Experience is critical for building a startup. Here’s the best way to get it. — Last week I had the honor to speak to a large group of college students building their own startups. Their biggest question was, what do investors look for when investing? The simple answer is that for early-stage investing, more than the perfect product, investors want to see a founding team…

Author of the award-winning novel published by Medium talks about life in Silicon Valley — The funniest, and most accurate novel about life in Silicon Valley, is without a doubt The Big Disruption by Jessica Powell. It was published by Medium itself. Jessica has spent her career in Silicon Valley, from marketing at Google to building her own startup. And had plenty of hilarious things…

Get the right lawyer now and avoid disaster later — Over the past couple of years, I’ve worked with a few startups to help with their marketing. What do you think is my first project? Getting a website built? Writing a pitch deck? Signing up customers? Nope. Invariably, before I can start on what I was hired for, I have…

A Progress Report on My New Year’s Investment Resolution — In December, I announced a New Year’s resolution to invest in an average of 1 startup each month over 2022, i.e. 12 investments over the course of this year. This is my progress report now that we’re a third of the way through the year. April investment: ThoughtData In April, I invested in…

A Fast-Paced Novel of Gang Life in Los Angeles — Christina Hoag’s Skin of Tattoos is a gritty, fast-paced novel of life within a Salvadorian gang in Los Angeles as members battle each other for leadership while fighting rival gangs. If that sounds brutal, at times it is. The novel doesn’t hold back from an accurate portrayal of both the…

How Star Wars Was Modeled on Japanese Jidai-Geki Dramas — May 4 is Star Wars Day — May the Fourth sounding similar to the movie’s famous tagline — May the Force Be With You. There are few events from my childhood I remember as clearly as my father taking me to see the original movie. It had come out a…

The Author of “The Baseball Widow” Discusses Her Novel of Life in Shikoku — Suzanne Kamata is the author of the novel, The Baseball Widow, about the wife of a high school baseball coach in rural Tokushima, Japan. Our review of this touching, well-crafted novel is available here: The Baseball Widow — a Novel by Suzanne Kamata In rural Japan, the American wife of a high school baseball coach struggles with isolationmedium.com

Be prepared to deal with insane rules when you live in Japan — A recent discussion concerning vaccination documentation for people arriving in Japan sparked memories of my own run-ins with Japanese officialdom. This tweet, if true, is an amusing story if don’t have to deal with over-zealous officials on a daily basis, and a painful reminder if you do. Apparently, a…

Introducing the Chemical Angels Member Fund — Most of my weekly articles about startups and investing reach a small group of dedicated readers. (A huge heart emoji to my loyal followers.) Last week, though, I wrote this article about the failure of my attempt to raise a unique sustainability venture fund. The article went viral. Not Kardashians…