Controlled emotion

We had an all-hands meeting last week where a few of us broke out into rooms and shared what we miss about the office and working together. I came to a funny realization halfway through the conversation when I realized that I was simply just venting to my coworkers about all my frustrations. It quickly came to me that one of the things I miss most about going to the office is the ability to vent to my coworkers.

My job is a bit of an emotional rollercoaster at times. Often times, I’ll be on back to back calls for hours at a time. I’ll go from a deep (and often) heated negotiation with a client to a friendly meeting with a new hire where I need to put a smile on.

Short-term memory is important as it’s imperative that I don’t let one bad call ruin my next. Of course, this is all easier said than done. We’re all human and emotions run deep. Something stuck in my mind can definitely affect the rest of my day and my interactions with people as well.

One of the big tools that have helped me control my emotions throughout the day is meditation. Practicing meditation every day helps me take a step back and realize what’s truly going through my head. When shit really hits the fan, I do a guided meditation that can help even if it’s just a few minutes.

Often times, when I need a break, I’ll go and exercise as well. A quick run, workout video or yoga session does wonders for me in helping control my emotions throughout the day when I can afford a longer break.

And lastly, when things really get bad. I call some of my coworkers to vent. While it’s not the same as turning around and venting to someone in person, a quick Zoom vent session does wonders.

A new day and age

The Nasdaq is rallying among talks about the stimulus. With the Fed printing money, it appears that nothing can really derail this stock market. Even a contentious presidential election may not be enough to turn the Nasdaq away. And yes, there is still a global pandemic happening right now. I for one am ready for the holidays and for 2021 to be over. It’s going to be crazy Q4.

While discussing COVID-19 among friends, we’re all in agreement that this is a new day and age. My view on the pandemic is that it may seem like new trends were created because of coronavirus, but in reality, what we are seeing is an acceleration of trends that were already in motion.

Remote work and teleconferencing were going to be a staple soon enough. Companies were already trending that way. COVID-19 just accelerated that trend perhaps 10 years forward. People complained about San Francisco and New York and bragged about leaving well before COVID-19. They just now have an ability to keep their high paying job while moving to the suburbs so they’re using the pandemic as an excuse to get out.

One thing we can all agree on is that this is a new day and age that we haven’t seen before. The old heads are ripping their hairs out at the insane valuations on the stock market. Yet again, we are only really touching the surface of what tech is able to accomplish. A 100x revenue multiple is quite insane when compared to other comps, but people are forgetting that these companies are now growing faster than ever before due to the leverage of technology.

It has never been easier to start a company or raise capital. TAMs for businesses and industries are growing at levels never seen before. Globalization is growing… rapidly. There are more “unicorns” than ever before. Perhaps the mark of success will shift from being a unicorn to a decacorn. It may sound insane, but it’s coming faster than you think.

My new addiction

I played another 18 holes today. That’s after playing a round on Monday and Thursday. I am officially addicted to golf. Sophia jokingly hates my new addiction as it takes time away from us spending time together and all my guy friends and I do is talk golf when we see each other.

My girlfriend’s needs aside, golf has been an awesome hobby for me. It gives me something to be excited and passionate about outside of work. It’s competitive but at the same time relaxing. There’s really no better feeling then being on the course on a gorgeous day.

Most of all, I love golf because it’s a temporary escape from the day to day. I am focused solely on playing the game and my shots. I leave my phone in my bag and don’t check it for the entire round.

My swing is all over the place and the game can be frustrating often, but even when I play like shit, it’s the perfect escape and I would do it all day long.

Success and envy

I’m not entirely sure most of my friends know exactly what I do on a day to day basis. They know I work for a fintech startup, but most aren’t in the startup or venture capital world so there’s usually glazed eyes when I describe what I do.

The ones that do get it however always want to know what the hottest startup is so they can work there and get some equity. It’s also a bit funny to realize how naïve some people are when it comes to equity. Most underestimate how much people really get paid out at IPO. A lot also don’t realize that it’s when you join a company.

This Friday afternoon ended with news of a company that we work with getting acquired. I had a particularly interest in this company because well, everyone that I talked to from there was just a genuinely good person and I was more than happy to help them with their situation.

