Last week I wrote about starting a novel. I ended that post stuck on a decision: publish the whole thing in the open as I write it, or do the normal thing and wait until it’s finished. I decided to write in the open. That’s my nature. Zero Knowledge now has a home at zeroknowledge.ink. Six chapters are up. More land as I write them. It’s free to re...

I found out this morning that Josh Baer died last night. He was on a small plane heading back to Austin from Cabo. It had mechanical trouble and went down near Laredo, on a highway, a couple of miles short of the runway. Five other people on board survived. Josh did not. He was 50. I’ve been sad all morning. One way I deal with being sad is to hide...

I first wrote about the Rule of 40 in 2015. I’d heard a late-stage investor describe it at a board meeting - growth rate plus profit should add up to at least 40% - and the simplicity stuck with me. So I blogged about it. Fred Wilson was at the same board meeting and posted his own version a few days later. Between the two posts, the Rule of 40 spr...

I’ve written or co-written nine non-fiction books. I have no clue if I can write a novel. Non-fiction is “I know a thing, I researched a thing, and here’s the thing.” You don’t have to make anyone care about people who don’t exist. The characters are real and the lessons are the point. Fiction is something totally different. Nobody owes your made-u...

I’m good friends with Phil Weiser and Michael Bennet. I think the world of both of them. So let me start with the easy part. Colorado is going to be in good hands regardless of who wins the Democratic primary on June 30th. Whoever wins is highly likely to be our next governor, and they’ll be a smart, decent, and hardworking person in the job. I’ve ...

Eric von Hippel was my doctoral advisor at MIT. I didn’t finish the Ph.D. - I dropped out - but Eric stuck with me through all of it, more as a mentor than an academic. Around 1978, Eric said something that was radical at the time. “Innovation comes from users, not manufacturers.” Today that sounds obvious. You read it and think “yeah, uh huh.” In ...

I’m in Aspen. The light stretches the day out and softens the edges of everything. The mountains glow. We just spent a delightful weekend with three of our closest friends. Some hanging out, a few meals (mostly at Clark’s) - and Aspen sushi. The Hunter Smuggler Loop. And talking. Lots of talking. We saw Sheep Detective. It has a 94 on Rotten Tomato...

I read Theo Baker’s How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University in the last 24 hours. I was entranced, horrified, and amused, often on the same page. Baker arrived at Stanford as a seventeen-year-old freshman in 2022. By the end of his first year, his reporting in the Stanford Daily had forced the resignation of the universi...

Founding a startup is a cognitive sport. Most founders treat themselves worse than their company treats its infrastructure. Just build things as fast as possible. Don’t worry about what’s going to break until it falls apart. There’s no time. The phrase “tech debt” is a cliché because it is everywhere. “Founder physiological debt” is the same. I’ve ...

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. I’ve been writing about my own depression and mental health on this blog for over a decade. The stigma around founder mental health is still the core problem. 72% of founders say the entrepreneurial journey has negatively affected their mental health. 81% don’t talk about it. James Oliver Jr. is doing something...

Startup Snapshot, a think tank uncovering the unspoken realities of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, has released its latest report, The Untold Toll (Part 2): Navigating Stress, Wellbeing, and Burnout in Startup Teams. The emotional and mental state of startup teams has emerged as one of the most overlooked drivers of company performance. Startup Sna...

Dec 09, 2025 Category Books My partner Seth Levine has an important new book out today titled Capital Evolution: The New American Economy. I saw it last night at the Boulder Bookstore in the New Hardback Non-Fiction section (bottom left in the photo below) and am going to the launch event at Composition Shop in Longmont. Join us, say hello, and buy...

Skip to content Back to Blog Google seems a little confused. It was even confused about my age the other day, but at least it has that right now. It was a little confused on December 1st. I mean, c’mon Google. Use all those chips you have to get it right!

Three weeks ago, I tested something that completely changed how I think about organic traffic. I opened ChatGPT and asked a simple question: "What's the best course on building SaaS with WordPress?" The answer that appeared stopped me cold. My course showed up as the first result, recommended directly by the AI with specific reasons why it was valu...

My father Stan and I in our default states. lsof -ti:3000 | xargs kill -9 2>/dev/null; npm run dev I’ve been wandering up to 60 for a while. During my extreme-extroversion around Give First: The Power of Mentorship I described myself as “almost 60” a bunch of times just to try it on. It feels comfortable. Several people responded with “60 is the...

Give First is now available to pre-order in Audiobook format (it will be officially released on 12/2/26). I’m the reader, so if you are an audiobook person, you’ll have to listen to me for a few hours. It was fun doing the recording (I’ve done the audio recording for two other books – Venture Deals (Jason and I alternated chapters) and Startup Life...

I’ve been a long-time Cory Doctorow fan. His new book Enshitification is delicious. Yup – I understand that a shit emoji doesn’t inspire deliciousness. Now that I’m back in hibernation (and figuring out what it actually means), I’m reading and writing a lot. I’ll probably blog some (a little, a lot, who knows) while in hibernation because I work ou...

I love to read. I love everything about books. LLMs will not replace good writing anytime soon, although they have mastered the art of slop. Oh, and I love communities of people who love writing and reading. Authors & Innovators is a free, community-based event happening on October 30th in Newton, MA, for entrepreneurs, students, CEOs, venture ...

I recently joined Dan Caruso on The Bear Roars podcast, and our conversation brought one thing into focus: we’re living through a shift that’s not just changing what we build—it’s changing how we learn, lead, and collaborate.  We talked about AI, quantum computing, and robotics, but what we kept coming back to was access. How do we make sure every ...

While “vibe coding” was a catchy phrase when I first heard it, something about it felt like a head fake to me. And, now that I’ve leveled up to “competent individual software developer” again (after 33 years of not writing any code) I think it’s the wrong phrase. Instead, I’d refer to what’s going on as AI Pair Programming. When I started playing a...