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🌊 Macro

www.startupriders.com

🌊 Macro

Startup Riders
Jan 1
11
1
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🌊 Macro

www.startupriders.com

Hello! I’mĀ Ivan from jme.vc. Join >5K entrepreneurs mastering the best of what other founders have already figured out in under 3 minutes, 2x / month.

Overview

  1. 🌊 Insight: Recession (?) — 7 resources to make your own mind.

  2. šŸ“ˆ Thinking: Careeritis — by Richard Feynman and Oscar Wilde.

  3. šŸ’° Deals: everything you need to know about Spanish dealmaking.


🌊 Insight: Recession (?)

We’ve talked about Financial Crises before on Startup Riders, so I won’t go into much detail. Here’s an opinion by Bill Gurley that I subscribe to:

I think there are so few people who have proven that they have a valuable point of view on macro. There are just so many variables with macro. You can fool yourself. I’ve felt that ever since my MBA macro class.

— Bill Gurley (Benchmark)

Something I encourage my founder friends to do is studying the history of financial crises. In times like these, it gives you perspective + puts things into perspective.

Looking at data, I see 2 key adjustments happening in the US market:

  1. Layoffs: getting close to Covid levels and a ā€œgreat resignationā€ slow down.

VĆ­a: Jason Lemkin’s Linkedin
  1. Venture capital $$ slowing down

Wether we are or aren’t going into a recession, it is important to remember:

  1. Nobody knows, and if they say they do, they’re likely delusional.

  2. Financial crises are normal - Financial systems are inherently unstable, and as such the normal functioning of an economy leads to financial crises.

  3. If we are indeed headed for a tough market - there’s also great opportunity. Remember that some of the best companies of the past decade were born during the 2008+ Great Recession for a reason. Think Instagram, Airbnb, Uber, Pinterest, Slack, WhatsApp, and the list goes on.

Finally, it’s important to make up your own opinion, and adjust accordingly.

Here’s a list of my favourite recent readings on the topic + actionable insights:

  • Lux Capital Q3 2022 Letter

  • Navigating a storm by Samuel Gil

    Suma Positiva

  • Tribe Capital: A Record Shortage in Venture Capital

  • Craft Ventures: Operating during a downturn

  • Sequoia: Adapting to endure

  • Benchmark: Bill Gurley on Provocations to Ponder

  • My perspective on financial fragility and macro cycles


šŸ“ˆ Thinking: Careeritis

I’ve been thinking a lot about how broken our education system is (a topic for a future SR edition) and the pressure that most people feel around ā€œbuilding a careerā€.

2 quotes that I love, and regularly share with close friends suffering from ā€œCareeritisā€:

The first one from my favourite Twitter bot Professor Richard Feynman:

ā€œStudy hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent, and original manner possible.ā€

The second, from one of my favourite thinkers and one that has really stuck with me over the years, Stephen Fry — paraphrasing Oscar Wilde.

ā€œOscar Wilde said that if you know exactly what you want to be in life, then you inevitably become it - that is your punishment, but if you never know, then you can be anything.

There is a truth to that. We are not nouns, we are verbs. I am not a thing - an actor, a writer - I am a person who does things - I write, I act - and I never know what I am going to do next.

I think you can be imprisoned if you think of yourself as a noun.ā€œ


šŸ’° Deals

You love startups and want to enjoy a Spanish lifestyle? Come join a Spanish startup.

Here’s a list of the Top 40 startup financing rounds in Spain 2022:

Source: Fundación Innovación Bankinter

P.s.: Interesting to see 6 out of the Top 10 rounds took place in Barcelona.


What'd you think of today's email?

  • šŸ¦„šŸ¦„šŸ¦„šŸ¦„šŸ¦„ Great stuff, keep it up!

  • šŸ¦„šŸ¦„šŸ¦„ Meh, you can do better

  • šŸ¦„ Bad wipeout

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🌊 Macro

www.startupriders.com
1 Comment
marta
Jan 1

Loved it!

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