My Investing Principles

On the plane back from SF this past summer, I wrote down in my notebook some important conclusions from my summer at ICONIQ.

• Have a high bar – with companies and with people. From your first encounter with something/someone, have you learned something?
• Business acumen can relay to technical acumen more strongly than the other way around. I discounted how valuable having business intuition is as a founder because I always though it was very intuitive (lol). My summer showed me there are far more technical people who have shallow, low potential ideas than business people who can't code. Caveat: this is very anecdotal/from a small sample.
• As we evaluate validated investments (later stage investments), the POD (point of differentiation) bar increasingly grows as we think about separating #1 from #2 and #3. How can we design our own thinking framework for this? This is a standing question I have.
• Let people's lack of aggression encourage you. Ultimately, you taking an opportunity that others won't will only differentiate you further. Everyone is one email away. Always accept the challenge.
• Be envious of everyone. You need to wish you could have absorbed all their positive traits. You have to want absolutely everything.
• Seek perfection. Everything you write and produce must be 100%. Do not rely on AI to think. Fully own everything. This also solves for accelerating your learning curve (vs. growing at the same slope).
• Be judicious with timeliness/organization. Never miss a deadline or make excuses. There is extremely limited room for these kinds of mistakes. At the same time, know how to prioritize your day for things that are higher impact.
• Have multiple sponsors – people not just to speak well of your work, but also people to advocate for you. Give them reason for them to ultimately see your 'legacy' in you. As an intern, it's all about setting the roots for people to eventually feel like this about you.
• Confidence is an extremely important separating feature. Everyone can think/evaluate to a reasonable extent. How do you back it? What conviction do you have? You need to believe that your opinion is just as important as an associate's opinion, and have sufficient evidence to debate it. I'm obviously speaking in absolutes here as there will be many instances where you aren't informed enough about a topic to take such a strong perspective. You need to work to get to this point/frame of thinking when you plan to go deep on a specific vertical. Be shamelessly ruthless about what you believe and always be able to answer any 'whys' as a rule of thumb.
• Get deep in spaces. Use research papers, conferences, etc. These are ways to truly get smart. This is how business people can bridge to technical. Develop the edge and use synthesis as a method – read, opine, engage, and write as a habit.
• Be selfish.