Today after the announcement, they are all millionaires and some even multi-millionaires.

I am beyond excited for them as I can only imagine what it feels like to read a news headline and realize that your net worth has just skyrocketed. On the other hand, I am human and am a little bit envious.

It’s a constant battle at my job. Being genuinely happy for my friends who just made it big, but at the same time wish that I was in their position. Part of my job is to do this every single day. I help people who are paper rich become actually rich.

I can’t say that I’ve completely gotten over the envy, but I’ve learned to deal with it and realize that success is not a zero sum game. These are the same people rooting for both me and Secfi’s success.

My time will come one day and I know these same people that I supported will be there for me when it happens.

For now, I am ecstatic and will continue to support my friends…. and make them buy dinner next time I see them.

The return of Alteryx

Today was my first day back full working since Wednesday. First days back are always tough and today was no exception even though I took Monday off to recover. I have yet to crack how to come back from vacation rested and feeling great, rather than slogging through the day. Hoping I feel better tomorrow as I’ve got a lot to catch up on.

Alteryx ($AYX) is back after closing today 28% up from yesterday after raising revenue guidance and announcing a new CEO. The stock has been a Wall Street darling since hitting the market in 2017. The stock has nearly 10x’d since it’s debut on the public markets 3.5 years ago.

It was holds near to my heart as it was one of my earliest stock purchases and the first one to really take off. I bought in first at $16 close to the IPO and have been slowing adding my position since. So what gets me most excited about Alteryx?

I first used the software back in my days at PwC where I helped hedge funds get more efficient and streamline processes. The beauty behind Alteryx is that it was a completely drag and drop tool that allowed anyone to work with large datasets. It cut out expensive engineers and data scientist and created automated workflows that business users can run on their own.

The first time I used Alteryx was an Oh Shit moment. It took me all about 10 minutes to realize how powerful this tool was going to be within the organization. Within a few months, we had built a team that would sell consulting projects using Alteryx to automate workflows and processes for our clients.

Many don’t realize it, but Alteryx is at the forefront of the no-code movement that will help bridge the gap between my generation and the generation that grows up coding in schools. Automation and AI is coming to the workplace at rapid rates and Alteryx will be a large part of that tech stack to enables change in these organizations.

I remain very long Alteryx and look forward to the software taking over the workplace in the near future.

Joshua Tree

I spent the weekend celebrating my best friend’s birthday at an Airbnb in Joshua Tree. I had never been to the Palm Springs/Yucca Valley area before despite being a native Californian. It won’t be my last time going there however. It’s an absolutely gorgeous park that is hard to compare to anything I’ve seen before in my life.

The plants, wildlife and the landscape was absolutely fascinating. The sunset and sunrise over the mountains was absolutely breathtaking.

It was a long weekend trip that had a little bit of everything. We did a little bit of partying like we were in our 20s, did a lot of nature and a lot of relaxing. It was a great weekend catching up with old friends. I am a bit exhausted and may have taken more than one nap today.

I took tomorrow off as a day to get caught up. I have learned from these long weekends that taking a wraparound day allows me to properly reset mentally and physically. It allows me to hit the ground running on Tuesday feeling much more rested. I plan on golfing in the morning and then I’m planning on spending the afternoon getting caught up on emails and personal errands.

The great recharge and orange man's taxes

I shot a 95 at Metropolitan in Oakland on Saturday. That’s the best I’ve ever shot and while I have long ways to go before I can call myself a good golfer, I’ll take a 95 on my 4th round after not golfing in years. I have the golf bug and it feels great to have a COVID safe hobby.

It’s weird to think about, but I haven’t had a hobby like golf over the last year. I’ve always had my friends, running, and food but it feels quite a bit different than golf. When I’m on the course, it feels like nothing else in the world matters and it’s been a feeling that I’ve missed all year.

I’m taking Thursday - Monday off to meet some friends in Joshua Tree. I’m really excited for some time away to relax and recharge before Q4. I can’t wait to be out in nature.

On to the next…

The talk of the town is the orange man’s taxes that were leaked to the New York Times. I can’t say I’m surprised to hear that Trump hasn’t paid taxes… lots of wealthy people don’t pay much in taxes. I am a bit surprised to see just how much money Trump loses.

