I’m a Forbes Midas List Top VC in the world ( #21 for 2019) and was earliest investor in startups valued at over $36B including Coinbase and Instacart.
Kanye West got started on an Amiga computer and an 8 bit sampler as a teenager. His obsession with creation helped create him too.
It turns out Kanye was always a founder with a DIY attitude! He is a true inspiration for those who want to create.
https://youtu.be/u7r8aOEAYRg
On the list of today's biggest cultural icons, there's no one quite like Kanye West. Today, we're going to teach YOU how to manifest YOUR dream life like Kan...
You can beat a Google the way Amazon does. Even a small startup can. Here’s how
https://youtu.be/9Fq15k9QPv8
Check out my portfolio company -- https://www.berbix.com -- for the fastest, most accurate way to integrate identity checks on your app or site.I have news f...
You deserve a secure and private online life. One where nobody can read your email or files except you.
The cloud is just other people’s computers. This is why Giri Sreenivas created Helm.
https://youtu.be/3csq0h59wuE
What if everything you do, say, or think was searchable by police and corporations? That's not fantasy - that is today. Helm prevents that with a $200 comput...
How do you get to product market fit 10X faster? By applying Amy Jo Kim’s game thinking product management approach: picking your users, lowfi story boarding and crisp customer journeys
My interview with her: youtu.be/dmv-nooN43U
Today I sat down with Amy Jo Kim, creator of Thinking TV and early designer of world class products including Rock Band, The Sims, Ultima Online, eBay ...
By default most founders are
😭 short term optimists (ignore bad ex*****on) and
🥴 long term pessimists (pick small problems)
Successful founders are the opposite—
🧐 short term pessimists (always improving) and
😎 long term optimists (pick big problems)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NYrsE_yW64
Did you know optimistic founders underperform their more pessimistic peers by 30%? Weird, right?
Why? Andy Grove says only the paranoid survive. There's a perfect mix for success you need to be aware of.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NYrsE_yW64&ab_channel=GarryTan
If you want to make something truly big, you'll realize you have to be a short term pessimist, and long term optimist. This is the opposite of what most woul...
The world doesn't want us to think from first principles. But you must learn to do so if you want to make the next DoorDash or Airbnb. In 3 Steps—
❓ Curiosity - Use Five Whys
🙇🏽♂️ Empathy - Experience what the customer experiences
⚖️ Serenity - To accept what you can't change
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viNZK9P40kY&ab_channel=GarryTan
What society imposes on us is the wrong kind of thinking: one that is based on analogy and credentialism instead of first principles thinking. But how do we ...
In 2010, I was sitting in Benchmark's office on Sand Hill Road raising our Series A and Peter Fenton asked us if Posterous was a platform or a network.
We said BOTH and the pitch meeting was over.
My lesson for founders in my newest vlog 👇
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pG6golMHPo
In 2010 I was pitching my startup for Series A to top tier investors like Peter Fenton at Benchmark. He asked me a question, and a very simple one. We said t...
Successful startups build long-lived teams (seamless web of trust)
🏆 NBA teams take 4.5 years of playing together to max their chance at a championship
📈 Investors invest in lines not dots
🏔 Long lived teams weather adversity best
NEW VLOG—https://youtu.be/xy4WdRfDyTs
How long have you been working with your team? How long do you think it takes to win championships? It takes a pro-level basketball team an average of 4.5 ye...
Imagine if Jean-Luc Picard never took risk! He'd never become who he was meant to be.
If you're a builder, the real risk in your career is not taking any risk at all. This week we talk career risk, learning, earning, and minimizing regret.
FULL VID— https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhYZECR2Ru8
Should you quit or job? What skills do you want to acquire? How do you evaluate how much you'll actually earn? If you're great at what you do, it turns out t...
If you’re the CEO of GEICO you have the luxury of only focusing on reality. Big company leaders can do this no problem. If you are creating reality you must both bend it and be able to see it as it is. This is why starting a company is far more difficult. —Warren Buffett
🗣 Tell them
❓ Discuss why
🔑 Set key results for success
🤝 Set priority and get buy in
💪 Give necessary authority
👌 Check in and follow up
One of my directs once told me in a 1:1 early in my career as a founder: "I've never been so disrespected in my career." 😩
I wasn't delegating, and we weren't aligned on goals/values. I was micromanaging.
