Ari Dyckovsky

Co-founder @SceneSystems: building infra for computable organizations. Background in physics, markets, cognition; prev. Stanford/Denver/Princeton. Go Avs

[Ari Dyckovsky @adyckovsky]

@zager1025 Yep. Given how central reward circuitry is to addictive behaviors, it’s difficult to mitigate addiction when punishment is taken off the table

[Ari Dyckovsky @adyckovsky]

Post pictures while you’re in line. Share how long you’ve waited. Treat that scoop of ice cream or sip of tea like it’s the best you’ll ever have. It’s a great strategy to let the rest of NYC enjoy our hidden gems without lines. Thank you for your service.

[Ari Dyckovsky @adyckovsky]

Measured, respectful, thoughtful. Threading the needle 👌

[Karri Saarinen @karrisaarinen]

I don’t really have many VC horror stories.

The worst ones are just meetings where there isn’t much interest. Everyone is still polite, but you can feel it’s not going anywhere. With my first company, I pitched a lot of VCs and got a lot of polite rejections.

With Linear, I approached fundraising differently. I tried to always be in a position where I didn’t need funding.

I also didn’t do pitch meetings unless there was real mutual interest. I would take casual meetings, but tried to avoid pitch meetings, until I thought the timing was right, I was in the process, and I was interested and I could see the VC interested too.

Early on, we raised a small amount from angels. We didn’t want to commit to a VC at the very beginning, and with three co-founders we knew we could build the first version without much money.

After we announced the company, investor interest started to pick up. I told most VCs no and said I was focused on building the product.

Then Sequoia reached out. I took a coffee meeting with one of the partners because, well, it was Sequoia.

The partner later pushed me to come in and “meet more people.” I assumed this might turn into more of a pitch meeting, so I came prepared with slides and some thinking. I was willing to do it, again because it was Sequoia.

Before committing to the meeting, I told them clearly that I wasn’t raising and didn’t want to waste their time. They still wanted me to come in.

After the pitch, someone asked how much we were raising, since it wasn’t in the deck.

I said what I had already told them: I’m not raising.

They asked, “Well, if you were raising, what would you raise?”

I said I hadn’t really thought about it, and we wrapped the meeting.

They didn’t invest in that moment, but a few weeks later, once we actually decided to raise, they fought against other term sheets and led our seed round.

About a year later, Linear became breakeven/profitable. Every round since has been more focused. I’ve mostly met casually with VCs, usually engaging with 3–5 firms per round, and only doing a pitch if I thought they were good and they really wanted it. I’ve still gotten plenty of passes too.

Each round has taken about 2-3 weeks, because I've built the relationships, then just completed the show, and closed within couple of weeks.

With every round, I’ve also given VCs some homework. I send them a memo and questions about the business, ask them to write answers, and then we discuss them live.

For our Series B, several people from Accel flew to where I live, booked a hotel space, and came with binders of research about our company. It wasn’t a formal pitch meeting. It was a discussion.

I share this because for every VC horror story, there are also stories where investors really go the extra mile.

There are many cases where the VC builds the case, defends and believes in the founder, and does everything they can to make the investment happen, even when the rest of the partnership isn’t fully there yet.

I’ve only raised in 2012 and from 2019 onward, so I do believe there were times when VCs had more power and could abuse it more. YC, in some ways, helped put a stop to that.

But my guess is that VCs more often do something extraordinary than treat someone badly. You just don’t hear about those extraordinary experiences as much.

I’ve seen VCs fly anywhere in the world on a moment’s notice to try to convince a founder. I’ve been called many times to help sell a founder on a firm. VCs will do everything, call in every favor, to impress the founder.

And I don’t envy the job. It seems grueling. You have to pass on a lot of people who are obviously passionate about their business, and people take it personally. At the same time, you have to work incredibly hard to get into the best deals.

[NEW YORK KNICKS @nyknicks]

90° on a June Saturday in NYC... and your Knicks have 13 wins in a row

[Miles Cranmer @MilesCranmer]

This is an insane paper and I love it

https://t.co/DP8OR5NJf2

[Ari Dyckovsky @adyckovsky]

@nicolaygerold I’ve heard there’s good wifi down there

[Ari Dyckovsky @adyckovsky]

This is one of the big questions! There are compelling theories for interventions, especially from those who study misinformation and cult deprogramming. For example, there are successful methods for 'prebunking' to inoculate people from believing fake news (see https://t.co/16U67HFWA2 for a great read). Another promising direction of research focuses on targeting beliefs that are related to, but less central than, the most pernicious ones. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of many of these methods at scale is weaker than we'd hope, if they've even had the chance to be tested.

[Ari Dyckovsky @adyckovsky]

Providing evidence contrary to deeply held beliefs doesn’t always work. When beliefs are entrenched in one’s sense of self, logical claims can backfire. This can lead to a communication breakdown, especially when the logic runs counter to identity-oriented language, since we’re primed to react to perceived threats to our social groups [1]. 1/6

[Seth Bannon @sethbannon]

@JTLonsdale Joe my friend you need to have better information hygiene about things like this. A minute of research could have cleared this up for you.

https://t.co/QgDDWzCSwd

[Ari Dyckovsky @adyckovsky]

@zager1025 And even outside of the political realm, the same dynamics come into play when groups are involved

[Ari Dyckovsky @adyckovsky]

References:

[1] https://t.co/93xNJvXAoy
[2] https://t.co/AVTIUGMCEG
[3] https://t.co/yOP4TJuHCA
[4] https://t.co/xnWA0MLmgs

6/6

[Ari Dyckovsky @adyckovsky]

Whenever our social identities are threatened, our natural adaptation is to strengthen ties to the groups we align with and polarize those that oppose them; much of this has nothing to do with the evidence in question. As this process continues and we interact more, we sort those people and the things they talk about into positive and negative buckets relative to ourselves. The more this happens, the more amplified the polarization becomes [4]. 5/6

[Miika Weekes @WikiWeekes]

LOC as a performance metric is like deciding a debate based on who said the most words

[Ari Dyckovsky @adyckovsky]

@ashebytes Think there’s an important middle step in there. Those who suffer need to heal themselves first (often with the help of others!) before they’re ready to pay it forward

[Mark Manson @Markmanson]

Cut the crap. Literally, cut the unnecessary distractions out of your life—delete apps, unfriend and unfollow toxic people, stop committing to activities you don't care about. Life is too short.

[Ari Dyckovsky @adyckovsky]

People are drinking way too much koolaid. The collective sugar rush is palpable.

[Ari Dyckovsky @adyckovsky]

@nicolaygerold @rockorager @AJKemps Wouldn’t have it any other way