Eric Little

@BainCapital | previously product @check_hq and hanging with @weekendfund | @DukeU

[Peter Bolster @peter_bolster]

On the eve of the new season without Diogo, it’s hard not to think of all we’ve lost.

He’d just gotten married. Just lifted a Premier League title. Just scored the kind of derby goal that seals legacies. He wasn’t slowing down. He was entering his prime. Stepping into a new chapter under Slot, with creativity ready to reshape the attack. Imagine how many more chances he’d have had. How many he’d had taken. And now he’s gone. Alongside his younger brother André. A crash. A loss. A silence.

And somehow, a song.

In the days since, it hasn’t stopped playing in my head. His chant. That melody. That feeling. That rhythm we sang for him - not because we were told, not because the club hyped it, but because he made us want to. Because he earned it. Because he never asked.

There’s a type of footballer Liverpool fans adore. The ones who don’t chase headlines. Who get knocked down, get back up and get on with it. Who don’t beg for love, but get it anyway because they show up. Jota was exactly that.

Not the most followed on Instagram. Not the most marketable. Not the flashiest boots. But he turned up - in the big games, the tight games, the moments where others went missing.

Think about it. Spurs at Anfield. Wolves away. City, Arsenal, United. Forest in the Cup. Forest away in the league with his first touch. He didn’t pad stats. He changed outcomes. When we needed a goal, needed a break, needed a bloody miracle, Jota was there. Half a yard. Back post. Low finish. Boom.

He wasn’t loud. But he was always heard. That’s what made the chant perfect.
Most songs are for stars. Jota wasn’t that. Didn’t want to be. But we sang. And it stuck.
Born out of love, but also joy. A happy song with a bounce, a rhythm, and unmistakably his.

He sang it too. Remember that moment? One arm in the air, laughing, half-shouting the words back to the fans. Not a man obsessed with his own brand, just someone overwhelmed that people cared.

That’s the thing. He didn’t need the adoration, which made us give it more freely.
He had a knack for goals that felt bigger than they should - ones that didn’t just change the scoreline but shifted the mood. Not always the opener. Not always the headline. But the one that tipped the balance, cracked the tension, made you believe again. That was Jota. The one that tilted everything.

He played like a man who knew the value of time. That urgency. That snap. It makes a grim kind of sense now. He didn’t waste minutes. He squeezed them. Like they mattered. Like he knew.

My favourite Jota goal is also my least favourite, because I took it for granted. I was so caught up in the relief, in the emotion. We’d kept the gap to Arsenal. The title was on the brink. The derby was being won. That was what mattered - the result, the breathing space. Number 20. Not Jota.

I thought I had time. Thought I’d see it again and again. That’s the thing - we take things for granted. We plan them like certainties. Assume there’ll always be a next time. But there isn’t.

That goal sums him up. Liverpool were flat. I was convinced we might not score. It felt like Goodison two months before, tension clinging to everything. But Jota shifted it. His will to win, that tenacity, that instinct, dragged the ball into the net. That was the difference. That was Diogo. A real winner. A match-definer.

His brother André, who wasn’t just family but his best friend. Diogo once said André was his favourite player to watch. That says everything.

And Rute’s words - “One month of our ‘until death do us part’. Forever, your white girl” - have broken the entire fanbase. Because the love was real. And the loss is total.

You don’t retire numbers for just anyone. Liverpool never had. Until now.

There are tribute programmes and the banners and black-and-white images of him lifting the Premier League trophy. But what hits hardest is that the chant doesn’t stop.

It’s on loop.

And that’s how it should be. And we’ll sing it now for a hundred years. For Diogo.❤️🇵🇹

[Eric Little @EricJLittle25]

@anshnanda @v_computer Let's go! Congrats @anshnanda. Can't wait to see what this continues to become

[Eric Little @EricJLittle25]

@v_computer Big time @anshnanda

[Greg Yang @TheGregYang]

to all the college kids out there:

the classes don't matter

the people do

so do things that maximize the number of interesting smart people you meet and be in the trenches with

you'll thank me later

[WSJ Business News @WSJbusiness]

Bain Capital to Buy PowerSchool in $5.6 Billion Deal https://t.co/7AMpcwV635

[Eric Stromberg @ericstromberg]

The breakout companies of today started by calling their shot...

