Concept: If your deck can’t clarify conviction, cadence, and character in one slide, don’t raise yet. Startups founders aren't the only ones with bad pitch slides. Over the years, I’ve written about how a cluttered team slide in a founder deck often betrays deeper issues—misaligned roles, unclear value, or a résumé-driven identity crisis. But fund … Continue reading Fund Managers: Your Fund Slide Sucks, Too
https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/brilliantpeoplepodcast/episodes/Erik-Anderson-Founder--CEO-of-WestRiver-Group-and-Vice-Chair-of-Topgolf-Callaway-Brands-on-Leading-in-an-Exponential-World-e32t7u1/a-abuoet6 The cornerstone of high performing teams is safety: Safety to fail, safety to doubt, safety to speak your mind, safety to disagree, safety to make mistakes, safety to not have certainty. That doesn't mean you're not accountable -- you still have to own your mistakes. But safety is at the core, especially under radical … Continue reading Tactical Notes: When Teams Fail.
The backbone of dual-use manufacturing in the US is broken, an echo of Eisenhower-era infrastructure warnings, but for deep tech. As you might know, I've been working full-time in a sub $50M annual revenue CNC machine shop in a seedy part of town in Berkeley, CA, since I left the NATO Innovation Fund. Half our … Continue reading Dual-Use Manufacturing: It’s Not That We Can’t Build — We Just Don’t Know Who Should!
[This is one of the first 'Tactical Notes' - short-format observations that I jotted down some time ago, where I feel that this snippet is enough and no long format essay is necessary] Exceptional managers demonstrate process discipline and high-touch relationship crafting. The myth of institutional vs. personal is a false binary. Sophistication in process … Continue reading Tactical Notes: Institutional is Personal
I am befuddled why "Defense Investing" is treated differently from "Investing". As if the rules of behavioral economics don't apply anymore when national security is at stake. You are still offering an investment product to investors. You still have to acknowledge all realities of Conviction, Cognitive Bias, and the subtle zero-sum of early-stage investing. The … Continue reading Who’s on the Other Side of That Trade?
Venture Capital Funds are a two-sided service business: You connect startups one one side with money from investors (Limited Partners = "LPs") on the other side. Strictly speaking, "investing" is more of a catch-all phrase of three things the local financial regulator [1] wants you to do: Direction of capital deployment, Stewardship of capital and … Continue reading Beyond ‘Founder-First’: Designing what Actually Serves
[This is one of the first 'Tactical Notes' - short-format observations that I jotted down some time ago, where I feel that this snippet is enough and no long format essay is necessary] The best LPs are intellectual partners — equal in vision, asymmetric in pressure-testing. LPs are mission-critical partners, not passive capital. Too many … Continue reading Tactical Notes: LPs Are Not a Line Item
What are your actions? And what is the narrative you are telling LPs around your actions and processes? Why that story, and no other story? What are implicit assumptions that have to be true so that this story is true? What ethos are you implying, or even requiring, that is reflected in that action a … Continue reading Actions + Stories = Who You Are
[This is one of the first 'Tactical Notes' - short-format observations that I jotted down some time ago, where I feel that this snippet is enough and no long format essay is necessary] Venture Capital today looks like Private Equity a decade ago. It is entering its own private equity era. Product alone is no … Continue reading Tactical Notes: Venture’s Distribution Reckoning
In private equity we throw around convictions a lot, or talk about what we believe. But: that's not the same. Conviction in defense is not measured by capability alone, but by credible intent to act. The same applies to venture capital: your portfolio is a map of what you’re willing to stand behind when it … Continue reading Writing The Check Isn’t Just An Act Of Confidence — It’s A Signal Of Ethical Clarity.
