1: 99 Odds game called ‘StartUp’

For every 100, odds are that 1 will be winning and 99 will be losing. You are stacked up against these poor odds. I repeat: there is a 1.00 percent probability of a winning outcome and 99.00 percent probability of losing outcome. If you bet 1 on a game with 1 to 99 odds and you win, your total payout will be 1.01 which is your bet plus 0.01 profit. Hence profit i.e 0.01 can’t be 0.01 but a multiple of 1 at-least 10x for the VC to cover his other 9 failed bets. Understand the nature of this game that you are signing up for(about to play).

My Question to you as a player of a game called ‘Startup’

1. Have you ever played a sport with such poor odds [1:99] ?
2. Has any academic endeavour stacked up such odds [1:99] against your outcomes?
3. Is this your first time ever to play such a game ?

This is something your mind has not experienced. Behaviourally only a few can process the rough ride. Subconsciously the human mind is trained for better outcomes. Hence being open to listening, learning and delivering is key to improve your odds to avoid getting rammed by an invisible truck called ‘poor odds’ when innocently crossing the road. This is best coined by Reid Hoffman founder of ‘Linkedin’

Meet the word ‘StartUp’

5 Core Questions that you should deliberate in the beginning (Main slides in your VC pitch deck)

1. Problem — Pain Point of Customer (Paying User)? Value Chain (Upstream/DownStream)? How big is Opportunity? Which Market ?
2. Solution: Interviewing Users ? FABing? Unfair Advantage ? Moat ? Substitutes ? Novel ? Improvement ? Process Innovation ?
3. Problem/Solution Match? Define P/S Pairs? PMF Fit (Solution<>Problem<>Team Fit) ?
4. Riskiest Assumptions: Identify which will kill you? (PSI Framework)
5. Why Now? Competitors ? Differentiation ? Startup Graveyard ? Nth Order effects

Each of the above question has to be defined in isolation in no particular order. The key is only when you have deliberately spent many many hours answering, writing and pitching to anyone around you, you should only then think of working on the next set of 5.

5 Questions you can Procrastinate in favour of Focussing on above 5 core Questions

1. Who are going to be my advisors ? Who can I trust? Professionals ?
2. What will be my business model ? Early Optimisation Pitfall(s) ?
3. How much money should I raise ? From Whom(Color of Money) ? Runway/Budgets ?
4. What will be my exit strategy ? What stage ? What Terms?
5. Distribution Channel, CAC, LTV and Frictions

Well they definitely sound ….

But worry not, you can checkout LEAN STARTUP as your guiding light principle but be weary like many claim Lean StartUp is NOT about…….

A. Spending no money (Frugality)

B. Releasing a crappy embarrassing product (MVP-Minimum Viable Product that looks real but is not : Fake it till you Make it)

C. Throw something that sticks to the wall (Build what people want in that order, not get people to want something that you built)

D. A/B testing to prioritise (Cohort analysis/Segmentation)

E. Toying with business model (Pivot)

…but these are WEEKEND hobby project principles

Infact LEAN is = Learn, Build, Test and REPEAT…

”If not followed often leads to rich hobby like this…”

TRUST ME this is the BASELINE….and if you understand and practice these sincerely while playing this game of odds then you can improve your chance and…..

“Invert, always Invert”, Charlie Munger says when it comes to difficult problems.

Instead of asking how do I succeed as a PM invert and write down how can I fail as a PM successfully.

It like avoiding stupidity is easier than seeking brilliance. It’s an avoiding stupidity filter. Despite our best intentions, thinking forward increases the odds of harming more. Thinking backward, call it subtractive avoidance or inversion, is less likely to cause harm. Thinking forward and thinking backward result in discovering new ways of thinking, you can hence think of them as additive vs. subtractive.

Then use the following litmus test as a feedback loop to yourself to check on an ongoing basis if the team is vectorised in the right direction by using the lens of

‘IN-SPITE of’

(i) IN-SPITE of disagreements during ideation if the each team member agrees and commits to deliver the agreed roadmap then

[Confirms each one’s agreement to the discussed ‘Why’ & ‘Conviction’ in what they are doing everyday]

(ii) IN-SPITE of roadmap pivots, dismantling teams and purging of work if the unit is still motivated towards the product vision, milestones and is charged to step up and deliver then

[Shows Product Vision Culture vs Feature Delivery, anything in the name of the big picture outcome]

(iii) IN-SPITE of having team leaders drive agenda top-down if each team member feels being listened to, get a say in their work and are empowered bottom up then

[Cultivation of indispensable team member feeling rather a responsibility as a stakeholder]

(iv) IN-SPITE of formally designated leaders, resource budgets and team constraints if their is a culture in the company to informally reach out and collaborate along the water cooler then

[Knowledge sharing, innovation and teamwork is not anyones job but the company culture]

(v) Lastly if independently interviewed in separate rooms if each team member can explain the Product Vision, Outcomes, Goals & Metrics, RoadMap and Resources(Who on What?) and you a common denominator of 75% overlap match with desired reality then

[Proof of a vectorised team cohesively in one direction]

If any 3 of them are working for you then you are blessed to be in great company of individuals that are ambitious, cohesive and orienting in a direction.

Product Management still remains to be a thankless role without powers yet the most important glue that makes the team move forward in the right direction.

The best analogy is that you are a leader of a non-profit organisation which has millions of followers and you have not option but to inspire these followers to get vectorised in a certain direction to create a movement of sorts for the non-profit

“Again, much of the work of product management is making sure everybody understands the what and the why,” he says. “Leaving it up to teams to figure out how to actually make that happen empowers them to do better and find more meaning in their work. I think everyone wants a say in their daily work — that’s not just in tech land, that’s in life.”

Eventually the responsibility is everybody understands the what & the why to move forward. Doing one on ones reiterating after team meetings to validate if each member on Product Vision, Outcomes, Goals & Metrics, RoadMap & Resources(Who on What?) has a common denominator understanding of at-least 75% with desired reality. Then the team is vectorised and you are at-least not failing as a PM (inversion).

Avoiding stupidity is easier than seeking brilliance. Spending time thinking about the opposite of what you want doesn’t come naturally to most people. And yet many of the smartest people in history, have done this naturally.

