Nobody knows
#CapitalAtRisk
The 23 days of March
After writing a blog post each day, Monday — Friday, in January I didn’t write any posts at all in February. I wanted a break but I’ve missed the discipline.
Therefore this month I’ll ‘do a January’ and aim to write a post each day, Monday — Friday. I might then have another month off in April but let’s see how March goes first.
I have some topics in my Substack drafts folder:
Engineering Parkinson’s law.
More questions I ask.
Sacca.
I’m with stupid →
It might take 10 years for the puck to get there.
And in my Google Keep notes I have a bunch of ideas for posts including:
More on quiddity.
Lobbying after making introductions.
You can't control the outcome so control the process.
My investing mistakes.
The people I include in my DD process and why (and why not all of them know they’re in my DD process).
Why do this?
Writing in January really sharpened my thinking (I also journal privately most weeks) and I feel that I’m becoming a better (tougher and more demanding of higher standards) investor. It’s remarkable how things can become more focused in a short period of time with a bit of discipline.
My Substack is called “The Education of a Startup Investor” so I do this to help educate myself but also others. Right from the start I’ve called myself a “Pay-as-you-go” investor and I want to share my thoughts and processes with others to encourage more people to consider PAYG startup investing. Investing in startups is a funny mix of collaboration (co-investing with others) and competition (wanting to have an edge to get into deals other can’t and make money others won’t).
If I don’t write these posts there’s zero chance of potential collaborators of mine knowing what I think, what I’m up to and how I do it. Just like the meals with 9others, there’s no predictable outcome and just doing one would never lead me to strike gold. Yet everything I do comes from hosting the meals with 9others for the last 11+ years. It’s still early days compared to 9others but this blog has already produced some gold — it’s led to some of my portfolio companies getting significant funding, publicity and growth.
Until tomorrow…
In other news
Eagle-eyed fans of Michael McIntyre’s Big Show will have spotted Alexander Armstrong sporting a classic pair of D&Ds — get yours here. (And I’ve just noticed that one of Alexander’s middle names is Fenwick, which was my father’s first name).
Training is going well for the MdS and I’ve been allocated a tent (#136). I’m up to 2 x 20km runs at the weekend with 5.5kg of my son’s books in my rucksack. I’ve not really been running during the week recently, which I need to fix. This month I’ll increase the milage and at weekends I’ll go out for the whole day to do a mix of running and walking in order to get much more time on my feet.
And meals with 9others continue — I now have hosts and meals planned in London, Manchester, Sana’a, Paris and Berlin with interest from people in Montreal. I share the links to meals in each post here first so sign up if you’d like to come along or host.
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.