has a certain “normal” level of exhaustion. I felt that from 2012-2017. Honestly, that was exhilarating for me. I would sign up for that again.

But then it changed. I didn’t do enough to prepare for what happened or get myself help.
https://t.co/403FKKvH6t
21/ Since then, with burnout and depression, everything became big. A paper cut felt like a deep wound and any little miss at work—an ineffective meeting, an inefficient conversation, a trivial bump in the road—was unbearable. I was even more on edge at home, at work, everywhere.
22/ Once at Stanford cancer center in a routine post-operative test, a resident was asking me the questions they ask on every visit. In the routine I knew my doc would come in next and ask the exact same questions. That’s how it works as a teaching hospital.
23/ This time I flipped out and started screaming. How I acted was unfair and disrespectful, and I’m ashamed of it. It was representative of the knife-edge I had been living on, but that didn’t make it right.
24/ It came to a head in late 2019. The straw was my then 5-yr old daughter saying, “Daddy you always look so sad”. My 5-yr old. It broke my heart.
I made a decision. That decision led to this email to our board (included w/ their permission):

https://t.co/5864d7Jl7X
25/ Fast forward to today… We ended up hiring a fantastic president (now CEO) while raising a big round this year. That was hard, and the pandemic didn’t help, but we got it done together.
26/ We’ve covered the “why”.

Now for how I have *felt* during this transition process... dishonest, relieved, scared, anxious, worried, insecure, proud, conflicted and more...
27/ Dishonest: Being CEO has always been lonely. This transition only exacerbated that because the majority of people I talked with—professionally and personally—didn’t know what was happening. That made me, for the first time, feel dishonest.
28/ To be clear, I wasn’t lying. The health concerns were resolved before we took on more money. But I didn’t feel as open with the team as I like to be. I believed I had to withhold a lot.
29/ I believed I couldn’t share my thoughts/feelings with everyone at once, in part because they were so….complicated and confusing. I knew what I wanted, but I didn’t know how to ensure the transition would happen while doing right by the company and our investors.
30/ Relieved: I’ve been thinking about this transition for a long time. At risk of sounding defensive, I don’t know a lot of CEOs, regardless of performance, who hasn’t fantasized at least occasionally about walking away.
31/ Over the past few years I don’t think I’ve felt “normal” CEO exhaustion. Have I mentioned it was bone on bone? There’s no doubt my mental health was suffering during that period. Believing I have found an end to that exhaustion has also felt relieving.
32/ Scared: I felt scared when I had to tell someone new of my plans, be it an investor or team member, yet saying it out loud also came with a rushing sense of liberation. Like a giant weight that I had been carrying for years was off my back.
33/ I also felt scared that I was making a mistake. That I may never find something I love as much as I loved being CEO of CircleUp. Conflicted. When the offer letter was ready to sign for the new (CEO-elect) I stared at it for 30 minutes. Unsure. (My wife took this picture)
34/ Anxious: Will I be able to transition? Could we get the round done? Could we find the right CEO? How would the team react? How would our investors react? What if people wanted different outcomes/candidates?
35/ Worried: A few weeks ago I talked with another founder who had transitioned out as CEO. She told me: “I found my stress level after leaving the company didn’t change. I just transferred my stress to new things.” That resonates and worries me.
36/ Insecure: In “Transitions” William Bridges recommends being comfortable with the “nothingness” of a liminal state. To do that I need to be comfortable saying “I’m not sure what I’ll do next.” That feels scary. I feel insecure about it as I write this.
https://t.co/lhMapgdjiL
37/ Proud: I feel immensely proud of what we have built at @CircleUp. The team is truly extraordinary and I think the technology (Helio) will transform consumer and private investing. We’ve helped hundreds of entrepreneurs to thrive and we will help thousands more.
38/ Some think they have no choice but to “tough it out” in front of the teams, customers or investors, despite what’s going on inside their heads because doubt isn’t respected in venture.
39/ Because of this, I’ve never before talked publicly about the personal issues that compounded the professional struggles of our pivot. It feels good to be able to speak about it openly.
40/ Was this all just bad luck? No. I think I could have made it through for longer had I searched for help sooner. That wasn’t misfortune, it was me choosing not to lean on others to get through the hardest periods.

That was my failure, not bad luck.
41/ Will some view this as weak? Maybe. Probably. But I’m sharing it here regardless so that other founders going through their own myriad challenges might hopefully feel less alone.

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Eric
Eric
@ericbahn
1/ Recently, I learned about the concept of ‘struggle porn’. This refers to the fetish of sacrificing nearly everything (health, relationships, time) for your startup. I fear that this label is creating more harm than good.

2/ @nateliason wrote a fabulous article about this topic, which first introduced me to this concept. Everyone should read it:

3/ @alexisohanian also recently spoke about struggle porn, though referring to it as ‘hustle porn.’ (as the co-founder of @hustlefundvc, obviously I take issue with this pejorative definition of ‘hustle’, but that’s another topic)

4/ Struggling in itself isn’t necessarily bad. Let’s be real here--if you’re going to start a startup, you will struggle. Founders should expect to work harder generally than employees. You will be challenged in many ways and also be super rewarded in others. This is normal.

