100 years

I am currently listening to Dan Carlin’s “Blueprint for Armageddon” podcast series which goes over World War I. I have always loved history. I always had a fascination about how the modern world has been shaped by the past.

Of course, I’ve been addicted to listening ever since I started the series considering that the shooting of Archduke Franz Ferdinand kicked off the shaping of the modern world. Prior to WWI, the planet had not yet seen a war between the great powers for 99 years since Napoleon.

Today in 2024, it’s been almost 80 years since World War 2 ended and 100 years since World War 1 began. The dynamics are of course different this time around with nuclear weapons. But I’d be lying if I said the “blueprint” for a global war is much different this time around.

We have world powers vying to be the top of the food chain. We have alliances supporting each of these world powers. As we’ve seen in the past, one shot could spark a global war and shape the world for the next 100 years. Let’s hope history doesn’t repeat itself this time around.

The AI age

We’ve had the pleasure of having Cody who is a recent high school graduate as our summer intern. It’s been a lot of fun having him here for the past few weeks. As an incoming college freshman, Cody’s work for the company has been more geared towards him learning the ropes of what it’s like to be in the workforce.

He’s joined multiple members of the team on calls and done a few job shadows. We’ve also set him up with a capstone project which is to research a company that we should invest in. I was not surprised to see him pick Canva as he’s had experience using it during school.

Kids these days definitely have an abundance of tools and resources and it’s awesome to see. I feel fortunate to grow up in the internet age. I can only imagine what it’s like growing up in the AI age.

I’m happy that my kids will not have to go to the library to checkout books to do research. The world’s biggest library is at their fingertips and can be accessed with a quick prompt. The pains of manual repetitive tasks will be gone by the time my son hits the workforce. I’m glad he doesn’t have to spend much of his first years in the job force doing a lot of copying and pasting.

I remember the older folks in my first job talking about the awful things they had to do when they were early in the workforce like manually printing reports and stapling thousands of copies together. In 18 years when my kid has his first job, I’ll gladly be that old guy talking about how awful the first few years of work were.

Office presence

Over the next month or so, I have a decision to make on whether I want to move our family back out to New York. There are many personal reasons which I don’t feel like discussing right now, but from purely a work perspective it makes a ton of sense.

We are building our office presence in New York primarily. All our recent hires have been focused in New York. While having a San Francisco office and presence is nice, we have made the decision that we won’t build out the office here any further. Simply put the office culture in San Francisco is more or less dead as everyone wants to work remote.

It does make sense for me to be out there in New York to help build out the office. Most of our partners and LPs are based on the east coast now as well.

From a personal work perspective, I dearly miss having coworkers to talk and hang out with. I’ve been pretty much by myself in the office for the last 2 years and it definitely gets lonely and has been impacting my moods. Even with Zoom readily available, it is definitely not the same vibe.

Work reasons of course are just one factor. And the harder part will be the personal impact on my family and I.

Things are getting ugly

I was out of pocket for most of the day on Saturday and found about the assassination attempt along with a group of friends at the same time. When someone mentioned that Trump was shot, I thought it was just a bad joke. I’m glad Trump is okay, but a brutal election just got a whole lot uglier.

I had known that was going to be a tough election for all of us, no matter what side we’re on, but I definitely did not have an assination attempt on my bingo card. The country is incredibly divided and this summer and fall is going to be bring out a level of nastiness that I’m definitely not looking forward to.

Baby fever

It’s a gorgeous Friday here in San Francisco. The theme of the weekend for me is baby advice. I’m heading to a birthday party where we will be the only ones without a kid. I’m going to be a sponge and just listen on everything from stroller recs to surviving the first 3 months.

The baby industry is incredibly overwhelming. As much fun as it is shopping for cool shit for my unborn child, there seems to be a million companies all making the same thing or variations of the same thing.

There are some fun things I plan on sneaking into the registry without telling Sophia. I can’t wait to see her face when I put a sushi costume on the baby.

The unfun parts about running a business

Often times entrepreneurship and startups get glorified in the media and amongst those who haven’t gone through the journey yet. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think there’s a better path to growth and starting a company in my opinion is the greatest thing you can do with your career. But yet, everyone talks about the glory and doesn’t really focus on the journey to get there.

