“Your universe has no meaning to them. They will not try to understand. They will be tired, they will be cold, they will make a fire with your beautiful oak door...”
The most successful European startup journey:
1. Have an idea
2. Get six co-founders, ideally in their 50s
3. Spend four months to set up a legal entity
4. Apply to Y Combinator, get rejected
5. Write angry LinkedIn post about tech bro culture in the US
6. Raise €50k for 75% equity from top European VCs
8. Do external GDPR audit before users sign up
9. Co-founder leaves to do a second PhD
10. Apply for an EU grant
11. Move headquarters to Estonia for e-residency
12. Launch product, get four users
13. Pivot to sustainability consulting
14. Become the AI innovation advisor to EU Parliament
Silicon Valley simply cannot comprehend what we are building here
Listen Claude. I’ve attached the entire data room in your project files. I need you to take my draft IM and expand on it. This is going to Oaktree and Artemis, follow the format we used for them before. I’m going to get a 3 martini lunch. Don’t fuck this up.
It's rare that you get to cheer for both sides in a war, but every now and then, that time comes along.
I wish both Afghanistan and Pakistan the very best - may they both inflict maximum casualties against their respective enemy in this war!