Today is my 1 year at
@DayOneVC
! 🎉
I'm immensely proud of the stories I'm bringing to life for our founders
This year, I secured 115 standalone stories (~80% are features), immersed myself into VC & grew a lot personally
A few learnings:
Just connected with a VC who started her career at an art auction house. A friendly reminder that there's no straight path to VC & that there is room for folks from all paths!
Do people actually build meaningful relationships from folks they meet at networking events?
I've met more valuable connections cold-reaching out on Twitter in the last few months than at happy hours
Only 1:1 convos or curated dinners for me from now on 🤔
@heyalexfriedman
I'm so sorry to hear this Alex :( my bf's aunt as diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer last year & passed away last month. It's a disease that's takes so much too quickly.
Life is short & tomorrow is not guaranteed.
If you've been impacted by tech layoffs and want to start a company,
@DayOneVC
will invest $100K into your startup idea
Top businesses will get $1M in follow-on capital
Deadline to apply is Fri, 11/25. DM me with any questions!
Spending two weeks in Mexico City in Feb. Staying in the Condesa/Roma Norte area!
would love recs for:
- yoga studios
- co-working spaces
- food obviously
- cool shit to do :)
super excited about this consumer brand... :)
martie is an online grocery store that partners w/ brands to sell surplus inventory at up to 70% off
has saved ppl $3.2M and 2M lbs of food from going to waste
e.g. Brightland olive oil 50% off rn 😲
Marc Benioff bought & held onto the domain for 24 yrs until he found an inheritor:
@RichardSocher
@YouSearchEngine
is the first search engine to incorporate LLMs, before Google or Microsoft!
Incredible story by
@pardesoteric
🚀
Earlier this year, I was struggling to juggle my life - my new job, my new relationship, working out, friends/family, personal needs, etc. My executive coach had me write a sage letter, from 80-year-old Jenny to 30 year-old Jenny. Here's what it included:
Let's get the facts straight:
@YouSearchEngine
has only been around since 2020 but is the first before Microsoft & Google to implement conversational AI into search
Today, they launch their next gen of YouChat incorporating chat, apps & links. Read more 👇
Gems from
@YungPueblo
:
- self-awareness turns you into a detective
- the heavy mental weight that you carry consumes a lot of energy
- craving is an attachment —> the root of suffering
- “what can I let go of today?”
- self love is a critical catalyst for change in the world
I've been extremely selective about the calls and meetings I'm taking this month.
Result: I've felt way more focused, present & intentional.
Less is more.
My POV on media training: it's so important, but there is such a thing as over-media training
Literally no one wants to hear marketing jargon
When in doubt, go back to the basics. How would you explain your company to a friend who has no knowledge of your space?
At dinner in Chinatown and there’s a guy w/ his group of non-Asian friends.
He’s clearly downplaying his ability to order in Chinese & joking about the food. I recognize this behavior because it used to be my own.
Reminder to embrace your heritage - it’s what makes us unique!
Was talking to a founder this AM about how women prefer female therapists around their same age, and men prefer older female therapists
I’m curious if there’s anyone who this *doesn’t* apply to and what your experience is?
i went to mexico city for the 1st time in 2021 and fell in love with the city
just lived there for 2.5 weeks and I got to immerse myself into the culture even more
some highlights ✨
@tashfene
@AliAbdaal
Challenging but inside our optimal zone of difficulty is key: in Atomic Habits, James Clear talks about the Goldilocks Rule, where humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities
Good article:
I always get super nostalgic moving out of apts. This will be my 5th move since graduating college.
I love how in every place we live in, we continue building the foundation for our future. In every home, our growth compounds.
Onto the next chapter ✌🏼
The
@HustleFundVC
demo day was so fun -
@ericbahn
in unicorn onesie acted like a TV host, leading w/ founder fun facts, hyping them up & doing Q&A after each pitch
100% founders were BIPOC &
@Stonks_dot_com
tech backbone helped build hype
This is how demo days should be
1/ Today,
@seriesfinancial
is announcing our modern, flexible ERP-alternative called an Enterprise Operating System (EOS) to automate finance & operations stacks for businesses to save them time and money, as well as our 25m in funding.
Amazing to read how
@erenbali
came from a Turkish apricot-farming village near the Iraqi border...