For the Laughs : ‘IN-SPITE of’ means this is still gonna happen

Build your own Iron Man Suit whenever you build software. Step by step process for a newbie

Step by Step Approach: Google Colaboratory: https://colab.research.google.com/drive/1hspt6QQB5geYMtcJ92UDNkOSKI992PSb

Mentally divide the process of building this piece of software in two phases. Phase1 where you check feasibility, learning curve and time estimation to understand the project scope. Phase 2 is where you bring in the best practices, product aspirations and user feedback. Plus phase2 is really about a product roll out mindset more than just a weekend project

*** The Problem ***

__Description__

You're given the task of writing a simple console version of a drawing program.
At this time, the functionality of the program is quite limited but this might change in the future.
In a nutshell, the program should work as follows:
 1. Create a new canvas
 2. Start drawing on the canvas by issuing various commands
 3. Quit


Command 		Description
C w h           Should create a new canvas of width w and height h.
L x1 y1 x2 y2   Should create a new line from (x1,y1) to (x2,y2). Currently only
                horizontal or vertical lines are supported. Horizontal and vertical lines
                will be drawn using the 'x' character.
R x1 y1 x2 y2   Should create a new rectangle, whose upper left corner is (x1,y1) and
                lower right corner is (x2,y2). Horizontal and vertical lines will be drawn
                using the 'x' character.
B x y c         Should fill the entire area connected to (x,y) with "colour" c. The behavior of this is the same as that of the "bucket fill" tool in paint programs.
Q               Should quit the program.

__Sample I/O__

Below is a sample run of the program. User input is prefixed with enter command:

enter command: C 20 4
----------------------
|                    |
|                    |
|                    |
|                    |
----------------------

enter command: L 1 2 6 2
----------------------
|                    |
|xxxxxx              |
|                    |
|                    |
----------------------

enter command: L 6 3 6 4
----------------------
|                    |
|xxxxxx              |
|     x              |
|     x              |
----------------------

enter command: R 14 1 18 3
----------------------
|             xxxxx  |
|xxxxxx       x   x  |
|     x       xxxxx  |
|     x              |
----------------------

enter command: B 10 3 o
----------------------
|oooooooooooooxxxxxoo|
|xxxxxxooooooox   xoo|
|     xoooooooxxxxxoo|
|     xoooooooooooooo|
----------------------

enter command: Q

Phase1: Stages of progression of building product

1. Quick Dirty Write [Develop the heart 💓 codebase & feasibility: POC]
2. Command Parser [Read e.g. enter command: ‘B 10 3 o’]
3. Canvas Creation [With specific style of boundaries]
4. Validation Parser [Edge cases/fat finger & erroneous commands]
5. Choosing Drawings [Horiz/ Vertical Line, Rect, Bucket Fill]
6. Package the Application [Classes, Definitions & Unit Tests]
7. Stitch in all Together [1st modern look]

Phase 2 (future article in this series):

1. Bonus Extra Features[Diagonal, Fill Holes, GeometryValidation]
2. Design Patterns — GOF [Modular/Scalable Code]
3. Docker Distribution [Online web link to share easily]
4. Deploying in Cloud on Repl.it
5. Designing an API for Curl Use

And NOW for PHASE1………

Quick Dirty Write [Hackish Prototype]

At the starting stage the goal should be to complete the task rapidly rather than making it high quality to evaluate the current technical feasibility & determine the extra learning curve desired to bring this piece of ‘drawing program’ to life. At this stage the mindset shouldn’t be to make something perfect. I often call this the ‘slipshod programmer’ mindset or the ‘hacker mindset’. This is like pseudo code in action. This reduces the un necessary pressure of over-engineering or using the best programming practices when MVP — minimum viable product is not yet proven

5 Steps [Always break it in smaller logical problems]

1. Parse command line i.e input string (regex)
2. Represent a Canvas in a flexible data structure like 2D array (numpy)
3. Write methods for each drawing type by numbers as masks for ASCII char
4. Write a translator to convert numbers into ASCII char (dictionary)
5. Publish canvas & carry forward last drawing action(object handling)
6. Stitch it all together to spring it to life

A. Parse command line i.e input string (regex)

enter command: C 4 8

Here is the code snippet:

B. Represent a Canvas in a flexible data structure like 2D array (numpy)

[[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]        
[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]        
[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]        
[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]]

Here is the code snippet:

C. Write methods for each drawing type by numbers as masks for ASCII char

#e.g Draw Horizontal Line of length 4
# draw from (x1,y1 to x2,y2) WHERE y1 = 2 (i.e x1=1 y1=1 x2=4 y2=1)

enter command:L 1 1 4 1

[[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]        
[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]        
[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]        
[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]]

converts to: 

[[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]        
[0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0]        
[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]        
[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]]

Here is the code snippet:

D. Write a translator to convert numbers into ASCII char (dictionary)

#e.g Convert '0' to '.' and '1' to 'x'

[[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]        
[0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0]        
[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]        
[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]]

converts to:

[['.' '.' '.' '.' '.' '.' '.']  
['.' 'x' 'x' 'x' 'x' '.' '.']  
['.' '.' '.' '.' '.' '.' '.']  
['.' '.' '.' '.' '.' '.' '.']]

and then to:

....... 
.xxxx.. 
....... 
.......

Here is the code snippet:

E.Publish canvas & carry forward last drawing action(object handling)

#e.g Draw Vertical Line of length 4 
# draw from (x1,y1 to x2,y2) WHERE x1 = x2 (i.e x1=2 y1=0 x2=2 y2=3)

enter command:L 2 0 2 3

[[0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0]        
[0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0]        
[0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0]        
[0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0]]

#e.g Convert '0' to '.' and '1' to 'x'

[['.' 'x' '.' '.' '.' '.' '.']  
['.' 'x' '.' 'x' 'x' '.' '.']  
['.' 'x' '.' '.' '.' '.' '.']  
['.' 'x' '.' '.' '.' '.' '.']]

and then to

.x..... 
.xxxx.. 
.x..... 
.x.....

