Week 47: Clarity, Transparency, Barcelona
Two days of walking around.
Welcome to this week’s newsletter!
I am writing this post from a balcony in Barcelona. I have some meetings here Monday and Tuesday and am spending the weekend here. I enjoy the city and have spent time walking around, taking pictures, visiting two museums, and having dinner and lunch with friends and colleagues.
“Not knowing,” transparency, and clarity.
You most likely all know the feeling of not knowing what the future will bring. If not, please reach out. ;-) There are at least two scenarios of encountering this in my life. Both could be full of optimism, but they also have an element of fear in them. I think both are solvable, and I am doing a lot to solve them for the people around me and me:
Turning dreams into reality
When I dream about a future or goals I aspire to, I sometimes feel a weird hesitation to build that future because with every step I turn the dream into reality, I am “killing” options. The more real, concrete, and obvious things get, the more I lose degrees of freedom and the opportunity for serendipity or randomness as a friend. But obviously, I also gained something that is the actual future I built. My takeaway in this context has been overcoming the hesitation and starting. And then, I deal with the results and evolve plans and sometimes the dream.
Is ignorance bliss? Asking questions.
The second topic is not so much a struggle for me, but I feel that this is touching some of the people around me. When the future is unclear, people tend not to ask for clarity. Although there can rarely be absolute clarity (this is more of a philosophical, spiritual, or religious concept), there can be varying degrees of clarity. I am trying to understand why people do not ask for clarity when we are in a context where these questions can be requested. And I am also figuring out how much I ask for clarity or accept the state of blurriness. I know that starting to ask questions is the answer to this challenge.
Not all questions can be answered, but there is always a great chance that there will be answers that might not only create more clarity through transparency but also a chance that this will create comfort because things are more straightforward. Obviously, in times of crisis or massive change, there will be dimensions of one’s life that we do not want to be affected by, and we choose an “ignorance is bliss” approach. Still, I am convinced that clarity through transparency is more sustainable.
Oneself and others
Another pattern I have observed is that people tend to think that when they are potentially affected, they always think the worst will happen. When others are concerned, we tend to believe the best is happening to them. (especially when comparing with others: they will be more successful, are happier, make more money, etc.) And to make sure: this is not because they are altruistic or more invested in other people’s lives than their own.
In group settings, I think that transparency is beneficial in achieving clarity. When clarity cannot be reached, striving for transparency is an essential attitude and robust solution.
Timelines in venture capital: transparency…
Creating clarity is quite a challenge on multiple levels in my business world:
Venture capital is a long-term business.
So we do not know how we will be doing in 8-12 years.
As I have been investing in startups for more than 18 years, I have some experience regarding the predictability of success. On a per-startup level in the early phase, it is pretty hard to predict long-term success, and on a per-fund level, this works much better if the portfolio is large enough.
And I am ok with this insecurity. But I also understand that this insecurity might be a challenge for some of my younger colleagues who are super bright but have not been through a cycle of investing and growth, some things not working and others working very well.
Clarity through transparency
My conclusion is to strive to create clarity through transparency. Actively and reactively. The latter part is more difficult for me as I never know how much people around me want to know and be involved.
Over- and under-sharing
Finding the right balance between the information needed for a systemic understanding and sharing this information is one of the significant challenges. And I think it is a question of organization, culture and cooperation, and leadership style that helps in this quest.
Leadership and communication
Getting people to join and start contributing is an ongoing quest. I have deliberately chosen small organizations with bright individuals who strive to work together (more about this in other posts). However, I still face challenges that I instead want to share and include people in the solutions and paths rather than telling them what to do. I am working hard to get better at communicating what goals I have and which paths I have in mind.
What I read and watched:
Finally, I got an invite to try out Arc Webbrowser (thank you a lot, Alex). And have been using it for a few days now. Here is a good review by The Verge
I played around with cryptohunt and enjoyed the FTX lesson. (Luckily not being affected as far as I know)
I looked into SPV service providers and my colleague Cong shared this helpful Silicon Allee article
I enjoyed reading this article about the difference between social networks and social media and am still thinking about the consequences.
I was positively surprised that Google is refunding Stadia customers
I rediscovered the resource page for the Mochary Method Curriculum. This is a vibrant page full of resources for founders and anyone growing/ scaling and starting a company.
Thank you for reading, and have a great week!