We all knew he was the poor-man’s billionaire and full of shit, but if the leaks are true, there’s only one thing that Trump is good at in business and that’s losing money.

The question every person’s mind is just how does Trump not pay any taxes? Well it’s relatively simple.

He claims that his businesses lose more money than they make. Now if he truly does lose that much money on each business, that is pretty downright embarrassing, but it should also be noted that the tax code is very favorable for real estate investors.

The real question is whether these are true business losses or artificial tax losses. It’s really hard to say without digging into the details. There are a lot of expenses that the NYT are claiming such as a $750k consulting fee to his daughter which does not seem like a bona fide business expense.

Regardless of these expenses, there’s one thing that we can all draw from Trump’s tax returns and that he is not the successful business man that he claims to be. In fact, he is in a large financial predicament at the current moment.

A week of getting punched in the face

I felt like I was punched in the face about 20 times this week. It seemed to be bad news after bad news. Just one of those weeks where the floodgates were opened early and the bad news poured through.

It started with news of my Oma passing away on Sunday and ended with me failing my Series 24 exam by 2%. Oh yeah, I also got a parking ticket when I got back to my car after my test. There were lots more “fun” events in between as well.

By the end of Thursday, I felt defeated and just wanted to crawl into bed for 3 days.

I don’t know if karma is on my side after this week. I’d like to think so, but waiting for good news to come to me is largely out of control. What I can control is my attitude and and effort and I plan to focus just on that.

In times like these, I turn to mindfulness and positivity to keep my spirits up. Of course, we’re all human and have feelings so positivity doesn’t come overnight. Mindfulness helps me get back to the positive state after digesting everything.

Sometimes the best cure is getting back to work and getting back to that W column. That’s what I plan to do starting on Monday. Failures and setback makes me want to work harder and be even more successful the next time around. I’ve had a few setbacks this past week, but I plan to be getting back to the winner’s circle next week.

Before all that, I plan on getting some rest and relaxation to recharge. I’ve got a tee time at Noon today and I am beyond excited. Have a good weekend.

Priorities

Fred Wilson wrote a blog post titled Priorities today and it resonated with me. There are some weeks of work where I am on back to back calls/meetings all day, every day. Like for Fred, it’s a stressful time for me as I’m not able to spend appropriate time on emails and other work. Also like Fred, I usually use the weekends to catch up on weeks like this.

The past few weeks have been crazy with planning for Q4 while studying to take my Series 24 exam. I unfortunately have not been able to devote my full effort to other things in my life and work has taken a back seat. This kills me as I know there’s a lot of great things to be done for Secfi and I want it done now.

Life will get easier after I take and pass my exam tomorrow, but I know it’s only temporary. Weeks of back to back calls and craziness will continue to happen and possibly even happen more regularly.

I’ll need to look back on my priorities in life when they do happen.

America's addiction to gambling

I bought DraftKings stock shortly after the company was acquired through a SPAC. It was an odd time for an online sports betting website to go gambling because well, it was in the middle of a global pandemic and sports were largely shut down. It didn’t matter for me however and I still bought in early.

It doesn’t take long to see that Americans are addicted to gambling, specifically sports gambling. Barstool and their partnership with online sportsbook Penn Gaming has been seemingly a perfect marriage matching self-proclaimed “degenerate sports gamblers” to an online sports book.

I have friends who love sports that gamble as a way to make it more fun. I have friends who don’t love watching sports that watch sports so they can gamble. I personally don’t dabble in sports betting, but I can see the appeal.

Sports are making a comeback for the most part, albeit without any fans in the stadium. It’s no surprise to see $DKNG up almost 50% over the past month. As states continue to legalize online gambling to get a piece of that tax revenue and sports continue to come back in full force, I expect the online gambling sites such as DraftKings to continue to grow fast.

RIP Oma

I got a text last night from my cousin that my grandmother had passed away in her sleep. She was 86 years old and healthy so the news was unexpected to say the least.

I hadn’t been that close to her as she lived in Indonesia and we did not keep regular contact after my mother died when I was 7. I visited her every time I was in Indonesia and we would exchange WhatsApp messages every once in awhile.