Here is the code snippet:

F. Stitching it all together expect this to happen

Iron man realises the peaceful slow radiation death

What is giving you life is also killing you (Ark Reactor) — Hackish Prototyping eventually later on becomes your own enemy when rolling out production grade code :(

But for now:

let’s just stitch this and see the prototype come to life

Kudos you have completed the 1st sprint. You now have the confidence of building a product that can evolve over a period of time

NEXT UP: In the coming episodes when you try to upgrade this code in next batch of articles :)

Shadow Tax — Inflation in the veil of nationalism narrative to pay off the trillion$ debt taken by our Govts.

Countries in Monetary Crisis: Cypress, Venezuela, Brazil, Turkey, Argentina, Zimbabwe, Ukraine, India.

Bitcoin is fuelled because of unfounded nationalistic experiments with crisis in flag currencies all resulting in Bail In/Demonetization/

HyperInflation/Currency Wars/Currency Devaluation/Currency Controls/Monetary Policy. These are form of civil wars on its own populations.

Self Sovereign Cash, Peer to Peer Cash, Digital Cash — Bitcoin

Currency Wars are going to fund Bitcoin and it’s Infrastructure.

There is an opportunity to exit from nationalistic currencies.

Banking Cartels and Information Cartels. Kleptocracy & Crony Capitalism. Fractional Reserve Banking supported by bills(laws) via corrupt politicians. These are then protected with limited banking licenses for a rent seeking behaviour to biggest flow of money using a parasitic straw(parasitic behaviour assisted by centralisation)

What’s currently wrong with the system of money today ?

(i) Inefficient and Corrupt governments have made it a fragile system where people are being taxed through hidden inflation to pay off their federal debts.

(ii)Governments are using closed financial systems instead of open financial systems as way of population surveillance to control (which starts going against freedom ideals: liberty, democracy & human rights.

What is the purpose of Money ?

1. It expresses value
2. A system of value communication [Commerce]
3. Helps in coordinating resource allocation in a society

Index

1. Initialising a Chain [Content of Block, Genesis Block & Adding Block]
2. Consensus — Byzantine Fault Tolerance
3. Merkle Trees — Hashing to verify Txn integrity
4. UTXO — Unspent Transaction Output(Bitcoin)
5. PoW — Energy expenditure via puzzle solving to build trust
6. SHA256— An encryption standard used in Bitcoin
7. Segwit —
8. Lightning Network — Layer 2 on bitcoin for payments, contracts & Lapps
9. Bloom Filters —
10. Running a Bitcoin Node —
11. Peer Discovery —
12. Mining — Schedule of release, Difficulty, 10mins consensus
13. Forkology — Hard Forks, Soft Forks
14. Bitcoin 101 Books —

Part 1: Byzantine Fault Tolerance —

Part2: What is a Merkle Tree-I, Merkle Tree-II — Used to summarise large sets of data & verifying their integrity. The ability to verify whether a certain transaction is included in a specific block is fundamental.

Read More Merkle Trees: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Part3: What is a UTXO —

Part 4: What is Proof of Work(PoW)-I, PoW-II

Part5: The three Eras of Bitcoin Network — 2009, 2021, 2028

Part6: Segwit — Segregated Witness

Read More on Segwit: 1,2,3

Part7: Lightning Network — Layer 2 application of payments network

Part8: Bloom Filters —

Extra Reading: What is Proof of Stake, Proof of Work Vs Proof of Stake, UTX0 vs Account/Balance Model, Chimeric Ledgers: UTXO+ac/Bal Model, Bitcoin’s Academic Pedigree,

Top 5 Technical Books on Bitcoin

1. Mastering Bitcoin by Andreas M. Antonopoulos
2. Programming Bitcoin by Jimmy Song
3. Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies — by Arvind Narayanan
4. The Book Of Satoshi: Collective writings by Satoshi Nakomoto
5. Mastering Ethereum: Building Smart Contracts and DApps by Andreas M. Antonopoulos

2019 — Bitcoin — Reports

1. Bitcoin in Heavy Accumulation: April 2019 | docsend.com/view/jwr8qwx
2. The Bitcoin Reformation: Nov 2019 | docsend.com/view/ijd8qrs
3. End of Fiat money: Dec 2019 | Deutsche Bank Report: Koncept

Bitcoin 101 Books ( Responsible Intros)

1. The Little Bitcoin Book — Jimmy Song
2. The Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains — Antony Lewis

Programming Bitcoin [ebooks]

1. Bitcoin Internals — Chris Clark
2. Hands-On Bitcoin Programming with Python — Harish Garg
3. How to Program a Block Chain Explorer with Python — Alex Gorale

Technical Theory on Bitcoin [ebooks]

1. 1Grokking Bitcoin — Kalle Rosenbaum
2. The Bitcoin Tutorial — Bruce Kleinman

Top University Courses on Bitcoin

1. Stanford: Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technologies & The Stanford Center for Blockchain Research
2. Tel Aviv University: The Blockchain Technology
3. Princeton: Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies
4. MIT: Blockchain courses at mit
5. Berkely: Blockchain at Berkely

Educational Python Bitcoin Repos on Github

1. https://github.com/wobine/blackboard101

Technical Blogs on Bitcoin/Technical Newsletters on Bitcoin

1. Bitcoins the hard way: Using the raw Bitcoin protocol — Ken Shirriff
2. Layman’s Guide to Elliptic Curve Digital Signatures — RoyalFork
3. If you own BTC, you should be using PGP — Noah Ruderman
4. https://medium.com/longcaller/blockchain-explained-2b26b28657ca
5. https://medium.com/free-code-camp/how-to-create-a-bitcoin-wallet-address-from-a-private-key-eca3ddd9c05f
6. https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-generate-your-very-own-bitcoin-private-key-7ad0f4936e6c/
7. https://blog.goodaudience.com/learning-about-block-chain-with-python-8b2178cf1fca

Technical Presentations on Bitcoin

1. http://www.lothar.com/presentations/bitcoin-brownbag/slides.html#1
2. http://www.cs.tau.ac.il/~msagiv/courses/blockchain/overview.pdf
3. https://b10c.me/The-incomplete-history-of-Bitcoin-development/
4. http://blockchain.mit.edu/how-blockchain-works

7 Super Imp Websites

1. https://bitcoincore.org
2. https://www.blockchain.com/explorer
3. https://bitcoinops.org
4. https://bitcoinacks.com/
5. https://github.com/chaincodelabs/bitcoin-curriculum
6. https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-dev
7. http://bit.ly/debugbitcoin

Great Bitcoin Reads

1. https://medium.com/institute-for-the-future/bitcoin-is-the-sewer-rat-of-currencies-b89819cdf036

Youtube Videos

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neUy-nXshzg

Disclaimer to Reader: I keep updating my previously written articles [even this one in future :) ], that’s my style. Simple hack: either clap or highlight something you like in the article to index this article on your medium.com profile (to retrieve it later). I can never finish an article because I continue to update it :) with deeper research.

