Roy E. Bahat @roybahat Twitter profile

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

2 months

Like today I realized in a group chat, I am a Rawlsian accelerationist. r/acc ftw

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

6 years

Three years ago, I built a bot in honor of something that makes America proud -- Hamilton. It's been tweeting the entire musical, one verse each day. Tomorrow, it finishes. Thank you @Lin_Manuel for giving me a whisper of joy every day for years, and, some days, a shout.

Your Daily Hamilton

@HamiltonaDay

6 years

Oh, I can’t wait to see you again It’s only a matter of— Time Will they tell your story? Time…

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

2 years

Realized: many VCs are now quiet quitting. ⤵️

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

6 years

So if Burning Man is so life-changing transformative explain to me why all the tech bros still so tech bro

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

3 years

The differences between New York and Silicon Valley business culture continue to astonish me, almost 15 years after moving to San Francisco. I've seen the game in both places, and, to caricature a few differences, with as much truth as possible...

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

3 years

Our son said, out of nowhere: Wouldn't it be great if Google products were real things? Google Drive would be a car Google Docs would help when you get sick Google Slides would be fun at the playground Google Sheets would keep you warm at night

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

3 years

Your ability to work hard is also, to a degree, luck.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

5 years

What, in the US, we are currently calling a debate between 'capitalism' and 'socialism' is really a debate between different types of a selectively regulated market economy -- so let's stop overloading a sensible conversation?

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

3 years

Someone please host a reverse pitch competition where VCs pitch their firms to founders ("founders should take our money because...") with a panel of esteemed founder judges. Have many firms compete, brackets, etc. Winner is the founder's choice VC. "August Madness"

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

2 years

My San Francisco ballot is right in front of me and, after plenty of consideration (including on whether to say something in public), I'm voting NO on recalling @chesaboudin -- and I encourage you to do the same. Why? ⤵️

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

5 years

Special thank you in my heart for the little detail of people who, when they send you a calendar invite, put *their* name first so in *your* calendar it's clear who you're meeting.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

1 year

SVB is about the whole country. See this founder we backed... in Ohio.

Lindsey Michaelides

@lcmichaelides

1 year

Hi, I’m Lindsey. A bit about me: - Ohio mother of 4 - I employ a team of 15 as a start-up founder & CEO of Strongsuit - drive a used Honda Odessey - husband works in manufacturing - The financial future of my company, team and family are at risk w/ the collapse of SVB (1/23)

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

2 years

Lots of people in VC learning the difference between an income statement and a balance sheet today.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

5 years

Startup geography: 2009: Founder moves to SF at request of VC from whom they just raised. 2019: Founder lives in SF and raises VC, then leaves.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

5 years

Getting tired of this complainy startup victim mentality. We are the world's most important, powerful, interesting industry. Let's act from a position of strength: YES, criticize us because it's natural to question power. Let's fix it by doing the right thing, not by whining.

Paul Graham

@paulg

5 years

When a startup is small, it seems cute and the press writes encouragingly about it. When it reaches the size where they can get attention by attacking it, they do that instead.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

3 years

New York says it values credentials, and values credentials. Silicon Valley says it ignores credentials, but values credentials.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

2 years

Started asking GPT-3 legal questions. Cheaper than counsel, and almost as reliable.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

6 years

I would be thrilled if American exceptionalism meant:

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

5 years

If you've been successful in life, and believe that success is almost entirely the result of your personal efforts, please tell me so I can mute you. (It's luck all the way down. And all the way up, I suppose.)

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

3 years

There's no such thing as low-skill vs. high-skill work -- If you're a CEO, try waiting tables for a night. The waiter will do better pretending to be a CEO. -- there's only low-wage and high-wage work.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

5 years

Most popular elective at Harvard Business School, someone told me today, is about how to buy a small business and run it. Not "startups" in the tech sense, but good old-fashioned running something. Seems like a good sign, of something I dunno what.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

3 years

Everyone reads one article about how fast Tiger writes checks and all of a sudden VC after VC decides they don't do diligence anymore. Copying one tactic isn't a strategy. Founders: Beware early-stage shotgun weddings. Every investor can destroy your company. Do references.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

3 years

Why do founders often own so little of the companies they create? It's often because of the incentives of their investors, pressing them to raise ever more money. Consider a Tale of Two Startups, VC edition: ⤵️

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

3 years

Today I learned that, in 2021, there are still VC firms that will send a founder a term sheet and then pass -- "well, it was unsigned." Are you kidding me?! These moves ruin companies. And the North remembers.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

6 years

One of the most under-rated traits for the ability to get things done: the willingness to annoy others because you nudge them to do their stuff.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

5 years

Startup cash matters: Switching to your customers paying you up front is so valuable... it's like raising another round.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

2 years

Silicon Valley believes we invented more than we did. Open floor plans were common in newsrooms and trading floors (maybe among other places) long before they were popular in Silicon Valley...