The cure was delegation (6 steps)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XUZrWzFmIE
One of my direct reports once told me in a 1:1 early in my career as a founder: "I've never been so disrespected in my career." This was a wake-up call. I wa...
The golden rule is still good, but Postel's Law is what created the Internet and is pushing forward all of humanity
Everyone knows the golden rule. But do you know Postel's Law? Postel's Law is the guiding principle of the Internet. The Internet is rewriting everything we ...
How to roll your way to a billion dollar startup
What does an obscure 2004 Playstation 2 game teaches us about fast growing startups that reach product market fit? A lot.
https://blog.garrytan.com/roll-your-way-to-a-billion-dollar-startup-advice-for-founders-from-katamari-damacy
Hey guys, today we're going to talk about Katamari Damacy. I'm going to teach you how this obscure 2004 PlayStation 2 game will teach you how to create a billion dollar company. The gameThis...
No new vlog this week (too busy) but I did sit down with This Week in Startups to talk for an hour. Topics—
💰 founder secondary and the impact of first real money
🇺🇸 software as government: the power of platforms
⛽️ you should ask your lead investor about reserves
https://youtu.be/b5Xjsm_I1_M
Garry Tan, Managing Partner & Co-Founder of Initialized Capital, on dealing with downstream investors as a Seed-stage firm, software companies acting as gove...
How to fight instant pushback and get your ideas accepted (5 TIPS)
Can you program your own mind? Yes. Come learn how. I sat down with my former exec coach Cameron Yarbrough to talk about how to do exactly that. I wish I knew this stuff 20 years ago. Taking care of your mental health pays you back 100X. https://youtu.be/35UOGYlm7F8
Is it possible to reprogram your own mind? Yes, it is. Coaching, therapy, meditation, and group work are the keys to unlocking incredible potential. Trauma i...
You can't guarantee success, but you can increase the chances of it by working on these six skills for startup founders.
If at first you don’t succeed, try try again. Then quit. It’s no use being a damn fool about it. WC Fields said that, and that’s true for startups and founders as they make decisions about what customers to pursue, and what problems to solve. These are all linked. In this video we cover concrete ways to use timeboxing to improve your chances of finding startup gold.
How do you build a fast growing startup team that builds a world-class product? This is part two, focusing on management with empathy and how to build an organic remote work culture from scratch that is truly collaborative. Sh**un is one of the best companies in our portfolio that is doing it completely remotely. They have employees in 21 countries on 6 different continents working on their e-commerce page builder. This is a fast growing company driving real revenue, and building one of the best engineering cultures we've ever seen.
My colleague Katelin Holloway (partner at Initialized, formerly head of people at multi-billion dollar startup Reddit) sits down with Sh**un cofounders Finbarr Taylor (former engineer at Y Combinator) and Nick Raushenbush (former cofounder of famed video production co Glass & Marker) and they talk through all the things that they did to succeed.
How do you identify a weak startup pitch, and then what do you do about it? How do you push past that moment of maximum disillusionment?
The path forward lies in the weak answers themselves. Ask yourself how focus on technology/software can make things better/faster/cheaper.
It's not enough to be pointed at a particular direction. You need to have a very clear reason why you will win. This is a list of questions you should ask yourself before picking a startup idea.
Weak answers to these questions might mean you need to change ideas... on the other hand, they focus you to figure out the things you need to solve so your startup becomes a winning one.
A big idea pointed in the right direction is not enough. Should you work on that startup idea? You've got to ask: Why me, and why now?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gccAOuGRdU
It's not enough to be pointed at a particular direction. You need to have a very clear reason why you will win. This is a list of questions you should ask yo...
🏃🏻♀️ Run a fast process to hire the best
💵 Don't try to cheap out on offers— you get what you pay for
🤝 Always pay for trial work! Be fair to candidates.
🛫 Onboarding starts with the application & interviews— don't waste candidate time
What skills do you need to go from software engineering to a product role?
A PM must help make clear tradeoffs between business needs, user needs, and what is technically achievable.
Add business knowledge, and empathy for customers to great engineering knowhow and then... 🛫
Just posted a Q&A vlog with questions from you all, coming at you from my backyard while sheltering-in-place...
🤹♀️ How does an engineer switch to a product role?
📸 Google vs Apple vs Amazon
💸 How D2C requires intense focus on CAC
FULL VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd9DD4t85fM&feature=youtu.be
What’s up everyone? I thought I would do some questions from the community. Here’s a quick sample of what we talk about: 🤹♀️ How does an engineer switch to ...
