🥹🥹🥹 It was an absolute joy talking to of about how we co-wrote our Gen AI thesis with GPT-3 (and how I am bad at Twitter, among other things). Thank you, Biz!!
PS: hard at work updating the market map, ready monday :)
Ravi Gupta’s Tweets
Sometimes athletes have to decide between doing what's best for the team's success or their individual success. This dynamic doesn't exist within startups - the only thing that matters is making sure your team wins.
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Steph talking about his role in solving what Steve Kerr says is the biggest crisis the Warriors have faced together. My favorite part: "My job is to maintain the joy, the perspective, but also the expectation that we can get through it" His leadership is as good as his shooting.
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Steph Curry opens up on the scramble to bring the Warriors back together after Draymond's punch “You realize what conversations need to be had & there’s patience involved...There were some hard days. There could be some more coming"
Watch the full convo: youtu.be/2IQ43HeMKY0
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Hiring is critically important to get right...and so easy to get wrong. I wrote about why aggressive hiring is often counterproductive and what you can do about it. This also includes the single best hiring advice I've ever received.
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So cool.
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Making movies fully with AI-generated frames! 
twitter.com/fabianstelzer/…
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Favorites: "We have what it takes to win", "We win together", "We look each other in the eye", "Our value is not measured in playing time", "This is fun", "We have no bad practices", and of course, "We are the best team in the world and we represent the best country in the world"
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I think about this all the time. Set goals in weeks, not quarters. 2 years is ~100 weeks. Every one of those counts.
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A little part of me dies inside any time I see a product roadmap measured in quarters. My usual response is can we convert those to weeks.
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Had a blast talking to my friend about my favorite saying: “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” Thanks for having me, Patrick!
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My conversation with @GuptaRK22
Our whole conversation is about focus and the value of keeping the main thing the main thing
This is a business discussion, but also a life discussion, with someone that’s thought a lot about both
Enjoy!
joincolossus.com/episodes/87892
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This was excellent. What a wonderful articulation of what it feels like to be a part of something bigger than yourself. Thanks for sharing
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Fantastic essay by @zebriez. Captured my experience perfectly (despite how painful the 2015 era she cited was, it remains one of my favorite periods at the company too.) twitter.com/paulg/status/1…
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The reaction of Steph’s teammates when he won MVP is such an incredible testament to his leadership. I love sports.
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Read more about from . Also check out we came to be partners with and Sunil. sequoiacap.com/article/partne
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New story out today on a company called @meter - bloomberg.com/news/articles/ - and a few thoughts to go with it . . .
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11/ This is a crucible moment: My friend sent me a note at one of Instacart’s crucible moments. It ended with “You have a chance to become anti-fragile. How lucky you are.” I would echo his sentiments here. This is a painful time. It is also an amazing opportunity. Go get it.
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10/ Invest in Product: Product improvements are your way out of this. Focus on i) increasing organic growth (or make it easier to sell without heavy S&M), and ii) increasing user and dollar retention. Unlock spend when you have the right efficiency and payback metrics.
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9/ Efficient growth is what matters: Accept that growth rate will decrease with the efficiency and payback constraints. Everyone has been buying some of their growth with inefficient spend. By extending runway, you buy yourself time to build from a stronger foundation.
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8/ Your P&L will show if you’re improving profitability: If you’re losing money, you want EBITDA as a % of revenue to be improving every year.
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7/ Metrics that matter for transaction based businesses: Unit economics (positive / improving), 12-month user retention (stable / improving in new cohorts), transactions/user for the retained user (smiling cohorts). Payback periods of <12 months will also help.
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6/ People will look at certain metrics to judge whether your growth is durable: If you’re a SaaS company, three metrics that matter: NNARR / S&M, NNARR / Burn, and Net Dollar Retention. Excellent is 2, 2, and 150%. Good is 1, 1, and 120%.
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5/ Free Cash Flow is the destination: Ultimately, investors are underwriting your ability to durably produce free cash flow. In order to believe that, they need to see durable growth and improving profitability.
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4/ You need more runway than you think: Many companies think they have enough runway. They don’t. It takes a long time to triple valuation (if you are targeting a flat round) in a rational market. It might take 4+ years to do this. If that’s true, you need 5+ years of cash.
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3/ Embrace reality: If you believe the above point does not apply to you, I would encourage you to compare the implied revenue multiple of your proposed valuation to Snowflake’s, who has $1.4bn of revenue, 102% YoY growth and 27% FCF margins.
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2/ Your valuation is not what you thought it was: This market change may not be your fault, but it is your problem. If you raised in 2021, your company might be worth something like ⅓ of your last valuation.
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1/ This is a correction: The MS unprofitable tech index is down ~65% since Dec 21. That is a big drop but it brought multiples to historical averages. No one knows where markets will go but current multiples are much closer to durable reality than what we saw the past two years.
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Many private companies are seeing the market and wondering what it means. Here are some thoughts on how to navigate this. Anything useful is based on the experiences of my teammates at Sequoia and the incredible founders who have survived/thrived in all markets:
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In a market like this, your metrics need to speak for themselves. The best companies will embrace this reality and emerge stronger. Here are some thoughts on how to do it:
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“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing” :) twitter.com/laserlikemike/
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Proud of our guys. Thank you, Coach K. Thinking of this today. The whole family will be wearing our Duke shirts tomorrow.
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What a wonderful articulation of what focus is.
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The quote I think about the most often recently:
“What focus is, saying no to something that with every bone in your body you think is a phenomenal idea. And you wake up thinking about it, but you say no to it. Because you are focusing on something else.”
– Jony Ive
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Promotion Cultures: jackealtman.com/promotion-cult
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well here’s a bit of delight from my partner and the inimitable thetwentyminutevc.com/luciana-lixand
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Thanks for having me! Can’t believe we ended up going for so long - must have been a good conversation:)
open.spotify.com/episode/1KIwuo
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This week I interviewed my good friend @GuptaRK22.
Ravi was:
- Previously CFO/COO of @Instacart
- Currently a General Partner at @sequoia
Here’s 15 timeless lessons he shared with me on operating + investing in generational companies:
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Something a little different today as we approach Coach K’s last game at Cameron.
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STEPH!!!!!!
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Two of my favorite people discussing what makes one of my favorite companies so special. Proud to be on the journey with and . Worth the listen.
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Had a ton of fun with @HarryStebbings. A British accent is such an advantage for an interviewer. The whole thing felt very sophisticated. thetwentyminutevc.com/max-rhodes/
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Love this. Unreasonable responsibility!Find people who can play and then give them more responsibility than they know what to do with. The best always surprise you with their capacity.
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The most important competency for a startup is the ability to identify undiscovered talent and to then have the conviction to bet on them with unreasonable responsibility.
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