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Hi everyone,

If you missed Ventures episode 3 and/or my newsletter note a few weeks ago about REST, please take a moment to register here for this Saturday’s virtual event (free). I’ve been a board member of REST (Real Escape from the Sex Trade) for over a decade now, and it’s hard to overstate the importance of the work this team is doing. Thank you in advance for participating!

Wisdom for entrepreneurs

This week I’m excited to share this extremely insightful conversation:

Entrepreneurship, fundraising, and practical advice for startup founders :: with Troy Henikoff

You can watch this episode at the link above or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts (just search for “Ventures”).

Many of you on this list know Troy personally. He’s an icon of the Chicago startup scene, a successful entrepreneur, an angel investor, an accelerator founder, and a venture capitalist with a very clear and compelling investment thesis (i.e. he and his team partner with technology startups that have a proven advantage for customer acquisition).

In this conversation we cover an extended version of his story, and we dive into the details of startup ideation, validation, execution, growth, and fundraising. In the link above I also have extended show notes on Troy’s famous work around financial modeling for startup founders.

Bio Eats World

This will be an interesting century, for sure. I published a primer today with some extended thoughts on how to get ready:

How to prepare for (and participate in) biology eating the world

About a year ago, Vijay Pande over at A16z published Biology is Eating the World: A Manifesto, which echoes Marc Andreessen’s famous thesis that software is eating the world (i.e. that code is being relentlessly applied to all niches of business and industry to provide value). While the era of software is well underway, I agree with Vijay that we’re entering a new era where biology has “shifted from an empirical science to an engineering discipline” and that “we have finally begun using nature’s own machinery—through biological engineering—to design, scale, and transform biology.”

You should also check out A16z’s new podcast: Bio Eats World.

As always, I’m extremely interested in dialoguing about these topics, so feel free to reply to this email and/or hit me up on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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Have a great rest of your week!

~Will