In retrospect, it's clear that the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in 2023 marked the ceremonial end of one startup era as we begin a new one.

That 15-year cycle was defined by increasingly standardized and tracked paths for building startups.

Tracks for founders. For employees. For venture capitalists. Roundtables. Market Maps. Playbooks. Themes…so many themes.

The track, it was believed, will save you. The starting point is secondary to just getting on.

This era is being defined by the opposite — Founders who are intentional in their pursuit of specific goals...not generic themes.

SpaceX → Go to Mars.
OpenAI → Build AGI that benefits all of humanity.
Flock Safety → Eliminate crime.

The stakes aren’t about fighting market share but about fighting for the future.

At or near founding, these leaders point to a specific point... far on the horizon... that shows us all the shape of the future.

They then work intently — day by day, year after year — to forge a path between today’s reality and that future.

They call their shot.

[Eric Little @EricJLittle25]

@sytaylor Guidewire (or CCC for automotive) are in the best spot for this given the difficulty of accumulating the data

[Cristina Cordova @cjc]

I'm excited to support @modelbit as an angel investor in their seed round. Deploying models into production is far more difficult than it should be. We'll see @harryglaser and Tom empower every data scientist to do so with a single line of code!
https://t.co/xqbSFOdkLX

[Eric Little @EricJLittle25]

We'll publish more of these and would love your input.

Let us know if there's an area you'd like to see us explore and maybe you'll see it featured in the future!

Subscribe at https://t.co/Tb4JYfLyN4 and we'll share the next Open Market Map with you.

[Eric Little @EricJLittle25]

I'm back with another installment in our market map series, a collaborative project mapping emerging opportunities in tech.

This time, I took a deep dive into Alternative Investment Platforms! Check out the updated map and article below🙌🏾

[Eric Little @EricJLittle25]

We believe we're entering the early stages of a golden era for alternative asset investing.

Look at what we learned about the space and why we think that: https://t.co/EHKz2R0Xuv

[Ryan Hoover @rrhoover]

Trying something new:

Founders, if your early-stage startup's core KPI (revenue, active users, etc.) is growing 30%+ MoM for 6+ months and you'd like a ~$300K check from @weekendfund, DM me. :)

[Will Stern @Will__Stern]

@rrhoover @weekendfund @EricJLittle25 @EricJLittle25 this is awesome work! Love seeing such diligent attention paid to this space!!

[Tommy Leep @leepnet]

I love that @weekendfund returns fund 1 on a monday then introduces 50 new managers on a tuesday. legends.

[Ryan Hoover @rrhoover]

Who’s interested in SMBTech?

DM me if interested in reviewing a rough draft of a market map @SeleneXu1's working on at @weekendfund.

Would love feedback. :)

[Eric Little @EricJLittle25]

@Yoroomie @marketplaceshq More than happy to give it a read if you’re still looking for people

[Eric Little @EricJLittle25]

@TheManMikeTan Sushi Nakazawa is ~20% above that price range but is unbelievable and definitely worth it

[Eric Little @EricJLittle25]

We’ll publish more of these and would love your input.

Let us know if there’s an area you’d like to see us explore and maybe you’ll see it pop up in the future!

Subscribe at https://t.co/Tb4JYfLyN4 and we’ll share the next Open Market Map with you.

[Eric Little @EricJLittle25]

Published the first installment of a project I’m spearheading with @weekendfund: Open Market Maps, a collaborative project mapping emerging opportunities in tech!

Check out our first map, Vertical Labor Marketplaces, as well as the article below. Both have some new additions.😉

[Eric Little @EricJLittle25]

Online employment marketplaces are the 1st thing 60% of people check to look for jobs.

Vertical labor marketplaces promise better search, hiring, and worker experiences for job seekers and companies.

Check out what we learned from diving into the space: https://t.co/Klua3QTZZM