world of tech thoughts

@stewart in Inc Magazine recently.

Kudos to the self-awareness, candidness and authenticity Stewart exhibits here.

The piece above prompted to finally jot down some thoughts (last week in April). Today’s tech world is “crazy” (and not just private valuations) that I am largely thankful to be a part of. Crazy is the best term to sum up the velocity of change, absurd moments, larger than life (public) numbers you see, endless opportunities and unexpected surprises over the course of every week.

Disclosure: One perspective here with a focus on the recent past. Few things that I thought about and observed over the past two years that have stuck with me.

• Raising a small seed round today often involves less due-diligence than attempting to rent a cramped bare-bones New York City apartment. In one case you’re taking a $1m of hard earned money from individuals that you’ve met for a coffee a few times (maybe) vs trying to PAY someone $1700/mo for a 10x12ft room after handing over your social security number, bank statements, references, and letter of employment.
• Not often discussed publicly but something I’ve discussed with a few — what does it mean to make more than your low-to-middle class parents in your early twenties? How does one process that as you hear parents talking about meticulously planning for retirement on your holiday visits home? If and why are my business development emails, product mockups or Git commits (I wish..) valued more than the ten years of day to day grinding from a college professor? 23 year developer friends negotiating multiple six figure salaries and options agreements is interesting. Unfair? I don’t know. But something to certainly be conscious and appreciative of every day.
• There’s a good chance a handful of your close friends and acquaintances will receive significant windfalls from being early or even the 500th employee at successful companies.
• Pedigree, perceived social proof and relationships definitely matter, just in a different way from the previous generation. YC is the new Harvard (badge, network), investors still prefer / only take warm introductions, there are (for good and bad, natural) elite circles of operators and investors that truly know how to play and control the game.

• Playing the long game is tough. There is so much opportunity out there that it can be crippling. Start a company and raise a seed round? Start freelancing and work less or travel more? Work on personal experiments with the hope it becomes a labs company? Join your friend’s company as an early employee? Go to a big co and live very comfortably? Find the next hot 50 person company and take a slight risk it doesn’t become as big as you hoped? Hustle into the clear cut unicorns of today and bank on the future IPO? Or stay put and consider the fact that every hour of everyday those options are still out there?

• ^ Longterm discipline, planning and thinking potentially becomes an even more explicitly valued personal and professional trait.
• Insights, original thoughts and bold predictions are rare. When you find a person or team that consistently string drop some knowledge bombs on you, try to get even closer to them. It’s too easy and inviting to be well-liked, share the right content and make Uncle Pete statements…

“There’s a lot of fish in the sea Ryan. You’ll find a nice girl soon enough, just a matter of putting yourself out there again.” — Uncle Pete

Imagine coming home for the holidays and having an uncle say that to you after a tough breakup of a serious two year relationship. Caring and coming from the right place but yet overall — pretty much high level fluff and not all that actionable. Oh gee whiz Uncle Pete, that makes so much sense…never thought of that.

I’d always like to say “thanks, Uncle Pete” when I hear a tech investor on a panel explain “mobile is big trend we’ll be paying close attention to in the coming years.” Didn’t realize 3bn+ smartphones would be a technological, societal and economic trend worth something paying attention to.

• Authenticity and candidness are scarce in today’s public facing personal and professional (one in the same). Individuals that are up to something interesting (not necessarily even successful) and can tastefully demonstrate they are “good people”, they win. Think @semil over the past two years, @rrhoover over the past year, @stewart these past few months and @benrbn in these past few weeks. Hard not to respect the investing, hunting, SaaS succcess and live streaming but even harder to not like them personally.
• If I was a respected product focused engineer with a potential talented co-founder or two, why the hell shouldn’t I give it a consumer (social..) mobile app (company) a go? Large chance of failing? LLC wise — yes, you join the ranks of thousands of others. Personally — you go and get a good paying and respected job at the established tech co. At their core, seed and pre-seed investors know that small teams can create valuable companies (not necessarily businesses..) and thus the economics still work for the fund. Lot of disingenious and bullshit tweets and panel soundbites that every startup should be thinking about revenue.
• Being a successful and/or popular tech leader doesn’t mean you have all answers when it comes to world, industry or own company. Too often leaders in the tech community believe that having an IPO or design trend under their belt gives them the platform to take center stage at a range of issues (almonds, gender equality, immigration, politics, etc).

Just a few thoughts.

@ryandawidjan

Recent readings:

• Loyalty: feature or bug? @roybahat
• Startup is the new normal @jordancooper
• Give Silicon Valley a break @danprimack