Sophia and I are watching season 3 of The Bear and it’s one of my favorite TV shows. There was a flashback scene where the restaurant owner was talking about all the shitty parts about running a restaurant such as the toilet exploding constantly. I’ve never run a restaurant, but I can definitely relate to a lot of the shitty things that come along with running a business.

For example, I’ve been on the phone on and off nearly all morning with one of our banks trying to get someone access to our accounts. I’ve also had to manually download account statements for a visa application for one of our employees. All necessary and important things, but of course I’d rather be doing other tasks like generating revenue.

It all comes as part of the job though. As Mikey in The Bear said, it sucks but he wouldn’t want to be doing anything else.

Just how big can big tech get?

Most of the market gains in tech this year have been driven by big tech with Google, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon leading the way. Tech in general has been largely propped up by investors pumping money into big tech to capitalize on the AI boom. Big tech has undoubtedly been the biggest benefactors of the AI trends and I don’t see that stopping anytime soon.

I am using a Windows PC to write this blog post. I have an Apple iPhone. I use google personally and for work. I scrolled Instagram this morning while I commuted. And I will probably buy something on Amazon this week. AI will continue to further our dependence on these tech tools as they are implemented in our already everyday devices and platforms.

The news today is that Alphabet is looking to acquire Hubspot which is a $25B+ CRM that powers a large chunk of the world’s businesses. Alphabet is already a $2T+ business so they are one of the few handful of companies that could acquire a $25B+ company today.

I wonder just how large big tech can get. Will we live in a world where Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon control pretty much everything? How big is too big? At what point does big tech get to the point where innovation is stalled as no one can compete?

Regulators are already all over big tech. We are seeing a modern day Rockefeller evolve in real time. It’s hard to see big tech not continue to dominate in the short-term as they are the biggest benefactors in the AI boom. But perhaps this AI boom will be the straw that breaks the camels back.

Sell in May and go away

I feel energized and on top of the world right now. After a sluggish jet lagged Monday, I got a tough workout in and slept like a baby. I haven’t felt this energized and motivated at work in what feels like months. Again, another reminder that I need breaks more often and I need to treat my body better.

There’s a saying in finance that goes “sell in May and go away” which goes to describe the summer mentality of investors. The idea behind the quote is that stocks go down in the summer so it’s best to sell. Of course - that’s a saying and not particularly great blanket financial advice that we don’t adhere to.

However, more accurately is that the summer months are typically slower in the finance world. I myself just got back from a two week trip and many of our team is out of office. Our partners are also shuffling in and out of the office the next couple of months.

For us, the deals don’t stop and we’re going to be grinding to make sure we have a good summer. But it’s also an opportunity for us to take a step back and work on some other projects that will be crucial for us to close out the year strong. I plan on taking full advantage of the “slower” summer months.

Spain and Maine trip recap

As a trip recap, Sophia and I spent a week for her family’s reunion in Maine and then we hopped over to Spain for a week afterwards. We had a night in Boston, then Portland, and then hopped to North Port for the rest of the week.

Maine is one of the most gorgeous parts of the country and perhaps one of the most delicious as well with it’s abundance of seafood. Naturally, I ate a ton of amazing oysters, lobsters, and clams. There’s nothing like cracking open a freshly steamed lobster on a porch overlooking the tranquil Maine waters.

We didn’t do too much in Boston or Portland. It was a lot of relaxing, walking around, and eating great food. It was the perfect start to kick off our trip. The last time I was in Maine was in 2016 and I was happy to see that not much has changed for the better. We casually drove up the Maine coast stopping in a few towns and lobster shacks along the way.

I was able to meet the rest of Sophia’s family at the reunion. I was happy to meet the other side of her family for the first time as they are relatively spread out on the east coast. I also appreciated that our days and nights weren’t too planned. We all sat down and had dinner together, but the family largely chose their activities during the day. It was great being able to spend some extended time the family.

After almost a week in Maine, Sophia and I drove back to Boston to fly into Barcelona to kick off the second part of our trip. It was a relatively stressful couple of flights which included delays and intense jetlag after a long day of driving to Boston with her parents. But we made it and after a short nap, we were able to get to Cal Pep for a tapas dinner and capped off the night at Paradiso with a cocktail.

Sophia and I really enjoyed the 4 days and nights we spent in Barcelona. We were worried that we may get bored while there but that was never an issue for us as we filled our days with exploring, eating, and shopping. The Sagrada is one of the most impressive structures I’ve seen and walking around the old town exploring never got old.

