I've finally invested in enough unicorns (at seed) that I have confidence in the traits unicorn founders have in common. If you fail to hone these traits, you will fail to build a $1B+ company in my experience. / 1. Velocity consists of speed Matt Loszak from Aalo showed me this the most: The best founders are viscerally uncomfortable with slow progress. They feel it as a physical irritant, not an abstract concern. They obsessively refactor how they’re pursuing goals to identify clever shortcuts and rethink their roadmap from first principles. Speed leads to high momentum and a compounding returns on knowledge and product. It’s necessary to maintain your headstart in a market, otherwise the faster competitor will beat you within a couple years. / 2. Velocity consists of direction The best founders regularly surface from heads-down execution to ask whether their path is still the right one — whether a better route to the destination has opened up, or whether the destination itself has shifted. Pathfinding prevents the common failure mode of executing brilliantly in the wrong direction. It requires intellectual honesty and the willingness to kill plans that no longer make sense. The best founders set a recurring quarterly calendar event to re-assess all their goals. / 3. Mission alignment The journey to building a unicorn is long. Without a mission that goes beyond financial outcome, most founders lose steam and start phoning it in. Then they get surpassed by competitors who are hungrier. The mission doesn't have to be world-saving — but it has to be genuine to you. / 4. Asking for advice and integrating it The best founders ask smart people for advice and implement the good advice immediately. The moment they’re shown a better way, they update their processes. They don’t assume they’ll stumble into better ways organically; they set aside time each week to learn from others and shortcut their development. They assemble a counsel of advisors who are the best in the world at what they do and they sell them on the mission. / 5. Brick-by-brick hiring Adam Guild of Owner showed me this the most. Unicorn founders treat each early hire as weight-bearing. They run a deliberate process to find the best person in the world for each role — not whoever is closest at hand ("hiring within arm's reach") from their existing networks. (Unless they are the best). The foundation built in the first ten hires sets the ceiling for everything that follows. A single mis-hire in a key seat early on compounds. Getting this right means the team itself becomes a competitive moat.

in case you're unaware: matt started a company called aalo that's making nuclear reactors to provide unlimited energy. they turn on a reactor THIS YEAR. modern nuclear is almost here. they solve the problems of slow build times and safety. the factory pumps out hundreds per year

i live on ranch, and it cost me less than buying an apartment in california. the downside is isolation from city life. if that doesn't bother you, quality of life shoots up. you'll become obsessed with animals 😂 i have 2 mini cows, mini horses, poodles. must stop, but... learning to train them is too fun. i've included a video of my mini cow giving "hello friend" head nods to my new mini horse i'm also building a soundshed on the property with two hifi audio systems to incept my friends to fall in love with the hobby. over time, you also become interested in being off grid. think solar, starlink, rain catchment, cattle + chickens, herb + fruit + veggie garden. life slows down and you start to value building these skills—to self-sustain. going outside between Zoom calls and just looking at the trees and hearing wind rustle through them is so calming. this is how i grow up. shouldn't have done a full 15 years in the city in between. i've built a bunch of guest cabins, and friends can come stay for a couple weeks at a time. i put guitars + pianos + hifi in their cabins so they can feel creative next up is a giant golf cart racing course that traverses through the property

As an adult, I've thrice encountered a type of person I despise: The high-achiever who stops chatting with you—after having a great, close, years-long relationship—the moment they no longer perceive you as useful toward gaining power and success in their career path.

my baby mini cow is a tiny boi he's good on a leash now (halter) and follows you wherever you go his name is oat. cutest part of the ranch