Koko Xsu @kokoxsu Twitter profile

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Koko Xsu

1 year

Two years in the making, thousands of hours of research, hundreds of conversations, three startups, and two investing jobs later, here is my Unified Theory of Deep Tech 🧵 - How to invest in deep tech? - Why now? - Interesting markets? - Common pitfalls?

Deep Dive into Deep Tech | Notion

Overview

kokoxu.notion.site

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Last Seen Profiles

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

8 months

Thiel was founding investor of OpenAI

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

8 months

University is spending 8 weeks on 6 youtube video's worth of content

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

2 months

27yo Edison couldn’t find work bc he lacked a degree

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

2 months

If u wanna invest in deep tech, invest in: - defense 18mo ago - semis 12mo ago - robotics 6mo ago - neuro today

Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

2 months

Defense is no longer a good place to invest. 6/8/2024

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

I’ve now joined @Lux_Capital 🤓

Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

2 years

I've now researched all @Lux_Capital portcos, here's part 2 of top 5 highest "Wait What Scores": 1. @relativityspace : 3D printed rockets Relativity's Terran R is a fully reusable LEO rocket 3D printed in its Factory of the Future with the largest 3D metal printer in the world.

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

The greats

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

5 months

Robotics will be all the hype in 2 yrs

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

Is no one else freaking out about this 🤯 DoD’s new Office of Strategic Capital that has a Small Business Administration which is matching 2:1 private LP commitments towards deep tech funds

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

20min and $1 later my gpt scientist skimmed 5k research papers from the last 3 weeks and picked out the 750 with commercial potential

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

2 years

I've now researched 100 @Lux_Capital portcos, here are my top 5 highest "Wait What Scores": 1. CTRL-Labs: non-invasive BMI for mind control With a wrist-wore device, neural signals are picked up and processed allowing users to control devices with just thoughts.

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

3 months

Math degree at 20 ✅

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

3 months

Just read this piece - @shaunmmaguire believed in me when I was barely 20 before I believed in myself. Grateful

The Musk Whisperer

On Oct. 17, several executives in tech contacted Sequoia Capital managing partner Roelof Botha, all making the same simple demand: Fire Shaun Maguire. Maguire, a 38-year-old partner at Sequoia, had...

www.theinformation.com

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

2 months

Bull shit. Long Mach, long Ethan, long America, short legacy media, short communism, short bureaucracy

Forbes

@Forbes

2 months

Investors Gave A Teenager $85 Million To Build Hydrogen Weapons. It’s Not Going Well

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

2 months

🇺🇸🦅❤️💙

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

4 months

Top 15 most valuable companies in the world 7 venture backed 8 deep tech

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

Every three months I'm astonished by how dumb I was three months ago

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

2 years

My personal investing thesis: Preemptive Infra. 10 areas in AI I'll be watching in 2023: 1. QA/fact checking services for LLMs. - Tech trend: all-interfaces-conversational - Emerging problem: misinformation.

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

8 months

@sethbannon Developers!

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

@rabois should you delegate or overrule when: 1. High consequence decision + low conviction in own judgement + high task-specific maturity of employee in question 2. High consequence decision + low conviction in own judgement + low task-specific maturity of employee in question

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

Firing up @k2pilot ’s engine

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

Three weeks in at Lux and the mentorship has been insane. Was studying up on notes and here are some gems so far

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

8 months

Graduated!

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

Super impressed by ALOHA’s precision, latency, and intuitiveness! (cc @tonyzzhao )

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

Only ~7-8% of startups backed by a tier-1 fund end up achieving venture-scale outcomes

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

Everybody deep tech now huh

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

Learning about defense and space at MIT x HBS conference this weekend 🤺🛰️ Also got to meet and hang with @bznotes @MichelleVolz @isaachasson @CameronLMcCord @McCreadieWill @nathanbenaich

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

A key skill I learned in the past month has been building the muscle to recognize that some 100x technologies are really marginal improvements. Many breakthrough sciences outperform benchmarks by orders of magnitude, but the advantage gets squeezed when they become startups.