5/ However, if you are over-indexing on hard work without clear purpose and degrading your mental health/relationships in the process--then this is very bad and we obviously should not celebrate this behavior.
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Raman Shalupau
Raman Shalupau
@ksaitor
The Beatles wrote “Yesterday” in less than a minute.

Led Zeppelin wrote “Rock And Roll” in 30 minutes.

The White Stripes, “Seven Nation Army”, 10 min during a soundcheck.

The Rolling Stones, “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction”, 40min.

Making a startup in 24 hours is perfectly fine.


I worked on my first startup for 2.5years. It was an events app. Sunk in cost and expectations were so high, that I had to close it, despite getting consistent revenue.

In comparison, I wrote @CryptoJobsList in 2 days. And it's way more meaningful than what I've been doing in my events startup for 2.5 years.

When I let go of my engineering ego and let go of expectations that I need to raise capital and hustle for 4+ years — I started lauching fast and interating fast without any expectations — then I started coming up with something truly meaningful and useful ✨

12 startups in 12 months by @levelsio
24 hour startup by @thepatwalls
— are great challenges that make you focus on the end product value, iterate fast and see what sticks and ruthlessly kill what does not work.
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Sharath \U0001f4e3
Sharath 📣
@5harath
From day 1, I intended to build @shoutoutso_ in public, and part of it is to be transparent with numbers, talk openly about our highs and lows, and share lessons as we grow!

I have been doing individual posts on numbers every week so wanted to one big thread with all updates 👇🏽

Week


Week


Week


Week
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Ryan Kaufman
Ryan Kaufman
@growth_student
How Morning Brew grew to 2.5M subscribers in 5 years ☕

Here are the early growth tactics used to reach 20M+ revenue in 2021

A thread👇👇

1) In 2015, Founders Alex Lieberman and Austin Rief started the Morning Brew, an email newsletter with the purpose of making business news more interesting for young people. Students wanted something to keep them informed in a more engaging and fun way


2) They noticed students felt the need to follow business news but found current media dry and difficult to read.

Current outlets like the Wall Street Journal lacked the high level roundup that most young people needed to quickly stay informed and not put them to sleep

3) Strategy 1: Pure hustle
At 20 years old, Alex created a PDF newsletter (originally called the Market Corner) and sent it to 45 friends and family. They then got their first 300 subscribers by putting out flyers and speaking at lectures to fellow students at Michigan University

4) They spoke at 50 business classes/clubs explaining what they’re doing, the problem they solve, and that it’s free to join. Students gladly joined and word of mouth spread fast. After 4 months the list grew to 1000 people, eventually reaching 1M in 2019. 15% from word of mouth
STARTUPS , GROWTH
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson
@mijustin
Yesterday, I wrote about how easy it is to sell ice cream on a crowded beach: https://t.co/a9z2ZTixb7

Today, I’m at the local fair.

There are hundreds of vendors.

But there are also huge crowds who are hot and thirsty; lots of demand for cold drinks!

Go where the crowds are!


Again, this is just a metaphor!

But it’s a good reminder:

🍋 If you have a lemonade stand, it’s better to go somewhere hot, where there are a lot of thirsty people.

💻 If you want to make software, it’s better to go where there are a bunch of potential customers.

BTW - targeting a good market doesn’t mean you’ll automatically win!

There are a TON of factors that influence a business’ success (or failure).

But choosing a market that has a lot of demand (and good channels) is essential for future success.

In business, nothing is guaranteed.

You might be in a good market today, but tomorrow it could fall apart.

Markets are fickle.

Some days they want 🍦, other days they want 🥤.

The economy can go up, or it can crash.

A good competitor can come in and grab market share.

But this reinforces the point:

“Business is already hard, why make it harder?” – @asmartbear

Why try to enter a niche where there’s no demonstrable demand?

Why try to serve a total addressable market of 500, when you could go after 500,000 potential customers?
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1) The Temple of the Divine Claudius was a vast temple complex on Rome's Caelian Hill, overlooking the valley that would later be occupied by the Colosseum. Though almost nothing now remains of the structure, its scale and grandeur once rivalled anything in the city.. #LostRome


2) The 'Claudium' was intended as a sacred complex to revere Claudius and the imperial cult. Construction began soon after the death and deification of the emperor in 54 AD, initiated by his widow Agrippina who was likely responsible for his supposed death by poisoning. #LostRome


3) The sprawling temple complex sat on a gigantic podium that spread across the Caelian Hill, measuring 180 x 200 metres; with towering retaining walls of travertine that raised the structure 20 metres above the valley below. #LostRome


4) The elevated sacred area was likely entered by steps facing the temple on the west side. The temple itself had a projecting hexastyle porch and was surrounded by gardens and a grand portico, probably the 'porticus Claudia' mentioned in Martial's 'On the Spectacles'. #LostRome


5) Statues of both Agrippina and Claudius’ ill-fated young son Britannicus, sculpted in sumptuous dark Egyptian greywacke, were discovered among the ruins on the Caelian Hill in 1651 – and had almost certainly been displayed in the temple precinct. #LostRome
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Antonio Garc\xeda Mart\xednez
Antonio García Martíne...
@antoniogm
Observing the public conversation around FB, and the private ones happening among techies and ex-FBers, I think the mutual misunderstanding is worse than when I set out two years (and 500 pages) ago to (in a small way) bridge that gulf.