Oma was a very gregarious woman. She had friends she would meet with almost daily even in her old age. She loved her kids and her family, and loved being the matriarch. She’s going to be missed dearly, but I am glad that my Mom now has her Mom up there with her.

I joked a few weeks ago that I felt like 2020 couldn’t get any worse. Unfortunately, it feels like gut punch after gut punch. In times like these, I try my best to stay positive and lean towards gratitude in life. It’s easier said than done.

Competition

It’s Friday. We made it. It was a long week for me, but one that ended on a high note. On top of a huge week of successful IPOs, we had a lot of big wins for the team.

I always this quote from Mark Cuban:

Business is the ultimate sport. In business, as in sport, the one thing you can control is effort.

Business is like a sport in many ways. The competitive nature of business is what makes it fun. The drive to succeed and win is measured by the effort you put in.

Whether it’s a pick-up basketball game or a deal proposal, one of the best feelings is putting in your maximum effort to win and coming out on top.

We won a lot this week and it feels great. Have a great weekend!

Bittersweet IPOs

Well, the Snowfalke IPO came and it didn’t disappoint. The stock closed at $253.93 which was over double the $120 IPO price. This IPO might hit #1 on the all-time IPO hype meter. There was a lot of bearish sentiment at this pricing which was set at over 100x revenue run rate.

It is overhyped and overvalued. But I think Snowflake is different than other overhyped companies lately (see Uber/Lyft) solely for the fact that it’s a pure tech play that is growing like a weed with a path to profitability in the next few years. I’ll still monitor for an entry point.

I did a Tweetstorm on a Snowflake case study from an employee’s standpoint in regards to stock options. Check it out here.

IPOs are always bittersweet. I get to meet some amazingly talented people over the years that help build these companies and I am beyond ecstatic to see them eventually cash in on their hard work. At the same time, it’s hard to watch how much money some people leave on the table in regards to their stock options.

We get to talk to a lot of people in regards to their equity and provide help, but the people we talk to are only a fraction of the employees out there. Days like today are ones that we celebrate but at the same time realize how much more work there is out there for us.

Personalities and burnout

We had a virtual leadership “off-site” meeting today. It was a lot of getting to know each other much more on a personal level and team building activities. I had a lot of fun over the nearly 6 hours we spent via Zoom together. I think we also set a record for longest company Zoom call on record so far.

We discussed each others’ personality types after taking the Insights Test. Most people that have been at corporate jobs or big companies will have likely done one of these tests. The idea is that it characterizes you in a category as a personality type. It’s an imperfect system, but I’ve always found that they are directionally correct.

I for one am described as an extreme “red” type aka “Director”. I have known this for largely most of my life and I suspect that it has something to do with growing up with a single father who was an immigrant entrepreneur. In short, red types are highly competitive and commanding. We want to win and sometimes draw people along with us.

What was particularly interesting is that 3 out of the 9 members on the call (including myself) were classified as red. All 3 of us also discussed problems with burnout and work-related stress. A couple of us have been to the hospital due to overwork. It was an alarming insight into the reality of our personality type.

Of course everyone is susceptible to burnout, but there is clearly a pattern that those red types are particularly sensitive to overwork. This is something that our leadership team is taking seriously. Burnout is dangerous for just for the individual but for the company. I’ve been through it many times before.

Luckily for me, I’ve got a lot of great teammates alongside me. We’ve committed as a team to help each other out to avoid burnout and have a few great ideas in place to execute on that commitment.

$SNOW days ahead

I just bought my season pass for the upcoming ski season and I’m in the process of recruiting some friends. It’s going to be a weird season. No lodges. Reservation only system. Regardless, I’m excited for some outdoor and safe activities. I am airing on the optimistic side on the reservation system, but I can see this being a nightmare if they oversell tickets.

Speaking of snow, possibly the most anticipated IPO since Uber and Lyft is $SNOW which is set to begin trading Wednesday. Snowflake will be kicking off a huge IPO week with Jfrog, Sumo Logic, and Unity following right behind. Also right past this week will be Palantir, Asana, DoorDash, and Airbnb. Wow.