Ongoing disruption of non-value add by VCs in super-competitive industry to differentiate and woo founders/startups ahead of the curve.

I recently read a white paper which talks about non-value add that VCs typically use to differentiate themselves from their peers in a super competitive industry when it comes to wooing the right founders/startups (especially when one horse i.e a winning 100x return startup bet with an outsized return can mean making/breaking for a VC fund’s ROI performance).

Hence the most interesting aspect that crossed my mind was the recent shift in Early Stage Venture Capital and steps taken by VCs to further disrupt the industry to continue to stay ahead of their peers to get their hands first on an Entrepreneur/Startup by offering the right Color of Money.

Link to Paper : https://www.isb.edu/faculty/KrishnamurthySubramanian/Images/Resources-JFE-submission-Feb2012.pdf

Disclaimer to Reader: I keep updating my previously written articles [even this one in future :) ], that’s my style. Simple hack: either clap or highlight something you like in the article to index this article on your medium.com profile (to retrieve it later). I don’t intend to finish an article because I believe in a ‘continuum’ with ongoing deeper research with periodic updates.

Abstract of the Paper

Venture Capitalists (VCs) differ from one another with respect to the non-financial resources they offer their portfolio firms. We develop a theoretical model to study the economic implications of this heterogeneity among VCs. We determine the optimal VC chosen by the entrepreneur, the percentage of equity taken by the VC in return for the financial and non-financial resources, the nature of the ex-ante match between entrepreneurs and VCs, startup value and VC’s share in the same. By deriving the endogenous relationship between the VC’s non-financial resources and startup performance, we call into question the usual interpretation of some empirical regularities. The study also helps to rationalise the persistent heterogeneity in VC fund performance.

My Research Index

1. The VC Game
2. Ongoing Disruption in Early Stage Capital
3. Early Stage VC Terrain: Positioning to the Founders
4. Quantitative VCs

VC Game

Game of Home Runs, Not Averages

Deal Flow Business

Contact Sport/Game of High Touch points

Informational asymmetry

Competitive Sport [Wrong Most of the Time]

Long Sales cycle like B2B Sales Conversion

Investment Thesis, Anti Portfolio & Markets are DNA of a VC

Horse punting where only the Horse, Turf & the Wind Direction matters

Startup Communities are Lead Generation Funnels

VCs are a Platform for filtered Founder Community

Ongoing Disruption in Early Stage Capital

Big Question: Are VCs who are helping founders form founding teams, validate ideas and bridge job to a Startup gap by offering them in-person stipend paid bootcamps really kickstarting to change the market of VC Investing by bringing in a fresh supply of talented individuals/startups -i.e manufacturing the supply at the mouth of the funnel ? e.g, beondeck, entrepreneur first and antler are calling themselves a new class of VCs as startup generators ?

Stages in the Funnel that VCs see today

Stage -1: REMOTE ONLINE STARTUP SCHOOL — Targeting Weekend Projects: Ideas half baked, need direction and basic education around how to change a project into a startup. The investor space is responding with Remote Online StartUp Schools. Examples include Startup School, Pioneer and TechStarKauffmanFellows School

Stage 0: EQUITY FREE SUPPORT— Mature project ideas with teams: no product, no revenue but look promising from market size perspective. The VC space is giving equity free grants to encourage the team to pilot the project with an audience to further evaluate the legs to the project.

Stage 1: PRODUCT FOUNDER FIT— Cofounder Matching. Product/founder fit is a measure of how well your startup fits YOU. The better it fits, the more likely you are to succeed. Because, with full Product/founder fit, you are curve-fitting your business around you. Four dimensions that contribute to Founder-Market Fit: a. Obsession b.Founder Story c. Personality d. Experience.

Stage 2: INVESTMENT THESIS — Established promising startups looking for Pre-Seed. New VCs are helping founders form founding teams, validate ideas and bridge job to a Startup gap by offering them in-person stipend paid bootcamps. really kickstarting to change the market of VC Investing by bringing in a fresh supply of talented individuals/startups -i.e manufacturing the supply at the mouth of the funnel ? e.g, beondeck, entrepreneur first and antler are calling themselves a new class of VCs as startup generators ?

Stage 3: IDEA STAGE PRE-SEED — Pre-Revenue stage. This prime stage of seed funding falls so early that it’s not even considered as a startup funding. The pre-seed funding stage generally refers to the time period in which a startup is getting their operations off the ground. It’s likely that investors won’t make an investment in exchange for equity in the startup during the pre-series stage. This stage can last for a long time. It depends on the nature of your startup and the initial costs that you must consider while developing the business model.

Stage 4: SEED-STAGE — The old foremost stage of funding in the old times. This was first in the startup funding stages i.e “Seed funding”. Seed funding allows a startup to fund costs of product launch, get early traction through marketing, initiate important hiring and further market research for developing product-market-fit.

Stage 5: POST SEED/PRE SERIES A STAGE —Demonstration of some Evidence of product/market fit that is visible in operating data. Sight lines to a milestone that inflects the company’s value. A strong syndicate of existing seed investors.

Stage 6: SERIES A STAGE — Essentially, the series A round is the second stage of startup financing and the first stage of venture capital financing(in the traditional sense of old standards)

Deal Flow Business: Venture Capital Strategy

Big Question: What is the ‘non capital value add’ that a VC can add to a portfolio company to signal new founders in the funnel apart from the capital value add? This helps in differentiation from other competing VCs in the space. Basically how much does the colour of the money matter to a founder?