And is now building the world's largest hospital system (Carbon Health) and overhauling education for the masses (Udemy)
first book of 2023 - wow. made me cry.
a neurosurgeon is diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and goes from doctor to patient. explores concepts of identity, life & death
this special book is must read ✨
One of the biggest joys of working with
@brextonpham
is getting to know his personal story
The influence his resilient mom has had on him is undeniable
Love this story on how watching his mom own a nail salon taught him lessons for
@seriesfinancial
🙂
A day in the life of a comms VC:
- set up call w/ NYT for
- speak to game-changing menopause startup
- briefing w/ Fast Co for a rockstar founder
- talk to AI for medical records retrieval co
- talk to co using AL/ML for vagus nerve stimulation
- pitching
My mantra today in yoga class: “let go”
- let go of the shape (what it looks like), lean into the sensation (how you feel)
- let go of limiting beliefs that cause more stress than freedom
- let go of expectations of how things “should” be
- let go of what you can’t control
@myfriendjanine
i can relate! i chalk it up to getting older and feeling content / happy with spending alone time and focused time with the ppl I love versus constantly wanting more
I'm not exaggerating when I say I wear
@atoms
almost every day in NYC. It's the antithesis to fast fashion + focused on improving product at "atomic" level. Launching 1st product in 4 yrs tomorrow. Congrats
@sidraqasim
@waqasali
! Thank you
@elissavetam
Quote from my 5-minute journal this morning:
"Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay positive, good things and good people will be drawn to you"
- Mary Lou Retton
Food for thought on World Mental Health Day:
Your brain is a muscle & you should treat it accordingly
Stay curious. Investigate the waves of your thoughts & feelings
Whether you do yoga, meditate, journal, therapy/coaching, etc, schedule it on your cal as a mtg with yourself
It's chatGPT but better.
YouChat knows about recent events & cites sources so it's way more reliable. You can use the chat AI directly in
@YouSearchEngine
's search bar 🔎
Congrats to the team!
Today, youChat goes live.
Open, broadly capable, conversational AI for search with knowledge of recent events and citations of sources.
Search and chat of the future:
my spin instructor this morning had incredible energy and I left the class thinking about these important reminders:
- life should be fun
- don’t let other people’s opinions define you
- go after what lights a fire inside you
🔥
For a long time, I prioritized work and friends over family.
But our parents are only getting older! Can't delay spending quality time. Every time I come home (a few times/yr, NY -> CA), I try not to schedule calls over lunch & dinner so I can have every meal with them.
Starting the year w/ "The Daily Stoic" and today's lesson is: be ruthless to the things that don't matter
Say no to actions, people, events and even emotions that overwhelm your life
Strive for liberation (energizing) versus obligation (draining)
Asian female VCs (aka me) only deploy 1% of capital 🙄
Business schools may not help these stereotypes either - doing UC Berkeley’s VC exec program atm and disappointed to see that out of the 15 speakers so far, 0 have been female
I learned that couples who live together before marriage have an 80% higher chance of getting divorced than those who don't (18.7% vs 10.2%). Tbh I'm shocked!
If you're married, did you live w/ your partner before or after getting married?
v curious about strong POVs for both
You can learn a lot about a city’s community by going to a local yoga studio
Best yoga I’ve done lately is at a free, donation-based studio in a small suburb outside of Cleveland
There’s a certain type of thought & care that you rarely see at $32/class NYC studios anymore
I recently read "The Four Agreements" and these simple concepts are life-changing:
- Be impeccable with your word
- Don't take anything personally
- Don't make assumptions
- Always do your best
Here are my key takeaways of these lessons 👇
One of the best things we can do for ourselves is to protect our energy!
I never feel guilty for leaving an event after an hour or saying no to someone I don’t want to see
This way I can be more present and better show up for the relationships I want to invest in (incl myself)
Today's
@MyBFF
newsletter by
@CFair1
shows the (quite frankly) infuriating passive interest from male VCs when it comes to backing female founders
It's even worse in web3 + I think media can help with highlighting these founders too
When I kick off w/ a founder to learn about their company for PR, I always layer in personal questions.
One of our climate founders told me that at a 6th-grade bake sale, instead of bringing cookies, he made everyone watch "The Inconvenient Truth." Love these little nuggets!