I’m going to dedicate more posts to talking about this IPO season over the next few days, but I wanted to focus on Snowflake in this post.

Overhyped, expensive, best IPO buy of 2020? Possibly all the above. It is the most hyped IPO of the year. Even the King of value investing, Warren Buffet himself is getting in on the action.

(Disclaimer: I have worked with a lot of Snowflake clients over the past couple years and Secfi does have an interest in the company)

So what does Snowflake do? In short, they are a cloud based managed data warehouse. If you want to dig in much more into their product, this article does a great job explaining everything Snowflake.

What’s all the hype anyways? Well Snowflake is growing fast and they are doing it impressively. Revenue grew 130%+ for quarter ended 7/31/2020 compared to 7/31/2019. In addition, the way they are growing is impressive. Their net retention rate is 150+% which means that current clients expanded revenue 50%+ when not even accounting for new logos! If Snowflake didn’t get any new customers in over the last year, they would’ve grown revenue by 50+%.

To add to the bullish sentiment, the market for cloud data storage and analytics is growing at alarming rates. The world of data is not getting smaller by any means. Snowflake is currently riding the gigantic data wave and they’re sitting pretty.

I typically do not buy IPOs, but this is one that I am definitely making an exception for. Buyer beware. It will likely be a very volatile ride for the next year or two, but I remain long Snowflake as I have been for the last two years. The pricing and pop on this one on day one will likely be large. Depending on the price, I may look to start a small position on day one but will monitor this one for dips over the next 12 months.

Growing older and wiser

When I was a kid, I always thought golf was a sport for old boring men. I can always remember my Dad watching golf on TV and napping on the couch to my frustration when I wanted to go and do something. Perhaps I’m at the age when the bug hits as I’ve been doing nothing but thinking about golf and trying to perfect my swing all weekend.

I hung out with my best friend from high school last evening and we talked a lot of golf and life. Fittingly to the topic of this blog, he called me old a couple of times throughout the night (I’m 30 and he’s still 29 until next year). We talked a lot about aging, growing older and other things people do in their 30s.

I am about half-way into my time on earth as a 30 year old and I can say definitively that my life is much simpler than it was 2-3 years ago.

I don’t have that gigantic group of friends to go out with every Thursday-Saturday like I had in college or in my mid-late 20s. There’s much less drama and excitement, but much more stability and comfort. It’s nice to be at a stable place in life where my weekend activities consist of more than just partying.

I’m sleeping more, eating healthier and have new hobbies like golf. I spend more times outdoors and enjoy more time doing nothing. For some, this might sound scary and boring. I used to be in that crowd that never really wanted to grow old, but I can gladly say that is no longer the case. Growing older is amazing and I’m loving my 30s so far.

The beauty about growing older in adulthood is the wisdom that you gain as time goes on. You start to realize that wisdom and knowledge is exponential, not linear. What you learned before compounds as time goes on.

Every single life experience that you have had up to this point whether good, bad or neutral ultimately creates and molds the future you to be better. On the surface level, you’ve had that experience before and know how to deal with it better a second time around. Deeper down, your mind unconsciously takes this experience and expands it to other areas of your worldview.

That awful relationship you may have been in earlier in your life? That experience may teach you about toxic work cultures. Or perhaps drives you to cut-off a bad business relationship before spending more time on a project. It may even teach you to take that new job that may scare the hell out of you.

I don’t know what the rest of my 30s will entail, but I do know that I have wisdom to look forward to.

Alone time

I’m home alone for 2 more weeks as Sophia stayed back to spend more time with her parents in Baltimore. Its been a week already and while I do miss her being around, I am trying to make the most of my time alone.

I used to be afraid of alone time back in my younger days, but I started to grow to love being by myself after college. After being around people 24/7 during school, I moved to New York where I found myself alone quite often.

Being alone teaches you a lot about yourself. It allows you to open up and be your true self as you have no one else to impress. You can do what you want, when you want it. Having these chances to be alone with your own thoughts enables a self-reflection that teaches you things about yourself that you perhaps never knew.

And of course, it allows you to recharge your batteries. No outside pressures. You can enjoy doing the things you love and focus on self-improvement.