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

2 months

A textbook great day

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

9 months

The most under appreciated shocking trend in venture rn is the % of investors who only do SaaS. It’s like being an investor in Q4 1991 and still only doing semi/bio deals and refusing to touch internet infra

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

NYC @ZFellows_ game night!

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

In the last months I started internalizing TAM on decks as competition adjusted. Ie $10B market in obscure manufacturing niche w/ 2 existing players where tech breakthrough req’d to enter is bigger TAM than $100B devtools market w/ 250 existing solutions where any SWE can enter

Shaun Maguire

@shaunmmaguire

1 year

I'm still surprised by how often I get sent decks from companies going into tiny but highly competitive markets. Oftentimes they're seduced by a sexy idea or problem, such as monitoring space debris or building a niche developer tool.

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

Was listening to @AcquiredFM on bike ride to work this morning, walk into the office and see Ben + David in the conference room just chilling 😅

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

19 days

Subletting my nyc apartment 7/22-8/11, flatiron area (29th & 6th), fully furnished bedroom and master bath with one roommate and one cat. Lots of books Plz DM!

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

Some timeless categories of investments that I've seen a lot from studying venture history: 1. Do things faster --> use software/automation to replace or improve traditionally manual tasks (Stripe, Figma, Zapier, Formic, RunwayML, etc)

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

Bilal Zuberi

@bznotes

1 year

When the newest member of Lux team cooks up an incredible steak meal. @koko_xu_

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

Learned today that li-on batteries weren't developed until the 1990s, by Sony! <15 years later Eberhart introduced the Tesla Roadster. Really puts into perspective that we're still in the early innings of battery tech.

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

This morning learned about: Intelligent robotic arms Quantum AI Diffusion for protein design From experts in each field. Pretty great to be working at @Lux_Capital

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

KP Fund 1 breakdown

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

2 years

Thanks @miggi

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

2 years

Met @reidhoffman tn 😎

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

"For a startup, inertia is your enemy until momentum becomes your friend" - @rabois

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

2 years

I've now researched all @Lux_Capital portcos, here's part 2 of top 5 highest "Wait What Scores": 1. @relativityspace : 3D printed rockets Relativity's Terran R is a fully reusable LEO rocket 3D printed in its Factory of the Future with the largest 3D metal printer in the world.

Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

2 years

I've now researched 100 @Lux_Capital portcos, here are my top 5 highest "Wait What Scores": 1. CTRL-Labs: non-invasive BMI for mind control With a wrist-wore device, neural signals are picked up and processed allowing users to control devices with just thoughts.

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104

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

Talent follows capital 3-5 years late --> expect lots of noise in deep tech in the next few years and most software crossovers will lose $

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

🇺🇸

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

2 months

We’re tackling noninvasive mind reading @The_Mind_Co . Please dm me if you’re: - a swe/ml eng/ee/meche - in broader bay area - native english speaker Looking for summer engineers and participants for data collection trials!

Mind Company

The Mind Company

www.mindcompany.ai

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

To operate or to invest, that is the question.

Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

To grad school or not to grad school, that is the question.

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

Lux team at great @fiftyyears HQ!

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

8 months

Startups I wish I’d led the first round in: SpaceX Square Benchling Applied Intuition Anduril Watershed

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

I'm more excited about the secondary effects of LLMs on Robotics, Biotech, and Material Science than LLMs themselves

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

Back to learning 📚

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

I’m excited by: Aerospace & Defense Robotics Materials Sensors Neurotech Plz dm if you’re building in those spaces!

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

Sharing some WIP market research that @BrianMikeWu and I have been working on: 🤖 Robotics is benefitting from decreasing hardware costs + increasing software capabilities --> many application opportunities in agriculture, consumer, industrial etc

Robotics Landscape | Notion

Overview

kokoxu.notion.site

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

4 months

Cigarettes, coffee, and math at all hours

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

8 months

I spent 2 years answering this question. More research on this topic:

Leo Polovets

@lpolovets

8 months

Since I'm investing in deep tech & critical national sectors via our fund @humbavc , I wanted to better understand if deep tech is VC-fundable. So, I did what any engineer would: I analyzed data! TLDR: deep tech is probably the best place to invest today.

