6 Things Thursday 💌
Bonjour,
Here's another microdose of interesting things I enjoyed this week--written by me, Raad—CEO of LawTrades.
1. An email I read
Jason Calacanis
H/t to my co founder Ashish for forwarding this to me. Jason encapsulates our whole company strategy into a single email: Raise less than you think you need, hire less people than other companies (only product and SEO), and have revenue + burn on the same trajectory. Following this, we still own majority of the company, our revenue per employee is $206,250, and we're 2-3x'ing YoY.
2. A purchase I'm enjoying
Matte Black AirPods 2
Sorry Apple, I couldn't wait for you.
3. A credit card we use
Brex
I know Stripe came out with a competing product earlier this week (kinda awkward since they're both YC) but IMO Brex still has the best perks for startups. We're using the $5k in AWS credits (can be existing customer), 7x points on uber/lyft, 2x on SaaS services like hubspot, salesforce, slack etc… and a quickbooks integration that automatically categorizes transactions. You can use my referral link to cut the line: brex.com/signup?rc=EfjoUqR
4. Data I looked at
Should seed investors follow on?
Using early stage platform data, the nerds at Angel List ran over 10,000 simulations to answer the question: Should I follow on and write an additional check into the startup’s Series A at its increased price, or should I use the capital to invest in another startup’s seed round?
Spoiler alert: Yes, you absolutely should follow on at Series A instead of “spraying and praying” at new seed investments and never following on.
5. A song I'm listening to
Fish in a Gun Barrel by NOFX Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube
One of my favorite punk rock bands released a reggae/ska inspired track on the outbreak of mass shootings in America. The bright guitar chord progressions are countered by grim, confrontational lyrics where the ideas of mental illness intersect with gun violence. All revenue from the song will go to Moms Demand Action.
6. A note to myself
http://raadahmed.com/reaction/
Raad Ahmed
Founder/CEO, LawTrades
P.S. - In an effort to quality > quantity, I'll be unsubscribing people who receive these emails but don't open them as well as people who open the emails but don't engage with the content.
As always, if you don’t want to hear from me again, please let me know.