How I work
Operating principles.
A few rules I keep coming back to, for the businesses I build and the founders I work with.
- 01
Discovery before conviction
10–15 customer conversations before I believe an idea. Real signal beats a good opinion every time.
- 02
Discovery gets a deadline
60 days to find the signal, then decide: build the case or shelf it. No perpetual exploration.
- 03
Build enough to prove it's real
A scrappy prototype that sells something not yet built beats a flawless deck. Make it, then test it.
- 04
Sequence, don't parallelize
One thing to steady state before the next. Focus is the scarce resource at the early stage.
- 05
Structure protects what talent creates
Get the entity and the equity right before the work begins, not after. The leverage is at the start.
- 06
Builder first, investor second
I back founders with capital and a crew, but I'm in the arena building too. The investing is a sidecar.