Excited to finally get to share the finalists for our "Funded, Not Fired" program ‼️
We got to speak to so many inspiring, passionate founders who turned a challenging situation into motivation & undying fire
In Nov, we announced "Funded, Not Fired" to invest $100K into the startup ideas of those impacted by tech layoffs.
In addition to a rigorous application & due diligence process, we required 3 rounds of interviews and professional references.
Today we're revealing our winners👇
Never underestimate the impact of giving feedback
As investors, we turn down founders more often than we say yes, but taking 30 seconds to provide constructive feedback can be more pivotal than we think
@BlitzscalingY
you’ll build more resilience + learn to seek internal vs external validation, but you’ll go farther by surrounding yourself with ppl who root for you
We invested in
@WastedPBC
!
Wasted* is redesigning the porta-potty to turn human waste into fertilizer for local agriculture 💩
They’re harnessing the nutrients from our pee and poop → food for our crops
This was a fun one to work on :)
@xtinacomputes
people who brag, at least you can learn from them
but if your gut reaction is to be annoyed, it's important to catch your autopilot thinking and reframe e.g. "what's one thing I can learn from them in this conversation?"
Being creative & experiencing play is one of the biggest unlocks for finding inspiration at work.
Oftentimes, we're one-track minded about our goals but taking things so seriously doesn't actually improve performance.
What's one thing you can do this week that feels like play?
Day 1 of Converge on Climate, hosted by
@SanjivSanghavi
@DayOneVC
, bringing together 65+ future climate leaders to talk about the most pressing issues of our planet 🌎
sponsored by
@LiquidDeath
💦
Instead of organizing events by job industry (tech, finance), try doing it by personality type or theme (positivity, energy, vulnerability)
Then curate based on this context
This sets ppl up for deeper serendipitous connections
Love this tip from
@MikeMacCombie
, 👑 of hosting
I started working in VC earlier this year & felt deep imposter syndrome transitioning into the industry
I found an executive coach through
@joinskye
and worked with her for 6 months
Here are some of my reflections & learnings 🧵
If you're a founder working w/ a journalist on an announcement, a reminder to give them 2 weeks lead time.
At least. 3 weeks is even better.
Had a few reporters thank me for giving them advance lead time this week, which leads me to think not everyone does this!
@nic_detommaso
Jenny Chao
Investor and Director of Communications
@DayOneVC
(pre-seed / seed)
Focus on health tech (some consumer tech & future of work)
jenny
@dayoneventures
.com, DMs are open!
Damn, ok. So impressed by
@YouSearchEngine
's YouChat advancements
Definitely going to be using it for recipe ideas when I need to whip up random ingredients from my fridge 😅
Manage your energy like you manage your money. Be aware, understand it and adjust if needed - if you have something to give, expend. If you are running low, rest and save up
Really cool news from
@YouSearchEngine
:
is the first search engine using large language models to generate text, image & code 👀
Today they open up their platform! Developers & orgs can now contribute to the search results page
chatGPT is incredible for so much content but I hope comms professionals don't rely on it too much for writing messaging, especially junior pros who still need to build the muscle. Drafting differentiated and creative messaging is such an important skill!
In a different time zone this week & thank god for
@Superhuman
making it super easy for me to schedule across 3+ different time zones.
Or else I wouldn't make it to any of my calls correctly 😅
It's the little time-saving hacks for me.
One of my daily metrics of success is whether I got to go outside during the day, not just at the end of the day. Ever since I started doing this, my days have felt more rewarding
walking around roma norte & condesa made me so happy
one of my friends said: “the city is built around the trees and nature versus on top of it” which I thought was accurate
so beautiful and serene
My sage letter helps me look at my life more holistically, prioritize experiences & connection, reframe productivity guilt and ideas of success (easier said than done 🙂) and remember what really matters.
Would you rather start a company with your friend or be friends with your co-founder?
Or, would you rather work with your friends or be friends with your coworkers?
I prefer
#2
: boundaries are important, not being too comfortable = accountability, expands your network
Our seed-stage climate co is looking for its 1st marketing hire - need B2B SaaS & public sector experience. Incredible co. working to restore our world's forests & prevent catastrophic wildfires. Excellent leadership team from Netflix, Meta & Lyft (incl. ex-CPO of Netflix). Lmk!
Something I live by: relationships are not 50/50, they are 100/0. 50/50 means you expect the other person to pull their weight. You shouldn’t be in a relationship if it’s full of expectations