Early Stage VC Terrain: Positioning to the Founders

Is there a platform strategy to go more on the early stage investments by widening of the funnel of applicants by changing the definition of access(geography), privilege(pedigree), metrics(proxy execution), risk capital(equity free grants) & idea validation(peer founder feedback)? e.g. startup school, pioneer.app & indie.vc are executing new platforms using the above playbook to go big on early stage startups. Are the new remote online only VC Funds an avatar of Ycombinator 2.0 ?

Quantitative VCs

Big Question: What difference can ‘data science’ play a role within a fund to supercharge analysis while evaluating applicants for investment while having collected comprehensive data of non-portfolio companies over the years. In short unfair advantage of building a data driven VC fund ?

Index of References used for research

1. References A: Running a VC Scout Program
2. References B: Student Focussed VC Funds
3. References C: Quant/AI Based Investing in VC Space
4. References D: Disruptive Venture Capitalists
5. References E: How to become a VC
6. References F: Cult VCs & Links to their Essay Blogs

References A: Running a VC Scout Program

1. On Running a VC Scout Program
2. A peek inside Sequoia Capital’s low-flying, wide-reaching scout program
3. Scout networks are latest VC salvo in war for founders
4. First Round Taps Active Operators For ‘Product Co-Op’ Angel Group Experiment
5. Sifted | The problem with using VC scout networks to improve diversity
6. Scout Programs Spread in Silicon Valley
7. Founder Investors & Scout Programs

References B: Student Focussed VC Funds

1. How students are founding, funding and joining startups

References C: Quant/AI Based Investing in VC Space

1. Why Automation is the Future of Private Investing
2. Data-Driven VCs: Who Is Using AI To Be A Better (And Smarter) Investor
3. Data-driven VCs
4. Quant VC — Can machines systematically pick the best startups?
5. The Rise of Algorithmic VC
6. Can You Build a Quant VC Fund? — Building 58
7. Capital-as-a-Service: A New Operating System for Early Stage Investing
8. Revisiting Point Nine’s tech stack. Plus: 7 little hacks that help me keep (some of my) sanity
9. Could Data-Based, Human-Free Investing Eliminate Bias? — The New Stack
10. Will predictive software “eat” the VC Manager
11. Digital tools that will help you make blockbuster investment decisions — Board of Innovation
12. Win by Eating Their Own Dogs’ Food: How 83 Venture Capital Firms Use Data, AI & Proprietary
13. Why machine learning falls short in early stage venture capital

References D: Miscellaneous

1. Resources for those interested in venture capital and private equity
2. What 15 Years of Y Combinator Investments Can Teach Us About Startups
3. The importance of market analysis for early stage entrepreneurs & VCs
4. InReach Ventures` Tech Stack
5. The 26 most innovative venture capital firms
6. Three Core Principles of Venture Capital Portfolio Strategy
7. Disrupting Venture Capital in Southeast Asia
8. First Round Taps Active Operators For ‘Product Co-Op’ Angel Group Experiment
9. First Round Taps Active Operators For ‘Product Co-Op’ Angel Group Experiment

References E: How to become a VC

1. Book: Break Into VC Investor Entrepreneur Professional
2. Applying Decision Analysis to Venture Investing
3. A Template for Startup Executive Summary or Investment Memo for VCs
4. How do VCs make money?
5. VC Funds 101: Understanding Venture Fund Structures, Team Compensation, Fund Metrics and Reporting
6. The Investment Memo | NextView Ventures
7. An Aspiring VC’s Guide to Building an Investment Thesis
8. All you should know about the Investment Thesis
9. The Birth of a Venture Capital Investment Thesis
10. Investment Thesis Collection from Venture Capital Firms -
11. Sequoia’s Investment Memo on YouTube
12. Venture Capital Jobs and Career Resources
13. VC Scene in Silicon Valley Blog

References E: Cult VCs and Link to their Essay Blogs

1. Cult VC Blogs
2. VCs Podcasting

Disclaimer to Reader: I keep updating my previously written articles [even this one in future :) ], that’s my style. Simple hack: either clap or highlight something you like in the article to index this article on your medium.com profile (to retrieve it later). I don’t intend to finish an article because I believe in a ‘continuum’ with ongoing deeper research with periodic updates.

Disclaimer to Reader: I keep updating my previously written articles [even this one in future :) ], that’s my style. Simple hack: either clap or highlight something you like in the article to index this article on your medium.com profile (to retrieve it later). I can never finish an article because I continue to update it :) with deeper research.

Why some people are impossibly talented ?

A polymath is a person who excels across a diverse range of areas. Also known as “renaissance men”, the term was used to refer to the numerous great thinkers that lived during that time period and boasted achievements in intellectual, social, artistic and physical pursuits.

The definition of “polymath” is the subject of debate. The term has its roots in Ancient Greek and was first used in the early 17th Century to mean a person with “many learnings”, but there is no easy way to decide how advanced those learnings must be and in how many disciplines. Most researchers argue that to be a true polymath you need some kind of formal acclaim in at least two apparently unrelated domains.

“A modern polymath is someone who becomes competent in at least three diverse domains and integrates them into a top 1-percent skill set.” — Michael Simmons

Famous PolyMaths

1. Albert Einstein (violinist, pianist & physicist) —
2. Hedy Lamarr — 1940s — Inventor & Hollywood Actress — Aerodynamics
3. Benjamin Franklin (writer, politician, inventor, scientist) —
4. Imhotep (chancellor, architect, physician) to the Pharaoh
5. Leonardo da Vinci (scientist, artist, philosopher, writer, inventor).
6. Elon Musk (serial entrepreneur, inventor)
7. Nick Szabo (bit-gold, cryptographer) —
8. Frances Arnold (Nobel Prize Winner, chemist, pianist, guitarist and pipe organ)

Every human is born with multifarious potential. Why, then, do parents, schools and employers insist that we restrict our many talents and interests; that we ‘specialise’ in just one? — Waqas Ahmed

What are the qualities that allow polymaths to achieve their greatness ?