Spain is one of the countries where the food really lives up to it’s hype and I’d argue that it could give Italy a run for it’s money as top European food country. From fine dining to hole in the wall type of joints to international food, I was impressed back when I visited for the first time a few years ago and I was even more impressed this time around… particularly in Basque country.

Sophia and I hopped over to San Sebastian after Barcelona. At this point of my life, I’ve been fortunate to see a lot of great places but San Sebastian is definitely in the top 3 with the other 2 being Tokyo and Koh Lipe.

It’s hard for me to imagine many better places to vacation than in San Sebastian. You have an old town on a peninsula with beautiful beaches to the west and east of the town. The surrounded landscape is stunning. On top of the natural beauty, San Sebastian is best known as the culinary capital of Spain and I immediately saw why once I stepped into Old Town and started our pintxos tour.

Nearly every bar in Old Town is a pintxos bar which is the Basque version of tapas. The idea here is that you stop in each bar, have a drink or two and eat some pintxos. Then you hop onto the next bar and do it again. This was an absolute dream for me as I happily bar hopped all evening drinking great cheap wine and beer to accompany my many pintxos.

The days can be spent exploring or on the beach. Then when you need a break, you just hop into Old Town and get some pintxos and wine. The word on the street is that the area has the most Michelin stars per capita as well, but Sophia and I were more than content eating the pintxos versus doing the fine dining route especially because Sophia is pregnant. Perhaps next time.

This was my kind of vacation and I loved my time in San Sebastian. I will undoubtedly be back here at some point. I have been harsh on the European food scene and have gone to say it is overrated as a whole, but Spain seems to always deliver and it’s why I keep coming back every couple of years.

I feel recharged and good to go again, but I’m already looking forward to our next big trip. Things may be different next time around with a baby on the way, but both Sophia and I have no plans to stop traveling.

Recharged after Maine and Spain

I’m back home after a much needed two week break. I wasn’t able to escape from work completely but my team was amazing and largely kept me focused on recharging. It’s amazing how much better you feel after some time away.

Things that simply did not sound interesting prior to my trip get me excited again. It sounds almost silly, but I was even having trouble trying to read through interesting newsletter that I normally would love. All of a sudden I feel a lot more excited to get back to work and get back to me.

I’ve struggled with burn out quite a bit in the past and I’m not happy that I let myself get to this point. I should’ve taken some time off earlier in the quarter. It’s been years in progress and I keep letting myself get to this point unfortunately. I know I need to do a better job and I’ll start this quarter.

Signing off

I just got off the last call of the day and will be fully in vacation mode in about an hour. It’s a great feeling and I just let out a big sigh of relief. I’ve been pushing hard these last few works but I’m running on fumes and it’s time to take a break.

I have an awesome team that is going to be covering for me and allowing me to take this time off so I’m grateful. I’ll probably try to write something every now and then, but I think it’s best if I can stay away from my computer as much as possible.

The moving goalposts

We’re at quarter-end which means next quarter planning. I will admit that it’s one of my least favorite things to do as we go through the painstaking process of evaluating ourselves this past quarter and then discuss how we’re going to amp things up next quarter.

This is of course very necessary and important to make sure the company is headed in the right direction. But it’s always tough to do for a couple reasons. The first being that it’s the end of the quarter and everyone is tired from the grind, specifically myself.

Secondly, it can always be a bit daunting to see the goal posts move. You just worked your ass off for the last 3 months to ensure that we hit or exceed our goals. And then next quarter the goals almost always get raised.

I go through this every quarter and it’s always stressful. The pressure starts almost right away and you’re back to the grind again with a much bigger target.

The positive side to this is that in my experience, things do snowball and build off of each other more than starting from a fresh clean slate every quarter. The momentum you build from the previous quarter usually builds upon itself and becomes exponential.

Goals are most intimidating at the beginning and get much more manageable as you chip away at it.

Summer goals

It was nice having a part day off today. I scheduled around most of the afternoon, but left one call on the books and some stuff I wanted to knock out before tomorrow. I was able to squeeze an early and quick morning of golf in and a short nap to recharge before getting on my computer.

