In Case You Missed It

In case this is you… 

...we’ve got you covered! This is the biggest week we’ve had in a long time, so strap in! 

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Tech Stocks’ Favorite Lie to Investors: How the LTV/CAC ratio is manipulated to take advantage of retail investors

Evan Armstrong in Napkin Math  

For this issue, Evan teamed up with his pal and growth expert Spencer to show us how the metrics used to define Lifetime Value of Customer (LTV) actually work, how to measure the acquisition costs to acquire a customer, and what good performance looks like.

How James Clear is Writing His Next Book: The author of Atomic Habits shares his secrets

Dan Shipper in Superorganizers

Atomic Habits was a best-seller, and James Clear is working on his follow-up. Dan spoke with James about his writing process, how he uses Asana and Google Docs for research and drafting, meeting readers where they are, compressing ideas, the power of positioning, and more. Whether you’re a writer or not [yet], there’s a lot to learn here!

Solana’s Fast & Cheap Answer to Ethereum’s Gas Wars: What is this? A gas fee for ANTS?

Nat Eliason in Almanack

For a very exciting DeFriday #13, Almanack’s Friday series on decentralized finance, Nat examines the speed, cost, position, and opportunity of cryptocurrency Solana. 

The Bankification of Bitcoin: El Salvador’s experiment in cryptocurrency proves the dream of decentralized finance remains elusive

Guest post by Cindy Kuang

On Monday, El Salvador inaugurated Bitcoin as an official currency. Crypto engineer Cindy Kuang elegantly broke down why this step isn’t the sea change it might sound like. Though details of El Salvador’s plans are scarce, what we do know suggests that Bitcoin payments in the country will be processed primarily through a highly centralized and closely controlled system. At least for the moment, the dream of decentralized finance remains elusive.

VCs are still ignoring Black founders. What can we do now?

Sherrell Dorsey and Annaliese Griffin in Free Radicals

Sherrell and Annaliese spoke with Erika Brodnock and Johannes Lenhard, the authors of the forthcoming book Better Venture, on the history and future of diversity in venture capital. Erika is an award-winning entrepreneur and a PhD candidate at the London School of Economics; Johannes is a lecturer and researcher at the Max Planck Cambridge Centre for Ethics, Economy and Social Change. Their book is full of research, data, and interviews with industry insiders such as partners at Kapor Capital, Precursor Ventures, Balderton, Atomico, representatives from AllRaise, Diversity.VC, and the BVCA as well as LPs in big endowments and state funds. This incredible post is full of research, links, and heated discussion about the industry’s biggest secrets and most entrenched problems. We challenge you to read this and not be energized for good.

How Power Works in Venture Capital: Is being Sequoia actually pretty easy?

Nathan Baschez in Divinations 

Aristotle wrote, “Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.” It’s useful when evaluating any successful business to ask what’s actually impressive, because it helps you locate the mechanism that actually causes success. So what is impressive about top-tier VC firms? Nathan breaks down why it’s so easy to misplace our admiration when it comes to success, and where to really look for where honor is most deserved.

Listen

Ted Lasso Recap S2#6: How to tell a friend you’re worried about them

Dan Shipper, Nathan Baschez, and Rachel Jepsen in Talk Therapy

Should we tell our founder when we’re worried about their company? How can we tell our coworkers when we’re worried about them? We’ll never have their context, but can we offer helpful perspective? The gang discusses how humility can save us all... and their hopes for Rebecca’s love life. 

That’s all, folks! Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and we’ll see you next week!