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 month

3 week fundraising sprint starting now!

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

3 months

Can attest that @DStrachman is one of the best resources for young founders and a great human! When young founders ask me for inception/preseed investor recs Danielle and @cory are the two I bring up most often

Brayton Williams ⏻

@BraytonKey

3 months

Random shoutout to @1517fund ! (🫡 @DStrachman ) 1517 is the most consistent name brought up amongst young, technical, super ambitious founders with just ideas to make a dent on the universe! And thus we keep finding ourselves co-investing 🤝

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

5 months

A perhaps controversial hill I’ll die on

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

Lux principles: Chips on shoulders puts chips in pockets Failure = failure to imagine failure Believe before others understand Great talk @wolfejosh

ETL Speaker Series: Josh Wolfe, Lux Capital

Josh Wolfe co-founded Lux Capital to support scientists and entrepreneurs who pursue counter-conventional solutions to the most vexing puzzles of our time in...

www.youtube.com

Lux Capital

@Lux_Capital

1 year

Great talk from our @wolfejosh at #StanfordETL today about why most entrepreneurs are risk killers, why we like to invest in things where there’s time arbitrage & why an entrepreneur should be comfortable being a contrarian

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 month

Today is day 1 of year 6 of writing down exactly what I did everyday since 2019

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

Looking to crowdsource ideas. What can we do if we have embeddings of all scientific literature? Maybe ask gpt to cross-pollinate ideas from disjoint fields? Resurface old research that's relevant again? Algorithmically discover promising drug candidates in biopharma literature?

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

2 years

Tempted to just make my entire NYU research a @Lux_Capital portco analysis

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

Give an intelligent + driven + charismatic founder near zero cost of capital and just let them cook

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

24 days

Two years ago I built my first BCI app with Muse. It was a $250 4-channel headset. Today, @rayhanfahmed and @The_Mind_Co team are excited to launch Hans, a $499 16-channel EEG headset with comparable performance to OpenBCI's $3699 16-channel headset.

Mind Company

@The_Mind_Co

25 days

Yesterday was the 100th anniversary of the first human EEG recording by Hans Berger. Today we’re excited to introduce Hans🧠, the world’s first affordable, research-grade, non-invasive mind reading EEG headset. Hans can be used for a variety of EEG tasks, including

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

2 years

Met @sama today. Watching yc startup school on YouTube over covid was the reason I got into tech/startups, crazy

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

8 months

Oh and charging $10k for it

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

2 months

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

2 months

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

8 months

Historic deficit + QT = more bonds for private investors Inverted yield curve = less bond demand from fund managers + more market volatility => more bond demand from risk-averse LPs => need to sell liquid assets (equities) => denominator effect => less VC allocations? @wolfejosh

Josh Wolfe

@wolfejosh

8 months

4/ a REALIST view of the FUTURE is that scientists, engineers and founders will shape it into a MORE desirable place we all wish to live in–– —which will also be far LESS rosy than techno-optimist utopianist hallucinations

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

7 months

Exactly 1yr since joining @ZFellows_ & awesome growth. Best young folks network out there!

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

Focus areas: —> Biotech, quantum, telecom, materials —> AI, network systems, microelectronics, space, renewables, computing, human machine interfaces —> Directed energy, hypersonics, sensors As a young investor it’s never been clearer why DEEP TECH is the next gen fund returner

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

3am in Austin

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

Whoa Bard

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

6 months

Software was known to be “too capital intensive” in the early 80s

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

I don’t think there’s one optimized way to spend time as a VC, just leave enough room for serendipity and see what happens Prepared mind + curated serendipity is the job

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

Lux squad!

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

2 years

Trying something out with @fattah_zaid We want to highlight some AI deals that happened in the past week, so founders and investors know the market price and what others are building/investing in. Let us know if you're interested in reading this weekly 👇🧵

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

💣

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

2 years

Thanks @wolfejosh @Lux_Capital for coming out to speak @nyuniversity @nyueeg ! Great chat!

