We (humans) read hundreds of articles on company building, angel investing, and self-management and curate the best ones into a weekly summary—helping founders and operators stay on the top of their game.
Better thinking
Palantir’s CTO starts a film company (1 minute read)
Okay, tangent, but this makes a lot of sense. Truly excellent storytelling and collective belief wield the power of nations. But we, as technologists, have so far failed to really take advantage of this power, which is the ability to influence people through great stories. I’m not surprised that a bunch of smart people have started Founders Films, a film and TV production studio that aims to highlight American exceptionalism. I expect to see more smart people getting into media.
Encore anxiety (6 minute read)
“Encore anxiety”, the paralysing fear of disappointing people who already expect greatness from you. Drawing from comedy and creative work, Anu argues that success transforms anonymous creative freedom into reputation management, where protecting past achievements becomes the enemy of future innovation. There’s only really one solution, just try to forget about audience expectations and do your thing.
Content and community (22 minute read)
Long read, aways worth it. Ben Thompson traces how AI represents the final step in content's digital evolution, completely commoditising creation itself. The future belongs to creators who build communities around shared experiences. Including you, the founder or investor reading this.
Operational tactics
How to turn down a VC who you want to come in a later round (3 minute read)
Startup founders often face the tricky situation of declining a prominent VC while wanting to preserve the relationship for future rounds. The approach boils down to positioning your "no" as strategic timing rather than outright rejection, then maintaining regular contact through milestone updates.
Most founders misunderstand board meetings as advice sessions, but their true value lies in forcing strategic reflection and building investor trust for future fundraising. Boards hire and fire CEOs, but they're not there to solve your problems.
The sales strategy conquering the AI market (2 minute read)
AI's rapid evolution is breaking traditional SaaS sales models, creating a new role called forward deployed engineers who replace customer success managers. Since buyers don't understand AI workflows yet and technology changes too fast for standard processes, companies like Palantir, OpenAI, and Anthropic now embed technical consultants directly with customers to deliver outcomes rather than just software.
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Angel investing
The Halo Effect (17 minute read)
Kevin breaks down "HALO" deals - a new type of transaction where companies hire teams and license IP instead of acquiring startups outright. Think Inflection, Character AI, and Windsurf. The market is shifting to value people over assets, making talent more valuable than the companies they build. We’re going to see more of this in AI, but what does this mean for employees of these companies? The jury is out.
Little ways the world works (10 minute read)
A deep dive into universal principles that show up across biology, physics, business, and beyond. From fish growth rates mirroring startup trajectories to thermodynamics explaining career success, patterns that appear in multiple fields reveal fundamental truths about how everything works. The best insights come from connecting dots between seemingly unrelated disciplines rather than staying in your lane. Which is why I think some of the best investors out there are “well-read”.
Invest in your friends (4 minute watch)
If you believe in your own abilities as a founder or operator, you tend to attract other competent people into your professional network. These should be default “yes” when they look to raise funding. It’s a network play that only compounds when you participate.
Managing your career
How to approach starting a new job (9 minute read)
Elena Verna breaks down her go-to playbook for nailing the first 90 days at any new job, using examples from her recent start at Lovable. She's cracked the code on balancing learning with actually delivering results through four moves - protect what works, grab quick wins, place big bets, then build strategy.
Winning in your career by doing what AI can’t (2 minute read)
Most takes I’ve seen about “winning in the face of AI” have focused on being a generalist by wielding AI to do lots of different things. Here’s a counter. Since AI can't improve from feedback like humans do, your career advantage lies in becoming a continuous learning machine through constant iteration and specialisation. While AI gets better at everything, humans should pick one domain and master it deeply.
The confidence game (4 minute read)
Having confidence doesn't change what decisions you make, but it makes them faster and easier. So having a high confidence increases your velocity of action (and learning). Two shortcuts help build confidence quickly. Start with small decisions and work up, or lean on someone else's experience until you develop your own.