Our headline post this week from Sarah Tavel at Benchmark was by far my favorite read this week. Danielle and I have been married for over 10 years, but still haven’t had kids. The decision has freed us up to start companies together, travel the world, read as much as we want, and have countless adventures. Sarah’s post is one of the more thoughtful essay’s I’ve seen on just how much I might be missing out on.
Reflections on Parenting
Sarah Tavel of Benchmark opens a window into important revelations in her personal life in Reflections on becoming a parent
SciFi Startups
Sarah A. Downey of Accomplice has been putting together an overdue series on what startups can learn from Star Trek The Next Generation. In Startup trek, episode 5: Where No One Has Gone Before she covers one of Danielle’s favorite episodes on time travel.
This week TC Sottek of The Verge announced The Verge’s Better Worlds, an effort to portray a more positive future. This as postive sign for those who remember Peter Thiel’s argument about pessimistic SciFi in The End of the Future.
From the Operators
Our parents are coming to visit this Christmas, and it’s filled with fun times, but also a dose of dysfunction that reminds us of annoying times during childhood. Morgan J. Lopes of Polar Notion has put together a set of questions for taking stock of your family relationships. This is a great one to think about vis-a-vis New Years resolutions: Annual Reflection Framework.
David Peterson of Airtable showcases Airtable by putting together a list of Startup Pitch Decks. If you’re building your deck out over the holidays and need inspiration, this is up your alley.
Claire Lew of Know Your Team announces her company’s pivot in Big news: Know Your Company is now Know Your Team. We normally don’t share product launches here, but we love that she shared so much background on her thought process through the transition.
From the Investors
Andrew Clark of Visible VC announces a new tool to help founders run their fundraising process in Get Funded: The Fundraise Tracking Tool
David Beisel of NextView Ventures is concerned founders are missing out on key opportunities that PR can drive in Nobody Announces Their Seed Round Anymore and That’s a Mistake
Hunter Walk of Homebrew offers advice for other funds to improve their portfolio pages, so founders can better determine whether it makes sense to pitch them, in A Small Change Seed Funds Can Make To Their Websites To Help Founders (and Themselves)
Founders who haven’t been in the market for early stage rounds might be surprised by Jason Lemkin of SaaStr‘s answer to the question Is it normal for Series A investors to buy up previous seed investor’s equity?
Jenny Fielding of Techstars announces she is doubling down on the New York tech community in And Now for Something New and Different… Announcing the New Techstars NYC Managing Director
Greylock Partners announces they have added former StitchFix head of growth to the team in Welcome Mike Duboe as Greylock’s Newest Investor
Lightspeed Venture Partners adds 3 impressive operators to the team in When we’re not obsessing about investing, we’re obsessing about hiring.