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

Releasing "Paradise Portfolio" 🪽 Finally got a chance to break down my definition of "Deep Tech". The most common one is "taking majority tech risk", but I argue it's much more. Deep Tech = Tech-Centric Frontier Markets. How they perform financially👇

Paradise Portfolio

Paradise Portfolio Name,Category,Liquid/Latest Val,Description,Year Founded,Timeline,Seed,Seed Post,Seed Ownership,Seed Total EV,A,A Post,A Ownership,A Total EV,Agg PIC,Agg Ownership,Agg Total...

docs.google.com

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

2 years

Starting to realize that as a young person learning is always the top priority. Building is great but only if it helps facilitate learning, and learning breaks the barriers on what can be built.

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

2 months

Defense is no longer a good place to invest. 6/8/2024

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

If only someone spent the last two years researching this…

David Ulevitch 🇺🇸

@davidu

1 year

What are good example of GREAT venture-backed companies since 2000 that aren't significantly software-enabled? I know there are many that aren't venture-backed, but just looking for VC-backed examples.

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

6 months

A disproportionate number of my smartest 18-22 year old friends are into neurotech Extremely bullish on neuro as an industry in 3-7 years

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

Palmer Luckey Chris Power Delian Asparouhov

Shahin Farshchi

@Farshchi

1 year

1/ Experienced founders have a competitive edge in building companies in their industries, but what people don’t realize is that many of the greatest companies were founded by OUTSIDERS – no experience required. Here’s 5 examples and the method they use to succeed: 🧵

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

7 months

People don’t tend to take you seriously when you’re 20

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

7 months

Good vibes

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

2 years

Back to back! Had a blast chatting with @grant__gregory @a16z about 🇺🇸Dynamism @nyuniversity @nyueeg today

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

24 days

Back in nyc after weeks of travel. Finally able to do some deep work! Reading thinking writing

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

2 years

Our first in-person event in 2+ years… started off with a bang 💥

Josh Wolfe

@wolfejosh

2 years

❤️ NYU 🔋 great energy… 📈 …from awesome crew of future entrepreneurs + investors

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

7 months

Really enjoy truly unique and deeply thought-through fund theses. Like an intellectual breath of fresh air @Lux_Capital @bedrock @a16z @ThriveCapital all have very different but extremely clever approaches

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer won’t just be a movie it’ll become a personality (mine)

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 month

Join MindCo! We're a team of 8 working out of a 3-acre ranch in the mountains and provide food and living. Come work with us if you want to GSD across ML, SWE, EE, ME, data collection, and growth/ops. Please don't apply if you want work-life balance.

Mind Company Jobs

jobs.ashbyhq.com

Mind Company

@The_Mind_Co

1 month

Join MindCo!

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

Transcribe frame

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

3 months

Ambient deal flow: Steve Jang met Brian Armstrong on a plane Ben Sun met Coupang founder playing basketball Delian sourced Ramp cofounder playing video games

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

5 months

Tesla SpaceX OpenAI Twitter PayPal Neuralink The Boring Company xAI Zip2 SolarCity

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

2 years

We need more deep tech

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

Big reason Kleiner and Perkins succeeded was they pioneered the modern fund structure, which they were able to do because they were LPs themselves! After the Fairchild stint they became LPs in Rock & Davis and felt the “dead cows” pain points. Aka know your customers

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

8 months

Main takeaways from reading financial/investing history: 1. No strategy is evergreen 2. All great investors became great by outperforming in down markets - 2a. corr: relative > absolute performance - 2b. corr: consistency = longevity 3. The whole industry is spanking new

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Koko Xsu

@kokoxsu

1 year

Saw Oppenheimer again last night with the @Mach_Industries team Takeaway is the power of romanticizing your craft. Nolan made physicists more than just scientists and I think every ambitious person has to romanticize the titans of their industry in the same way.

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