Brian Chesky

@bchesky

2 years

Two decades ago, Silicon Valley startups popularized open floor plans and on-site perks. Today’s startups have embraced flexibility and remote work. I think this will become the predominant way companies work 10 years from now

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

6 years

Considering becoming a VC? If one of your favorite things is to learn, you might love it. If one of your favorite things is to be right a lot, run.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

3 years

In "thought experiment VC firm of the day," Lucky Ventures only writes checks of $888,888 -- any valuation, any stage, that's just the check size.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

1 year

Congrats to the US government, for saving the day without spending any taxpayer money.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

5 months

Congress considering forcing a sale of TikTok, because it has propaganda influence on the American public. TikTok resists by... using its propaganda influence to activate the public on its behalf. This... seems to prove the point. TikTok is showing we have good reason to be

Olivia Beavers

@Olivia_Beavers

5 months

One House GOP staffer tells me: “it’s so so bad. Our phones have not stopped ringing. They’re teenagers and old people saying they spend their whole day on the app and we cant take it away”

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

2 years

Another use for GPT-3, a little harsh: to show someone that their ideas were humdrum, I gave a one-sentence prompt to GPT-3 to ask for a five-part plan and got back 4 of the same 5 items this person sent me.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

7 years

Or... an unknown OLD person.

Sam Altman

@sama

7 years

Somewhere in the world, an unknown young person is probably starting a company now that will eventually be as big as today's tech giants.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

2 years

It’s a funny thing how exciting it can be to… stay the same. Today we’re announcing our next fund, our fourth (!) since we started Bloomberg Beta almost a decade ago (!?). We’re grateful to all the founders who invited us to back them all this way. And wait there’s more ⤵️

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

3 years

In New York, leaders build long-standing relationships with leaders in other domains: culture, academia, corporate, advocacy. In Silicon Valley, if tech says it's true, it is! If some other leader: "Who? Where? I've never heard of them so it can't matter. We're the future, man!"

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

5 years

Yesterday I met a founder whose business is thriving, and as a matter of principle he chooses to work no more than 5 hours a day.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

5 years

SF has gone from startup hub, to startup headquarters-and-maybe-engineering hub, and risks soon becoming just a startup fundraising hub.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

1 year

Your regular reminder that a more generous social floor -- guaranteed income, universal healthcare, etc. -- would accelerate innovation because less fear = more people willing to take risks.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

3 years

I don't know which VCs need to hear this, but making founders -- in whom you've invested! -- feel like crap because they're not [SomeOtherCompany] is... not the way.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

4 years

"Damn, that's a good point. I think I need to reconsider one of my core beliefs." -- said in reply to a Twitter comment, by nobody, ever (though I aspire to it)

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

6 years

The well-intentioned "you can't manage what you can't measure" too often turns into "you maximize anything you measure" -- often at the expense of sanity, humanity, balance in the Force.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

5 years

I got to share more books to read :) by @jtepper2 @denisehearn_ @SrdjaPopovic @emilychangtv @joshgans et. al.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

5 years

I think my superpower might be my ability to worry.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

2 years

Most people who have never built something new overestimate -- by miles -- how much planning needs to happen before you start -- and underestimate -- by light years -- how much thankless grinding away is involved, and how often you have to be ready to drop your preconceptions.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

3 years

In New York, people respect history. So when they innovate they do it with knowledge of what's worked and failed. In Silicon Valley, people ignore history. So they innovate in ways nobody has tried before.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

5 years

Stunning to me that there are still people who fundamentally think we do not have a big problem in America. They often start with citing this low unemployment mirage... see around 2.15 this ex Yahoo guy...

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

6 years

One thing to love about the startup world: nobody who is really great thinks they have it all figured out.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

4 years

This is so right. One reason employee organizing at tech companies is such an important trend. They are the only constituency with real leverage over tech companies.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

3 years

In New York, word is bond. It's a repeated game where you'll get iced out if you play in the shade. It's just how it works. In Silicon Valley, people who fail to live up to their word are merely "slippery." An acceptable cost of doing business. It's just how it works.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

7 years

You call it San Francisco.