I wish I had the option of starting later in my day more often. Sometimes it’s nice changing up my routine and not starting my day in the crack of dawn. If it was Vieje’s world, I’d start work everyday at 1pm and just work into the evening. But of course it’s not.

Perhaps in the future though when I’m feeling especially tired and burnt out, I can plan on doing these days from time to time. I have the flexibility to do so, but sticking to that is more difficult.

My friends and I were talking about what we’re going to do this summer now that most sports are over. Vacations and travel are in full swing. I’m lucky in that my summer travel is light minus our trip to Maine and Spain starting on Saturday.

With a kid on the way in November and things undoubtedly getting more difficult for Sophia in the 3rd trimester this fall, I wanted to set some intentions for this summer to get ready for the times ahead.

First and most importantly, I need to make sure to get back to a much better work state. Taking some time off to recharge is exactly what I need and I need to get back to making more reasonable schedules so I don’t burn my self out.

Second, I need to get more rest. I was in a very good place earlier this year, but bad habits have been creeping up. My bed time has slowly crept back. And my sleep quality has not been good to say the least.

I also want to make sure that I take the summer to enjoy my time with Sophia while we have no kids. I want to do more weekend trips whether it’s a road trip or a short flight. These things will be much more difficult down the road with a kid so I want to take full advantage of our freedom.

Last, I want to make sure to connect as much as I can with my friends. I’ve heard it gets much harder to find time for friends with a kid so I want to make sure I call, check-in, and visit friends as much as possible this summer.

Life is good

I had a tough day yesterday. A busy Monday morning was filled with multiple unexpected meetings, calls, and fire drills. When it rains, it pours.

When I get overwhelmed at work and life, it often can feel like the sky is falling. Negative thoughts flood often flood my mind. I get more irritable than usual. I’m likely not a happy person to be around these times. I’m sure we’ve all been there.

It wasn’t until I got my head above water 7 hours later when I finally could go outside and get fresh air, and destress with a long run. I felt instantly better and getting some endorphins did wonders for my mental state. I was able to get back to a place of gratitude after my run.

These stressful situations do not need to be as stressful as I made them yesterday. The sky was in fact, not falling. I didn’t need to solve every problem right away.

At the end of the day, I live a blessed life and sometimes I need to get outside and take a deep breath. It’s a good reminder that these stresses are temporary and my mindset is amplifying that stress. A 10 minute meditation may be in the works next time I see myself feeling overwhelmed.

Monday musings

It was another gorgeous weekend here in San Francisco. I had a fun and relaxing weekend, but it definitely did feel like I needed more time to unwind and get caught up. Simply put, I’m beat and running on fumes right now.

Luckily, I take off on Saturday for a 2 week trip to Maine and Spain and I’m incredibly excited. I have done an awful job at taking time off this year to reset and I can feel the burn. Minor things annoy the hell out of me. It’s harder for me to get going in the mornings. I’m not a pleasant person to be around during the work day right now and for everyone’s sake, I need to go take some time off.

This week I need to slow things down and set myself up for success on my time away. I need to make sure to say no to things and projects. And also wind things down and pass them off to the right team members.

I watched Bryson and Rory compete for the U.S. Open yesterday. It was an epic one and ultimately came down to Rory not being able to hit 2 short putts and Bryson hitting the shot of his life from 55 yards in a fairway bunker. The pressure seems to have gotten to Rory and I can relate. Despite not playing any competitive golf, I definitely get the jitters on the course often. It’s a mental game and one that can be cruel.

This was also my last Father’s day as a non-Father. Like many with Asian immigrant parents, I’ve had a complicated relationship with my Dad, but I’m happy to say that our relationship is the best that has been in my life. I hope that down the road, my children do not have to write about their complicated relationship with me and that our relationship is smoother.

The New American Dream

Like many others about to have their first child, Sophia and I have been talking about living arrangements in the future. Where and how will we buy our first house? It is after all the American Dream to become a homeowner.

Of course, the fact that we plan to live in either San Francisco or New York only in the next few years complicates things quite a bit. The cost of buying a home that would suit a family just isn’t that attainable despite Sophia and I having good jobs.

It’s something that troubles a lot of people. Housing in San Francisco and California is probably one of the biggest topics everyone loves to debate. For us, I’ve come to terms that the “American Dream” of homeownership is simply just optional in this day and age.