1. The polymaths were also often self-reliant — happy to teach themselves — and individualist; they were driven by a great desire for personal fulfilment — by Waqas Ahmed in his book ‘Polymath’
2. The polymath not only moves between different spheres or different fields and disciplines, but seeks fundamental connections between those fields, so as to give them a unique insight into each of them — by Waqas Ahmed in his book ‘Polymath’
3. A polymath needs high emotional resilience to pursue their interests in the face of external expectations. Because we live in a society that tells us to specialise, and these are people who didn’t do that — they forged their own path. Many people may lack the necessary self-possession to fight those norms — by Angela Cotellessa, whose PhD at George Washington University involved interviewing modern polymaths
4. For them it works a bit like cross-pollination, with the ideas in one field serving to inspire innovations in the other. They alternate between their interests — switching context very often — ensuring that they are using their brains at maximum efficiency in each domain, while avoiding wasted effort after they have reached that cognitive saturation point(You can get into the zone and be very productive up until a certain point, then you need to change your activity in order to come back to it in an optimal state).

“Polymathy is the optimal path to creativity because, by its very nature, it requires you to be diverse in your experience and your learning,” says Ahmed.

Evidence of diverse backgrounds of Polymath personalities

1. In his recent book Range, influential scientists are much more likely to have diverse interests outside their primary area of research than the average scientist, for instance. — David Epstein
2. Studies have found that Nobel Prize-winning scientists are about 25 times more likely to sing, dance or act than the average scientist. They are also 17 times more likely to create visual art, 12 times more likely to write poetry and four times more likely to be a musician.

Book ‘PolyMath’ on such people by Waqas Ahmed

We’ve been sold a myth, that to ‘specialise’ is the only way to pursue truth, identity, or even a livelihood. Yet specialisation is nothing but an outdated system that fosters ignorance, exploitation and disillusionment and thwarts creativity, opportunity and progress.

Nurture your inner polymath

All the above suggests that polymathic abilities may be within the reach of more people than we had once assumed. And even if we don’t reach the heights of someone like Leonardo da Vinci, we will still find some benefits from widening our interests, rather than relentlessly pursuing a narrow specialism.

And we have many advantages compared to the polymaths of the past. The internet, after all, is now full of free online courses in many different disciplines, and it is easier than ever to hook up with an expert teacher online.

The most comprehensive case that has ever been made for why nearly everyone should become a polymath in a modern knowledge economy.

Conscious Effort to become a PolyMath

I. Shallow Comprehension to point of Competence

There are a lot of factors involved. Probably the most important is that a Polymath studies most of their fields up the the point of competence, not to excellence. This means I understand a subject and the factors that are involved with performing a skill or profession without absorbing the vast database of information it takes to actually perform the job effectively or learning the fine motor skills. I can do almost any job out there, just at a tenth the speed of a trained professional because I need to look everything up while I do it.

This “shallow comprehension” actually allows a great deal of cross-pollination between fields.

II. Auto-didacticism or self-education

It is education without the guidance of masters or institutions. Generally, an autodidact is an individual who chooses the subject they will study, their studying material, and the studying rhythm and time

The Era of the Modern Polymath

“The future belongs to the integrators.” — Educator Ernest Boyer

Why do the world’s smartest and busiest people find one hour a day for deliberate learning (the 5-hour rule), while others make excuses about how busy they are?

The answer is simple: Learning is the single best investment of our time that we can make. Or as Benjamin Franklin said, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”

PolyMath Vs Renaissance nuance(s)

I think that a polymath is a person who has different and broadly interests in many fields (especially academic…). The term Renaissance Man is often misunderstood. For me a Renaissance Man is a very eclectic man who is in top physical condition, but also is very knowledgeable in different fields (academic and non-academic) and has different, practical skills. I’ll give you two examples just to be more clear. I think that a man like Umberto Eco is a real Polymath because he was so knowledgeable in different academic fields. Leonardo Da Vinci, Goethe, Casanova, Richard Francis Burton, C.B. Fry are only few names of Renaissance Men in history. They were knowledgeable in different fields (art, science, music, literature, etc.), non-academic fields like esotericism (especially Burton and Casanova), sports and physical development (with C.B. Fry as a prime example). I appreciate so much the term Renaissance Man because i see it like the term that indicates the complete man, an all-rounder with an encyclopedic knowledge.

Books

1. The PolyMath —by Bensalem Himmich
2. The New Polymath — by Vinnie Mirchandani
3. The Polymath — by Peter Burke
4. The Polymath — by Waqar Ahmed

Related Questions

1. What are some ways to become a “renaissance man” in the 21st century?
2. How does one become a polymath?
3. What is the difference between renaissance man and polymath?
4. Who are currently notable polymaths?
5. Who are the women polymaths?
6. Is it possible to be a Polymath or Renaissance Man in this day and Age? If so, how?
7. How do polymaths find time to do so many things? Do they ever procrastinate? What do they do when they need to be engaged in one of their interests, but really feel like engaging in another interest at that moment?
8. A polymath, an autodidactic and a dilettante are thrown into the Thunderdome. “Three man enter, one man leaves.” Who?

Synonyms: PolyMath

Renaissance Man, Polyhistor, Pantomath(less stricter sense).

References

https://medium.com/accelerated-intelligence/the-5-hour-rule-if-youre-not-spending-5-hours-per-week-learning-you-re-being-irresponsible-791c3f18f5e6?

• People Who Have “Too Many Interests” Are More Likely To Be Successful According To Research
• Being a Polymath Future-proofs Your career
• It's easier than ever to be a polymath
• Great polymaths of history: all-round genius
• List of Polymaths
• The last days of the polymath
• The Golden Age of the Polymath | The Platform
• Famous Polymaths from History
• Top 10 Autodidacts Throughout History - Listverse

Disclaimer to Reader: I keep updating my previously written articles [even this one in future :) ], that’s my style. Simple hack: either clap or highlight something you like in the article to index this article on your medium.com profile (to retrieve it later). I can never finish an article because I continue to update it :) with deeper research.

The end of a decade (full of reading) for me I wanted to make a personal note to myself to reread the books that have made a huge difference in my last decade of reading 2010–2020. I wish to personally segregate these books in different categories. It’s a personal introspection of what knowledge have I surrounded myself with the last 10 years so that I can reflect and deliberately carve a path for myself stepping into the next decade.

