53/52: Toot-toot
#CapitalAtRisk
The 2010s was the decade of the Entrepreneur.
The 2020s will be the decade of the Investor.
“Don’t show off every day, or you’ll stop surprising people”
If I may…
I got the above reply to last Wednesday’s post.
I’ve been writing this ‘Education of a Startup Investor’ Substack newsletter since November 2019 and have just looked back to posts at the beginning. Those early posts got some views… for the first few months the view-count was at least 6 and at most 26. Last Wednesdays post about Azmat’s Talk Machine got 1,663 views and one reply, above.
I started writing here to clarify my own thinking. Investing in startups is messy. If you do that too then you’ll know that you make decisions with incomplete information, you invest in the people more than their businesses and you’re wrong more often than you’re right. This writing of mine has forced me to pin down what I actually believe — it’s tested my intuition, my logic and my biases. Naturally I track the increase in value too and I’m definitely a better investor now than I was in 2019.
Write more letters
So yes, toot-toot. Five years of writing, and I’m immensely pleased it’s resonated so much with some of you.
And to the reader who replied to me: I look forward to that letter. Handwritten notes are a dying art, but as you’ll have read, I think they can be rather life-changing1.
In other news
🗣️ Since my request to ‘TalkMachine me’ I’ve had three founders get in touch. I like it, and I think it’s another way for me to find out what makes people tick (and vice-versa).
🗓️ The good meals with 9others return from January — have a look here for meals in Manchester, Cheltenham, Amsterdam and London (incl the London party, here).
🍽️ If you want to host a good meal with 9others in your city just email me at matthew@9others.com and we can talk through the ‘Golden Rules’.
🪿 Btw, if you’re curious as to what the heck a goose is doing wandering across the top of my phone screen, that’s Mrs Goose, a screen pet that Rish Bhardwaj built here. You can see more from Rish here.
Sleeping OK?
“What’s Keeping You Up at Night? captures the magic of shared challenges and mutual support in the startup world. It’s a must-read for any founder who’s ever felt alone in the trenches—this book shows you how to find your people, ask for help, and build something extraordinary together.
– Laura Harnett, Founder & CEO of The Seep Company
Buy the book
You can learn from over 5,000 entrepreneurs who’ve been to over 500 meals with 9others in over 45 cities around the world if you order my book, “What’s Keeping You Up at Night?” on Amazon here.
Q&A
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💰 Paid subscribers get all posts and can request a video call to ask me anything and talk about the things I don’t share anywhere else.
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Important: None of these posts are investment advice. If you are thinking about investing you should seek the advice of a suitably qualified independent advisor.
#CapitalAtRisk
I wrote a bit in this post about letter-writing. It’s been life-changing for me because, amongst many examples I could tell you about, I’ve met Guy, got three people on Desert Island Discs, and had back & forths with Lords, billionaires, famous authors and soon-to-be-incredibly-successful founders. All from picking up a pen and writing a letter.