I know this is a luxury at this point of my life. As I get older, I’m going to have more responsibilities and may not have the chance to spend 2.5 weeks alone by myself.

I do believe that everyone should carve out time when they can to be alone, learn about themselves, and recharge.

Big wins and big losses

If you’re playing in the big leagues, you’re going to take some losses. No one goes undefeated. Some of these losses are going to be devastating and heartbreaking. The ones that can overcome these setbacks are the ones who ultimately get the big wins.

Everyone likes to talk about Michael Jordan’s 6 rings, but before those 6 championships were some heartbreaking losses in the playoffs.

It’s important to remind ourselves of this early and often. In the business world, you have to be even keeled. You can’t win them all and you need to be able to recover from the losses fast so you don’t let it affect your next goal.

I’m excited for some big wins in the future.

Normalcy in 2020 and working in darkness

Welp… when 2020 couldn’t be more 2020, the wildfires in California has clouded San Francisco in dust and smoke. I woke up this morning thinking that my phone was somehow on Eastern time because it was pitch dark. Confusingly, I took a quick peak outside to find a dark orange sky.

It was a bit surreal and apocalyptic. We’ve had some bad wildfires in the past few years, but in my 20 years of living in San Francisco, I have never seen anything like it. I imagine that this is what it’s going to look like when nuclear war breaks out later this year (hopefully not.. but well 2020).

My friend mentioned that he didn’t know what to do. It felt like night, but it was clearly morning and his work schedule was all thrown off. I could feel that as the sun never broke through once today. It was like I was living in winter in Alaska.

From a work standpoint, I was much more productive today. This is likely just attributed to the fact that I am a night owl and perhaps my body thought I was burning the midnight oil cranking out work. I found it a little funny to think about. Maybe if the sun didn’t come out ever I would be the most productive human being on the planet. Depression would surely hit at some point however so not a great trade off.

My most productive hours normally are from 7-10pm for some reason. Unfortunately, societal norms doesn’t always allow me to work these odd hours, but I like to save my biggest and most important tasks for these hours. Fortunately, my job at Secfi allows me to do this. I can take 3 hours off during the day for a workout and lunch and make up for in the evening most days.

Others on my team are real night owls (10pm+) and others really enjoy the mornings. I always encourage everyone to adapt to their work styles especially during this period of work from home. This is obviously a double edged sword. Not everyone can handle the flexibility and freedom as well.

Flexibility goes both ways. You have the privilege of being flexible in choosing how you work, but you also need to be flexible for the company as well. We’ll continue to hire people who fit this work style at Secfi.

Mindfulness in your day to day

Yesterday, I flew back from Baltimore to San Francisco with a layover in Salt Lake City. On our way to Salt Lake, we had a medical emergency and the plane had to be diverted to Columbus. It was a bit scary as I wasn’t able to see what was happening back there, but I can only imagine what this man was going through. We got to Columbus safely and the man who needed medical attention seemed to be doing okay.

It was a scare but it seemed that everyone was safe so I was grateful for that. I ended up getting to Salt Lake late and ended up missing my connecting flight by 15 minutes. While any empathetic human being would say that this stop was necessary, it was obviously a minor inconvenience for myself and perhaps a bigger inconvenience for others on the flight.

I was put on the next flight but had a 3 hour layover. During this time, I got some food, meditated, and cranked out some work. Many years ago, an experience like this may have put me in a spiral and stressed me out beyond belief. I can imagine my thoughts running through my head.

“Ugh… I lost my entire day.”

“What am I going to do in Salt Lake City for 3 hours?”

“I just want to be home.”

Of course, it’s a human reaction and I had some of those reactions as it was happening, but like clouds in the sky, these thoughts passed and I was able to make the best out of my day. This is just one very simple example of what mindfulness has done for me over the last few years.

Mindfulness is not about blocking out these negative thoughts. It’s about accepting them as they are. Being mindful allows you to process your thoughts and thinking in an accepting way. In practice, this leads to thoughts such as:

“I want to be home earlier, but I can’t so I’m going to make the best of my time here and not waste it.”

Being mindful is an amazingly powerful tool. It’s a completely transformative mindset that can be a huge stress relief…. and make flight delays a LOT better.