Jodi Kantor

@jodikantor

7 years

The NYC subway is thisclose to afunctional. What happens to life in a city where basic transportation stops working?

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

5 years

My daughter was looking for a "tech expert" for a project and @sarafenskebahat said her dad is just such an expert. She didn't believe it. She's been to my office a few times, so I asked her what she thinks all the people do in that office? "Typing. They do typing." Kids see.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

3 years

In New York, having a relationship means the person will look out for you — be loyal, even — and treat you the way they'd expect to be treated. In Silicon Valley, having a relationship means the person will answer your email — and treat you the way they'd expect to be treated.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

5 years

It’s funny in the venture capital business that, every few years, you get to announce “we’re still in business!” So: we’re still in business! We will now start to invest out of our third fund -- thank you @Bloomberg ! More... ⤵️

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

4 years

If history is a guide, and we want to build more in this time (and in the future), we should all want much more government funding for basic science. Government funding for basic science is in the foundation of almost everything we build.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

3 years

In New York, as people build wealth they gradually learn to give back. Then they mostly socialize with people as rich as they are. In Silicon Valley, wealth arrives in a flash, and people struggle with how to handle it. Then they mostly socialize with people as rich as they are.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

7 years

Startup people. While you get busy practicing gratitude tomorrow, here's someone to thank: Their jobs sound glamorous. Most of the time, though, their jobs are the loneliest. And a little (or a lot) scary. When they lift big, we all rise. So #thankafounder .

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

2 years

Founders, if you want a litmus test of whether a VC has energy and money now: ask the checkwriter with whom you are speaking when they did their last 3 deals, and if they have any deals in docs now (i.e., they have agreed to terms and are just papering the investment).

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

6 years

nbd. OK, bd for me

Lin-Manuel Miranda

@Lin_Manuel

6 years

Well, that's serendipitous. Thank you Roy. ❤️❤️❤️

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

3 years

In New York, requesting an introduction is an elaborate dance that may require promises to name children. And then you might only get an intro to their 2nd admin. In Silicon Valley, a sensible introduction can consummate before the requester even finishes asking.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

3 years

The world isn't gonna get less crazy

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

4 years

Coronavirus test: if you're secretly relieved when you have to cancel a trip or meeting because of coronavirus, then you shouldn't have agreed to it in the first place.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

6 years

P.S. The American "land of the free" story seems to have eclipsed our reason to be free in the first place, to find the good life for ourselves. Freedom shouldn't mean freedom to be racist, profit at the expense of the many, or refuse the existence of facts. Tired of all that.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

2 years

Nothing that has line items of a balance sheet as columns (vs. rows) can possibly be solvent can it?

SBF

@SBF_FTX

2 years

FTX US is solvent, as it always as been.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

3 years

In New York, people value success within established institutions, and underrate the importance of new institutions. In Silicon Valley, people value creating new institutions, and underrate the importance of established institutions.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

3 years

In New York, if the New York Times said it, it's true. Criticisms must all be motivated and baseless. In Silicon Valley, if a tech guru with a Twitter following said it, it's true. Criticisms must all be motivated and baseless.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

2 years

For me: the last 3 deals I led were all in the last six weeks (one pre-idea, one a spinout of another startup we backed, and one in serving communities), plus another with @jamescham in cybersecurity, and I have 4 more in docs now that we expect to close within a week or two.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

3 years

Meeting a co-worker in person for the first time, the big surprise awaits: are they 8 feet tall? Are they 4 feet tall?

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

2 years

Some of the last generation of VCs feel tired. Their colleagues' codephrase is "no longer doing new deals."

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

3 years

In New York, people know a little about a lot of things, and people are know-it-alls. In Silicon Valley, focus is a religion, and people are know-it-alls.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

4 years

I no longer believe any of you who claim you have morning routines Come @ me

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

6 years

America was the only country on Earth where zero people live in poverty -- because we can afford that.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

3 years

In New York, people gain status by giving to non-profits and serving on their boards. People gain status by buying it. In Silicon Valley, people gain status by angel investing. People gain status by buying it.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

1 year

I would happily accept the end of carried interest tax treatment for VCs and private equity, in exchange for knowing SVB depositors will get back 100 cents on the dollar.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

2 years

For the new generation of VCs, many are realizing that it's not all fun and games. (Hint: it never was, though it can be sometimes!) They're failing to raise funds, and actually want a new job but can't stomach telling their Burning Man camp that their VC planz were a mirage.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

2 years

And to be fair, doing VC on easy mode (i.e., without fighting to be great) is *really* easy. Opine in some partner meetings, host an LP for a lunch and riff about the valuation weather, and hope nobody finds you out.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

4 years

A friend reminded me today: during WWI, apparently people thought from the very beginning that the "Great War" would end very soon. It's hard to understand the map of a path you are walking for the first time. This moment could be with us for years to come.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

5 years

The world still hears about things slowly. My Uber driver wants to learn to code for a living, "but all the classes are so expensive." So I got to tell him about...