A. [1–5] Belief | Physical/Mental Health | Biohacking

1. Biology of Belief — Bruce H. Lipton
2. Tools of Titans — Tim Ferris
3. The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss — Jason Fung
4. Wheat Belly — William Davis
5. Un-doctored — William Davis

B. [6–8]Design Patterns & Java

1. Design Patterns —Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, John Vlissides & Grady Booch (Gang of Four)
2. Head First Design Patterns — Eric Freeman, Bert Bates, Kathy Sierra & Elisabeth Robson
3. Head First Java — Kathy Sierra & Bert Bates

C. [9–13]Python Programming

1. Automate the Boring Stuff with Python
2. Python Web Frameworks
3. 20 Python Libraries You Aren’t Using
4. Python Data Science Handbook
5. Test Driven Development with Python

D. [14–18] Erlang/OTP — Functional Programming

1. Learn You Some Erlang — Fred Hebert
2. Programming Erlang — Joe Armstrong
3. Erlang and OTP in Action — Martin Logan, Eric Merritt, and Richard Carlsson
4. Designing for Scalability with Erlang/OTP — Francesco Cesarini & Steve Vinoski
5. Erlang Programming: A Concurrent Approach — Francesco Cesarini & Simon Thompson

E. [19–23] Sales | Revenue | Funnels

1. Predictable Revenue — Aaron Ross & Marylou Tyler
2. Fanatical Prospecting — Jeb Blount & Mike Weinberg
3. Secrets of Closing the Sale — Zig Ziglar
4. Selling the Invisible — Harry Beckwith
5. Selling the Wheel — Jeff Cox & Howard Stevens

F. [24–29] Financial Freedom & Independence

1. Rich Dad Poor Dad — Robert T. Kiyosaki
2. Cashflow Quadrant — Robert T. Kiyosaki
3. The Millionaire Fastlane — MJ DeMarco
4. Increase Your Financial IQ — Robert T. Kiyosaki
5. Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing — Robert T. Kiyosaki
6. The Top 10 Habits of Millionaires — Smith-Keith-Cameron

G. [30–35] Picking Stocks & Investing

1. One Up on Wall Street — Peter Lynch
2. Beating the Street — Peter Lynch
3. The Intelligent Investor — Benjamin Graham
4. The Buffettology Workbook — Mary Buffett
5. The Warren Buffett Way — Robert G. Hagstrom

H. [36–40] New Ways of Thinking

1. Outliers: The Story of Success — Malcolm Gladwell
2. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference — Malcolm Gladwell
3. The Game — Neil Strauss
4. Freakonomics REV Ed: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything — Steven D Levitt & Stephen J Dubner
5. The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement — Eliyahu M. Goldratt

I. [41–45] Thinking, Mental Models & The Mind

1. Seeking Wisdom — Peter Bevelin (Charlie Munger’s Mental Models)
2. Who Moved my Cheese — Spencer Johnson
3. Poor Charlie’s Almanack — Peter D. Kaufman (Charlie Munger’s Wisdom)
4. Think and Grow Rich — Napoleon Hill
5. The Secret — Rhonda Byrne

J. [46–50] StartUp Essentials

1. Copy This — Paul Orfalea
2. Hackers & Painters — Paul Graham
3. Venture Deals — Brad Feld
4. Zero to One — Peter Thiel
5. Financial Intelligence for Entrepreneurs — Karen Berman & Joe Knight

K. [51–55] Building StartUps

1. Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers — Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur
2. The Lean Startup — Eric Ries
3. Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products — Nir Eyal
4. Platform Scale — Sangeet Paul Choudary
5. Crossing the Chasm, 3rd Edition: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers — Geoffrey A Moore

L. [56–60] Biographies of Stalwarts in Business-I

1. Steve Jobs — Walter Isaacson
2. Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX & PayPal— Ashlee Vance
3. The Snowball — Alice Schroeder (Warren Buffet Biography)
4. 50th Law — 50 Cent(aka Curtis Jackson)
5. Against All Odds: A Story of Courage, Perseverance and Hope — A G Krishnamurthy

M. [61–65] Biographies of Stalwarts in Business-II

1. Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built — Duncan Clark
2. Sam Walton: Made In America — Sam Walton
3. Minecraft: The Unlikely Tale of Markus “Notch” Persson and the Game That Changed Everything — Daniel Goldberg & Linus Larsson
4. Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike — Phil Knight
5. The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon — Brad Stone

N. [66–70] Bitcoin, Cryptocurrencies & Blockchains

1. Mastering Bitcoin by Andreas M. Antonopoulos
2. Programming Bitcoin by Jimmy Song
3. Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies — by Arvind Narayanan
4. The Book Of Satoshi: Collective writings by Satoshi Nakomoto
5. Mastering Ethereum: Building Smart Contracts and DApps by Andreas M. Antonopoulos

O. [71–75] Negotiation & Deal Making

1. Trump: The Art of the Deal — Donald J. Trump
2. Trump-Style Negotiation by George H. Ross (Trump Advisor)
3. The Accidental Investment Banker — Jonathan A. Knee
4. Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World — William D. Cohan
5. Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It — Chris Voss & Tahl Raz

P. [76–79] Trade Lifecycle & Exchanges

1. Electronic Exchanges: The Global Transformation from Pits to Bits — Michael Gorham & Nidhi Singh
2. Nerds on Wall Street: Math, Machines and Wired Markets — David J. Leinweber
3. The Trade Lifecycle — Robert P. Baker
4. Managing Financial Information in the Trade Lifecycle — Martijn Groot

Q. [80–83] Future Read: Functional Programming

1. Purely Functional Data Structures — Chris Okasaki
2. Fundamentals of Functional Programming — Preethi Kasireddy
3. Functional Programming in Python —
4. Grokking Functional Programming — Michał Płachta

R. [84–86] Future Read: Startups

1. The Hard Thing About Hard Things — Ben Horowitz
2. Thinking in Bets — Annie Duke
3. Blitz Scaling — Reid Hoffman

S. [87–89] Future Read: New York Times Best Sellers

1. Secrets of Sand Hill Road — Scott Kupor
2. The Man Who Solved the Market — Gregory Zuckerman
3. Think Fast and Slow — Daniel Kahneman

T. [90–91] Future Reads: Biographies

1. Einstein: His Life and Universe — Walter Isaacson
2. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life — Walter Isaacson

