A Recap of 2022
Reviewing the pieces I wrote, asking for feedback, and planning for a great 2023
As the year end approaches, it is always a good time to rest, reflect, and refactor! This year was a wild one:
Joined a high growth startup
Wrote 12 pieces for over 35,000 words
Made my first ~3-5 startup investments (albeit small checks)
Almost 4x’d the newsletter audience
Not to mention, I have met some wonderful people along the way! Given ~75-80% of my subscribers joined throughout this year, I thought it would be fun to share a full recap of my 2022 writing. Like, comment, share. If you enjoy the piece, then show it! Helps the audience grow.
In addition, I am always trying to improve. I do not profit off this newsletter. This is primarily a learning mechanism. So… if you have 3-5 minutes, you can A) email me feedback (or writing requests!) by responding to this email or B) submit it anonymously to the link below.
Feel free to be as honest as you would like. I spent years in a college and professional baseball locker room. You will not hurt my feelings! Front of mind for me in 2023:
Increase # of pieces: I only covered six new startups. The industry pieces (e.g., SpaceX & Sutter Hill Ventures) perform really well; I want to still do ~3-4 of those, but I had a few that took months of time, and that slowed my writing pace mid-year significantly
Follow-ups: I want every company I write about to be one I support and follow for years; I want to revisit some of my 2021 pieces and provide deeper dive updates
Keep growing: From <100 people for the first six month to almost passing 2k subscribers. And the open rate is extremely high (so thank you all). All of this with pretty infrequent posting. I am less concerned on absolute # of subscribers, and I would rather focus on growing engagement + quality of this group
Now, for the pieces from 2022:
AMP Robotics: A Vision To Sort Out Our Broken Recycling Process (1.21)
Humans are on an unsustainable trajectory of waste creation. Most of this waste has value, so why do we continue to throw it away? It is cheaper. Waste is still sorted by hand. This leads to high costs and low quality. Low quality means resale value is low. AMP Robotics, however, is leveraging cutting-edge vision systems, high-end robotics, and a central neural network to improve the throughput, quality, and cost profile of sorting waste. This will eventually make recycling a profitable business, dramatically improving the financial incentives to reclaim waste. Read the full piece here.
Eight Women Tackling The Climate Crisis (2.18)
Data shows that women are under-represented in venture capital funded companies. In climate tech in particular, there are many amazing female founders leading the charge. Here is a recap of eight creating particularly interesting companies.
The Next Chapter: Joining Replit (3.3)
At the end of February, I decided to put my money where my mouth was. After writing about and following Replit for 12 months, I decided to leave Boston Consulting Group to join Replit. From a cushy consulting job to a Series B startup in the middle of a tech downturn :). I would not have it any other way. In this piece, I outline why I chose Replit.
Sigma Computing: The seven year journey to build the ultimate business intelligence tool (3.11)
The Sigma Computing story is fascinating. Originated by Sutter Hill Ventures. Experienced founding team. Spent three years prototyping and testing. Meets with Snowflake. Tears it all up and builds a new prototype. Then takes three more years to build the product. Now, you can have a spreadsheet interface directly on your cloud data warehouse. This may not seem necessary, but it is an extraordinary unlock.
Sutter Hill Ventures: The Silent Builders of Silicon Valley (4.1)
In the middle of Silicon Valley, Sutter Hill Ventures (SHV) has quietly been originating and scaling massive software companies. Most notably, the firm has created Pure Storage, Snowflake, Sila Nanotechnologies, and Lacework. Led by Mike Speiser, each year, SHV originates 1-3 companies, and they seem to have a relatively consistent approach. In this piece, I take all of the publicly available data points to tell their story and process.
Ursa Major: Propelling the US to the frontier of space & national security (4.29)
For decades, the space industry has relied on Russian-made RD-series rocket engines. The engines are old, but they get the job done. This, however, poses many problems. First, we can produce higher quality engines with newer technology. Second, these engines create a foreign dependency. Given recent geopolitical activity, we certainly do not want that. For the past few years, Ursa Major has been building the propulsion lab and engine suite to change this.
unspun: localizing the global apparel supply chain (7.1)
Every item of clothing you wear likely traveled thousands of miles to be produced. The raw materials were sourced somewhere in the world. They likely went to mills in China. Then proceeded to Bangladesh to be sewn by workers with terrible conditions. Ultimately, the clothing is shipped back to the US, routed to a department store, and purchased… only to have a 30% chance it is not sold or returned. Then it ends in a landfull. unspun is building a jean brand, state-of-the-art software, and a new spool-like manufacturing machine that can help us localize and personalize clothing production, on-shoring production AND removing carbon footprint.
In Money We Trust - Published via The Archive (9.9)
What better way to celebrate the implosion of cryptocurrency than write a bull case on it? That’s just what I did. Despite being in a crypto winter, I believe digital currency has a strong role in our future. In this piece, I walk through the history of money as a technology, and I outline current macro-factors. The combination of the two strongly support the trend towards a long-term digital currency solution. Check this piece out directly on The Archive.
Anduril: Fixing the Broken Sword of US Defense (9.23)
Defense is one of the largest and most controversial spaces in the US. But if we take a step back, a few things become clear. The industry is slowing. Innovation is decreasing. And our adversaries continue to become stronger. You’re likely to see more technology in a Tesla than any military vehicle currently in the field. Anduril is changing that. Building a software-savvy, autonomous vehicle fleet that offers seamless and intelligent defense solutions.
The SpaceX Effect (Part I) - Companies founded by SpaceX Alumni (11.18)
Elon Musk has produced some of the most innovative companies of our lifetime. Despite hundreds of billions of market value, I am not sure this is the biggest benefit he has delivered. In the process of building his companies, Musk has trained thousands of engineers to build large-scale hardware. This comes at a time where many of these industries were declining in the US. This piece highlights all of the SpaceX alumni that have progressed to building their own companies.
The SpaceX Effect (Part II) - The Culture Behind SpaceX (12.2)
In Part I, we discuss the amazing companies that SpaceX alumni are building, but what is it about SpaceX that builds this prolific alumni network? In Part II, we cover the ten principles of SpaceX’s building culture.
Knowde: The Central Knowledge Node of Chemicals (12.16)
Everything you know and use is made of chemicals. It is a colossal industry, and it powers much of our economy. But with all of the digital innovation we have had, very little of it has transformed the chemical industry. Today, research & development teams have to scrape through siloed information on Google. The process is laborious and very ineffective. Even if they do find good information, they then need to pick up the phone and hope to get in touch with sales representatives. The entire process takes time. Knowde is changing this. They are creating a two-sided marketplace that centralizes and structures all of this chemical information.
Pieces from 2021
Anchorage: $350M to further integrate digital assets into the global economy
Replit: Raising $80M to build the global computing platform of the future
Cover: Raising a $60M Series B to Manufacture the home of the future
Eight Education-focused Startups That Should Make You Optimistic About the Future
DoNotPay: The Robotic Lawyer Fighting For Consumers and Driving Institutional Transparency
Hugging Face: The Artificial Intelligence Community Building the Future
Varda Space: The Space Manufacturer Set To Revolutionize Life On Earth