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

5 years

1/ Reading @MikeBloomberg words to Harvard Business School graduates just now, and -- at the risk of shilling for the home team -- I wish more people in tech thought this way. "how do we restore faith in the promise of America and the future of the American dream?"

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

7 years

In VC responses, slow means no.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

3 years

Just parked my car in the Mission and, 2 hours later, all the windows are intact. AMA

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

3 years

In Silicon Valley, overstated enthusiasm is cool. In New York, understated enthusiasm is cool.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

1 year

Everyone saying "I knew it was risky" at SVB, please show receipts of where you said that before Thursday. (A few did, and the rest of us missed what signs there were.) And if you're the kind of person who kicks people when they're down, thank you for revealing yourself now.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

1 year

Today starts Bloomberg Beta’s 10th anniversary week. A decade, today, since we announced our fund. And I’ve spent the past weekend with some of my closest friends in the world – family, really – feeling into what’s important. So, here’s what matters to us:

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

2 years

So I think Chesa deserves to stay in office. And, more than that, he's exactly the kind of elected official I want to see stay in government for the long term.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

2 years

Write shorter emails.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

4 years

Realizing that for the next three weeks our home is about to become an intergenerational co-working space. Without kombucha on tap.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

8 years

If paid work continues to be society's first yardstick for esteem of others, we are going to have much bigger problems than we do today...

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

2 years

When founders ask them what to do during a tough market they regurgitate something they read on Twitter. Because you can't rush lived experience. (I feel this every day, where I wish I had been a VC for longer than my almost-10 years.)

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

1 year

Silver lining time: all the people in tech who have railed on the government being awful, might take a minute to think "wait a minute, I am grateful that worked well, and maybe I should try to understand it better and support what works."

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

2 years

These fading olds hoped their new crop of junior VCs would take over, but in almost every case they underestimated the difficulty of succession. Those new VCs often lack the skills to serve companies, or even the political capital within their firms to get deals done.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

3 years

Other VCs seem to like investing in new habits. "In the future, *everyone* will... [insert thing that, e.g., only young people in tech do]." I like investing in... old habits. "Everyone already does [this important thing people do], and it stinks, and should be much better."

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

2 years

Maybe it's the fear that it was just luck in the last cycle, and continuing to work at it might reveal that. Get out while they think it was skill...

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

3 years

If you want to learn something, teach it.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

2 years

Google search is losing the plot. A company we backed has the #1 organic result for an important search term... and is the NINTH listing on the page (after 4 text ads, a featured snippet, "people also ask," popular products, and more visual ads in the sidebar).

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

5 years

Disagree. While this might feel good to believe, most of the people I know who are great fixers are also great at complaining -- because the root cause of complaint and of fixing is seeing how things could be better.

Paul Graham

@paulg

5 years

There are people who fix problems and people who complain about problems, and the two sets are remarkably disjoint.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

2 years

Why? Maybe because they got rich, or moved away thinking they could stay current without putting in the sweat, built firms so big they spend all their time managing, or see making new investments as beneath them.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

5 years

A reason we love IPOs and acquisitions, beyond the obvious: they're piñatas of future founders.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

3 years

Of course VCs love the creator economy -- venture capital is, itself, in at least one way it can be practiced, an influencer business.

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

3 years

"I'm making something, and I both want it to be widely accessible and I want to make money on it. How do I do both?" w/ @platzi CEO @freddier #thisisnotadvice Day 197

Roy E. Bahat - @roybahat

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

4 years

Hobbies include helping people I care about become wildly successful

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Roy E. Bahat

@roybahat

2 years

Chesa's the kind of leader I want to see stay in government. Many elected officials are political hacks -- more about winning than governing. Chesa isn't a hack. He clearly wants to change things for the better. He pays attention to data. He's got courage to speak his mind.

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