Happy May! Happy URLs!
When Your VC Leaves, You Are Fundraising Again [Oana Olteanu/MotiveForce] – “You are likely screwed if I leave my venture firm,” is, not surprisingly, among the most popular topics that our industry chooses to content market around. But these transitions are increasingly common, which caused me to write “Oh Shit, Your VC Just Quit Her Fund! What a Good CEO Should Do Next.” in 2019. Oana provides her own perspectives on how founders should react to circumstances like these – there’s a lot of consensus between the two posts so read them both!
How American Dads Became the Parents Their Fathers Never Were [Derek Thompson] – My joke about the post-economic version of the ‘American Dream’ is that our children go to therapy for something less significant than we do! Being a great dad is a centering priority in my life. It doesn’t necessarily occur to the detriment of other pursuits but certainly if it had to, well, I’d make the tradeoff for my daughter. The ‘rise in fathering’ as it’s called here, can be tied to a number of societal developments, and while still most pronounced amongst high-education cohorts, the trend line is consistent regardless of degree status. Thompson theories that it’s not just driven by touchy-feely love for your kid, but also the ‘keeping up’ fear – spending time with your child to drive them to the performance levels that the future will require for school, economic stability, and so on. And perhaps spending more time with your family results in less socialization generally, which also can be tied to a host of ills, especially once your child is out of the house.
The Camel, the Straws, and the Bagel Shop [Darcy Burner/Burnery] – The subtitle on this one is “Why progressives need to be honest about what their policies cost small businesses, and strip out every cost that doesn’t serve a progressive value.” PRAISE THE LORD! Darcy, a former SMB manufacturing owner, claims when “progressives talk about small business failures, there is a tendency to treat each failure as an individual story of personal responsibility while ignoring the environment those businesses are operating in.” And advocates for reforming the unnecessary – or least important – ‘straws’ which can break the camel’s back.
“If you’re going to load the camel (and you are, and some of those loads are worth carrying) then you owe it to the camel to take off every ounce of weight that doesn’t need to be there.”
Some Thoughts on Employee Stock Options in 2026 [Bijan Sabet] – Spark Capital’s cofounder [stepped away a few years ago; did a term as US Ambassador to Czech Republic] looks at the state of startup employee equity in 2026 and suggests two things are true: companies should be more transparent around all the factors that can let a team member assess value [not just ‘number of shares’] and early folks need more stock. Agreed – in 2017 I suggested Founders Should Set Aside More Equity for Their Team & “Split the Pain” With Investors. My lived experience right now is it’s pretty split – some founders go by standard benchmarks and ‘best practices’ while others use compensation plans as ways to set their culture. For example, giving all early engineers the same generous equity regardless of seniority level [these aren’t exec level hires so more among 2-5 years of experience].
‘They Said A.I. Saved Me’: How South Korea Is Checking on Its Seniors [Choe Sang-Hun/New York Times] – As someone deep in ‘sandwich generation’ complexity it’s exciting to see other countries embracing technology as a productive tool to assist their elderly population. This absolutely going to be an important area of development – not dystopian and deserving of public research/funding in addition to private markets. Everything from wellness checks, to cognitive exercises, to plain ole companionship.
“The bot has become a genuine helper, flagging hundreds of emergencies. In one instance, social workers said, it reached a woman with mild dementia who had wandered off and lost her bearings; she answered the bot’s scheduled call, allowing officials to locate her.
To prevent scammers from mimicking the service with a human voice, the bot intentionally sounds slightly mechanical. For Park Jong-yeol, an 81-year-old Vietnam War veteran, none of that matters. The bot, he said, is “better than a human.””
Enjoy your weekend!
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