Coming soon: a 20 minute masterclass on how Algolia created some of the best developer onboard experiences I have ever seen — Subscribe to my YouTube and click the bell 🛎 icon to get notified when this episode drops! https://YouTube.com/garrytan
Andrew Lee shares with us these 5 tips—
🤝Cultivate partnerships with acquirers
🔨Go through product not corp dev
🛫Extend your runway
🗣Stage your interviews to protect your team from M&A burnout
⏱Check refs to get more time for BATNAs
Full vid—https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJo_7-Rn1wc
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By default most founders are 😭 short term optimists (ignore bad execution) and 🥴 long term pessimists (pick small problems) Successful founders are the opposite— 🧐 short term pessimists (always improving) and 😎 long term optimists (pick big problems) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NYrsE_yW64
🗣 Tell them ❓ Discuss why 🔑 Set key results for success 🤝 Set priority and get buy in 💪 Give necessary authority 👌 Check in and follow up
How to fight instant pushback and get your ideas accepted (5 TIPS)
You can't guarantee success, but you can increase the chances of it by working on these six skills for startup founders.
If at first you don’t succeed, try try again. Then quit. It’s no use being a damn fool about it. WC Fields said that, and that’s true for startups and founders as they make decisions about what customers to pursue, and what problems to solve. These are all linked. In this video we cover concrete ways to use timeboxing to improve your chances of finding startup gold.
How do you build a fast growing startup team that builds a world-class product? This is part two, focusing on management with empathy and how to build an organic remote work culture from scratch that is truly collaborative. Shogun is one of the best companies in our portfolio that is doing it completely remotely. They have employees in 21 countries on 6 different continents working on their e-commerce page builder. This is a fast growing company driving real revenue, and building one of the best engineering cultures we've ever seen. My colleague Katelin Holloway (partner at Initialized, formerly head of people at multi-billion dollar startup Reddit) sits down with Shogun cofounders Finbarr Taylor (former engineer at Y Combinator) and Nick Raushenbush (former cofounder of famed video production co Glass & Marker) and they talk through all the things that they did to succeed.
How do you identify a weak startup pitch, and then what do you do about it? How do you push past that moment of maximum disillusionment? The path forward lies in the weak answers themselves. Ask yourself how focus on technology/software can make things better/faster/cheaper.
It's not enough to be pointed at a particular direction. You need to have a very clear reason why you will win. This is a list of questions you should ask yourself before picking a startup idea. Weak answers to these questions might mean you need to change ideas... on the other hand, they focus you to figure out the things you need to solve so your startup becomes a winning one.
🏃🏻♀️ Run a fast process to hire the best 💵 Don't try to cheap out on offers— you get what you pay for 🤝 Always pay for trial work! Be fair to candidates. 🛫 Onboarding starts with the application & interviews— don't waste candidate time
What skills do you need to go from software engineering to a product role? A PM must help make clear tradeoffs between business needs, user needs, and what is technically achievable. Add business knowledge, and empathy for customers to great engineering knowhow and then... 🛫
Andrew Lee shares with us these 5 tips— 🤝Cultivate partnerships with acquirers 🔨Go through product not corp dev 🛫Extend your runway 🗣Stage your interviews to protect your team from M&A burnout ⏱Check refs to get more time for BATNAs Full vid—https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJo_7-Rn1wc
When and how should you sell your startup? M&A (mergers & acquisitions) are always a high stress process, and there are a lot of things you have to consider when you are trying to get a startup exit executed in the right way. Garry's startup Posterous was sold to Twitter for $20M and Andrew Lee's startup was sold to Zynga too. As venture capitalists today we work with more than a hundred startups from the earliest possible stage to now a total market value of over $36 billion. We've seen nearly every kind of startup exit and regularly try to help founders as they navigate these problems. This short video encompasses a lot of the advice we end up giving frequently to our community. — See the full video (link in bio) or youtube.com/garrytan
What should you do if they steal your startup idea?
Parker Conrad, founder of Rippling on remote work: "Remote work is the worst way to build a company, except for all the others. It's really not possible to build engineering teams at scale in the Bay Area right now."
What does Bill Murray really want? 👌To be present, really here, really alive 📺 To not always want to be changing the channel 🕰 To be in the moment And it’s all available to you in your body and mind. 🙏
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