U. [92–93] Future Read:Growth Hacking, Marketing & Internet

1. The Conversion Code: Capture Internet Leads, Create Quality Appointments, Close More Sales — Chris Smith
2. Growth Hacking: Silicon Valley’s Best Kept Secret — Raymond Fong &
   Chad Riddersen
3. Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth — 
   Gabriel Weinberg & Justin Mares

V. [94–95] Future Read: PolyMaths

1. The Polymath: Unlocking the Power of Human Versatility — 
   Waqas Ahmed
2. The New Polymath: Profiles in Compound-Technology Innovations — Vinnie Mirchandani

W. [96–97] Future Read: Health

1. Super Human: The Bulletproof Plan to Age Backward and Maybe Even Live Forever — Dave Asprey
2. Metabolic Autophagy: Practice Intermittent Fasting and Resistance Training to Build Muscle and Promote Longevity (Metabolic Autophagy Diet) — Siim Land

X. [98–100] Future Read: Nerd Comical Stuff

1. How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems — Randall Munroe
2. What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions — Randall Munroe
3. Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words — Randall Munroe

I am also including book shelf of many champions. This will act as a great reference to borrow titles.

“Reading is standing on shoulders of giants”

1. Patrick Collison: https://patrickcollison.com/bookshelf
2. https://medium.com/swlh/essential-books-for-the-entrepreneurs-bookshelf-cd203b947fe6
3. Naval Ravikant: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/BJATORU6HFYT

Disclaimer to Reader: I keep updating my previously written articles [even this one in future :) ], that’s my style. Simple hack: either clap or highlight something you like in the article to index this article on your medium.com profile (to retrieve it later). I can never finish an article because I continue to update it :) with deeper research.

INDEX OF HEALTH MOVEMENTS

1. IF — Intermittent Fasting [Feasting/Fasting, Autophagy & Ketones]
2. Keto Diet — 90% Fat, 8% Protein & 2% Carbs [Eat fat to lose weight!]
3. Protein Type: Carnivore Vs Insect Vs Vegan Vs Veg. Vs Dairy Vs SeaFood
4. Modified(M)-Processed(P):Fruit(M),Wheat(M),Milk(P) Grains(M)
5. Organic Vs Inorganic Foods: Chemical Fertilisers the real culprit
6. Gut & Belly Button: Gut the 2nd Brain & super highway nerves the belly

Top Health Researchers you should follow

Follow them on twitter, watch their talks and read their books each one of them has been carefully picked. The best way to start is by watching their youtube videos.

1. David Sinclair: Twitter | Youtube: 1, 2, 3 | Book: Lifespan (Anti-Aging)
2. Bruce Lipton: Twitter | Youtube: 1, 2, 3 | Book: Biology of Belief
3. Dr. Jason Fung: Twitter | Youtube: 1, 2, 3 | Book: The Obesity Code
4. Eric Berg: Twitter | Youtube: 1, 2, 3 | Book: Keto & Intermittent Fasting
5. Peter Attia: Twitter | Youtube: 1, 2, 3 | Podcast: Listen to his Podcast
6. Bert Herring: Twitter | Youtube: 1, 2, 3 | Book: The Fast-5 Diet
7. William Davis, MD: Twitter | Book1: Wheat Belly | Book2: Undoctored

Notes from David Sinclair Talk: Anti-Aging

Stop Aging in 3 Steps

1. Step1: DISCIPLINE: Exercise + [Intermittent Fasting, Keto] + Sleep
2. Step2: BIOHACK: Take metformin in recovery period i.e alternate day to exercise

Hormesis: What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger

Hormesis is a term used by toxicologists to refer to a biphasic dose response to an environmental agent characterised by a low dose stimulation or beneficial effect and a high dose inhibitory or toxic effect.

Notes from Bert Herring Talk— Fast-5 and D.I.E.T.

1. “Use it or lose it” — Muscles in Body & Brain Cells
2. DI.E.T. defines as — ‘Did I Enrich Today’
3. “Breakfast — the most important meal ” — is advertisement, not science.

Disclaimer to Reader: I keep updating my previously written articles [even this one in future :) ], that’s my style. Simple hack: either clap or highlight something you like in the article to index this article on your medium.com profile (to retrieve it later). I can never finish an article because I continue to update it :) with deeper research.

This is part of the Broader Series: “You don’t know what you don’t know’ — 0Research.com | Learning to work on your unknown unknowns : knowledge blindspots which only can be solved with exposure

Part3: Building a Venture

Previous in Series: Part1: SuperFounders ; Part2: First Time Entrepreneurs ;

Index: Why Startups Succeed

1. Problem, Solution & Implementation Assumptions
2. Investment Thesis of a VC fund | Market Size
3. Timing (early, late or just-in time): Graveyard of Innovations

Founder: Basic Skills

1. Story Telling, Hiring & Delegation
2. Cap-tables, Share Holder Agreement(SHA) & Valuation
3. Network Capital: Peer Founders, Mentors, Talent Pool & VCs
4. Playbooks
5. Governance: Board Meetings, Roadmap Deliverables & Runway

Further Reading

1. Legendary Warren Buffets’ Letter to Shareholders Read all of them here
2. Jeff Bezos’ Letter to Shareholders Read all of them here
3. Amazon’s “Six Pager” (No ppt/presentation approach) Read More
4. Jeff Bezos’ Two-Pizza Team Rule: Read More
5. Charlie Munger’s Book: Seeking Wisdom Read More
6. Ray Dilo’s Book: Principles Life & Work Read More
7. Timeless Blogs: Paul Graham: Essays| Mark Andressen: Essays, Essays Archive| Shane Parrish: fs.blog | Kevin Kelly: Essays
8. Game of Venture Investing
9. Solopreneur Vs Team based Founders
10. PolyMath Founders
11. Nfx: Bible of network effects:
12. Thirteen Types of Network Effects: Detailed blog

Disclaimer to Reader: I keep updating my previously written articles [even this one in future :) ], that’s my style. Simple hack: either clap or highlight something you like in the article to index this article on your medium.com profile (to retrieve it later). I can never finish an article because I continue to update it :) with deeper research.