While renting is not ideal, it is a perfectly fine thing to do and we shouldn’t beat ourselves up for it. Furthermore, liquidating your entire investment and savings to buy a house is not a smart financial decision either. The American Dream of our parents is just no longer our American Dream and that is okay.

For myself, my American Dream is working a job that I enjoy and get satisfaction from while also being able to provide for my family and doing the things that make us happy. Maybe it’s a bit cliche, but that’s what will make me happy in the short-term.

Having to budget and sacrifice things that make us happy just to make a mortgage payment doesn’t sound good to me. Of course, I do one day hope to own a home, but that is on pause for now and that’s okay.

Celebrating the quarter

These past two weeks have been a grind. We’re short staffed with vacation times and there’s just a ton of work to be done before quarter-end right now. Fortunately, I’m through the worst of it and my hope is that I can spend most of next week doing clean-up work and taking down some of the lingering items that’s been on my plate.

My trip to Maine and Spain next Saturday couldn’t come at a better time. I fully plan on taking pretty much the entire time off. I’ll log on from time to time to clear my inbox and address any major issues, but it should be a quiet period with the 4th of July coming up.

I want to make sure the team and I properly celebrate our best quarter so far. We’ve worked our asses off this quarter and absolutely crushed our goals. For a small company like us, it’s easy to look past the accomplishment and start looking towards the next quarter and goals. Speaking on behalf of the entire company, I think we all deserve a much needed break during the 4th of July week.

Getting my head above water

I’ve been pretty much underwater since I woke up at 6:30am this morning. We’ve got a deal closing with a deadline that needs legal work, multiple deals being worked on, and on top of that my summer intern started today.

At 4:30pm today, I’ve finally had time to breathe and catch-up on things. I’m feeling relieved and also accomplished, but it was a hell of a day. Thankfully these days don’t happen too often. My normal tough days are usually much milder and less stressful.

It’s times like these that I’m happy I have an awesome team to help support. Without them, I wouldn’t have made it through today. So far seems like everything is working out and we’ll have a few big wins under our belts before the weekend.

Nostalgia for old tech

I remember the days of Windows 95. I remember my Dad first introduced me to the internet via his Gateway desktop computer in his office. He logged me into AOL when I was 5 years old and showed me chat rooms. Within 3 minutes of being in this chat room, he told me that I wasn’t allowed in there until I’m an adult.

My first internet experience was memorable for that reason, but I quickly became hooked on computers afterwards. I looked forward to going to my Dad’s office on Saturday mornings to play on the PCs. It wasn’t long until I got my own PC which ran Windows 95.

Those days were special. The load computer trying to boot up. Waiting for the AOL dial-in connection. Waiting for a few minutes to load a webpage. It felt like I had a superpower on my finger tips.

Nowadays, tech has evolved exponentially and it has become ingrained in our lives to the point where it doesn’t really feel special anymore. I wake up, check my phone. Get into work, log onto my computer. It’s almost an afterthought now.

Yesterday, I got a new work laptop for the first time in a few years. It was fun and shiny for about 10 minutes and then it just became yet another laptop. When I had my first new desktop when I was a kid, I remember almost wanting to sleep with the computer. I was that excited. I miss those days from time to time.

Not sweating the small stuff

I had another great weekend with a nice blend of rest and recovery and also fun. Sophia, a couple friends and I went to go watch The Empire Strips Back on Saturday which was a Star Wars parody burlesque show. I didn’t really know what to expect and candidly I thought it was going to be weird, but it was hilarious and entertaining and I’m glad we went.

I got a round of golf in on Sunday and the difficult course combined with my swing being off made it a rough afternoon. But I need to remember that I’m there to have fun and just enjoy being able to golf. I’m not going pro anytime soon and I know that being able to golf often is coming to an end in the near future with our child on the way.

I also had another minor annoyance when my laptop screen just went black on me while watching Netflix. It seems like the computer may have overheated and the port on the motherboard may have burnt up as I heard a pop and some smoke come out. Luckily, I’m still able to use the laptop with an external monitor but this is undoubtedly annoying and I’ll need to get a new laptop.

Again, I need to remind myself that this is just a minor annoyance and not to stress about the small things in life. Computers break. We get unlucky at times. And I’m not always going to play well in golf. If these annoyances are all I have to complain about over a good weekend, then life is good.