We're basically fucked.

The tech world has gotten so huge, self-reinforcing, and insulated from reality they can no longer even vaguely look at themselves (and their actions) as others do. They just live on a different planet than most people.

Conversely, the average tech consumer doesn't understand the technology that has slowly taken over their lives, and their designated emissaries to figure it out--politicians, pundits, regulators, journalists--understand it barely better than they do, and have their own agendas.

To say more than generalities for a moment, here's what I think is likely the core problem.

Techies take weird, improbable visions, and make them realities: some BS pitch deck to a VC, mixed with money and people, really does turn into some novel thing.

Most people work inside a legacy industry that's evolved that way over time (usually for good reasons), and they think about the future via some analogy with their present (which is a function of a long-ago past). The interruption that tech will introduce is often hard to grasp.
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श्रीमाली हितेश अवस्थी...
@HiteshAwasthi89
#Thread
Benefits of writing SRI RAMA Jayam!!!

Writing Sri Rama Jayam is known as Likitha Japam- Writing Meditation. This gives one a complete sense of surrender to an inner conscience and peace while writing or chanting the mantras.

#Sri_Rama_Jayam #RamaNavami

Cont 👇

You can write this in any language of your choice. It is the connecting chords with the divine and your inner self.

Below are some points that we came across on the benefits :

Cont 👇

1. Vedas tell that as the sun dispels the darkness, the chanting of Rama Nama dispels all evil and obstacles of life. It is a way of liberation and salvation of human suffering.

2. When you think, that all roads are blocked to walk away from day to day problems..

Cont 👇

writing ‘Sri Ram Ram Ram’ gives you the most needed clarity of thoughts to find away out of odd situations.

3. It was told that a calmness engulfs as one indulges in writing the Sri Rama Jayam bringing in more clarity of mind, tolerance & strength to withstand obstacles in life.

4. Devotion of service of life and its varied forms is devotion to God. So there is no right or wrong way of writing this. The very thought and process to write is a connection with god and finds a inner meaning.

Cont 👇
ALL
Jonathan Ware
Jonathan Ware
@ReassessHistory
Rhino Barges

One of the dullest, coolest, more bizarre and fascinating pieces of kit used in Normandy.

Which NO ONE REALLY CARES ABOUT.

BUT I DO AND YOU SHOULD TOO.
/1

#WW2 #SWW #History


Planning for Overlord and Neptune had a serious snag, how to get troops from LSTs onto the beach as simply ramming them onto the beaches and dropping the ramp was known to damage the exceptionally vulnerable LSTs and felt to be unsustainable in the mid to long term. /2


LSTs were essential in sustaining Overlord's progress and were a subject of major headaches in the planning phase, and a real subject of friction when it came to launching additional amphibious operations such as Dragoon.

A single LSTs loss represented a capability nick. /3


So, logic dictated, we don't really want these remarkable but rare and highly valuable vessels constantly doing beach landings, we want something to act as a medium between ship to shore, and in came the (mostly) American designed Rhino. /4


I fucking love Rhinos.

Seriously.

Graceful lines of pure industrial pedigree.

Modular.

LOOK AT IT. /5
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\u2728Anshika Sharma
✨Anshika Sharma
@Anshi_________
Low-risk, High-return stocks are what we look for relentlessly

But many of them we know but ignore
some of them don't grab financial headlines

Here are 10 low-risk, high return stocks (that we ignore):

What I mean by “high-return”?

These stocks have OUTPERFORMED the market:

💹Chart with upwards trend Since IPO
💹Chart with upwards trend Over the last 5 Years or since IPO

These are all long-term winners that will keep on winning

What do We Mean by “low-risk”?

A combination of:

❣️Great management
❣️Broad moat
❣️Financially strong
❣️High ROCE
❣️Low Disruption/Dilution/Volatility
❣️Consistent Organic Growth
❣️Assorted Customers/Suppliers
❣️Low debt

1-#CDSL

A depository is a big business and will grow continuously, Its a sustainable business
cause "Market hai toh CDSL bhi hai or rahega"


2- #Dixon

High Management Efficiency with a high ROE of 19.30%
Healthy long-term growth as Net Sales has grown by an annual rate of more than 30%
High Institutional Holdings
LOW RISK HIGH RETURN STOCKS , LOW RISK HIGH RETURN STOCKS FOR LONG TERM , LOW RISK STOCK IDEAS