Jonathan Dickerson

Founder / CEO Gumption Financial | MIT Sloan MBA

[david friedberg @friedberg]

if @elonmusk paid 100% of his net worth ($1.4 trillion) as a tax it would only cover federal government spending for 77 days. this isn’t a tax problem…

[Will Ahmed @willahmed]

You have no experience.
You’ve never started a company.
You’ve never had a full time job.
Nike is going to kill you.
You’re a kid.
You don’t have technical skills.
You shouldn’t build hardware.
Apple is going to kill you.
You can’t build hardware.
You can’t measure heart rate non-invasively.
Athletes don’t care about recovery.
Under Armour is going to kill you.
It won’t be accurate.
You don’t listen.
You’re an ineffective leader.
You can’t recruit great talent.
You’re going to have to pay every athlete.
You can’t measure sleep non-invasively.
It’s too expensive to research.
Athletes are a small market.
The product costs too much to make.
The product costs too much to sell.
Your valuation is too high.
Consumers aren’t going to want it.
Hardware is too hard.
You should measure steps.
Fitbit is going to kill you.
You can’t build a marketing engine.
You can’t raise enough money.
You need a real CEO.
Google is going to kill you.
You can’t be a subscription.
You can’t build a brand.
You can’t do consumer in Boston.
Your valuation is too high.
You shouldn’t make accessories.
You shouldn’t make apparel.
Lululemon is going to kill you.
You can’t predict Covid.
Stay in your niche.
You are going to run out of money.
You can’t build a health platform.
Amazon is going to kill you.
You can’t measure blood pressure.
You can’t get medical approvals.
The market is too small.
You don’t understand AI.
The market is too competitive.
It won’t work internationally.
The supply chain is too complicated.
You can’t build an AI.
You can’t raise enough money.
It’s too competitive.
Healthcare isn’t going to want it.
…

Just keep going ✌️

[The White House @WhiteHouse]

TODAY. 🚀

ARTEMIS II. AROUND THE MOON FOR ALL HUMANITY.

[Everyday Astronaut @Erdayastronaut]

I'm honestly SHOCKED at how the general public has NO IDEA Artemis II is taking humans out to the moon and will be the furthest humans have ever flown. Every non-space nerd I've talked to has no idea. WE GOTTA GET PEOPLE STOKED!!!! THESE FOUR HUMANS ARE FLYING TO THE MOON!!!

[Time Capsule Tales @timecaptales]

Chuck Norris held a 183-10-2 record and was a 6x world champion in full contact bare knuckle karate.

On top of that, he beat heavyweight kickboxing world champion Joe Lewis 3 consecutive times and also had a brutal sparring match with undefeated kickboxing world champion, Bill Superfoot Wallace, that lasted an hour and a half. According to Wallace, they practically stalemated and "beat the crap out of each other".

Chuck was trained in kickboxing/boxing by Benny The Jet Urquidez and was also trained in BJJ by the Gracies and Machados for 20 years. Even being able to submit Carlos Machado himself on occasion.

Chuck had a 315 Ibs bench press at 180 lbs bodyweight and was said to have a grip back in the day that nobody could escape from because he was so strong. Even Jean Claude Van Damme said he'd never fight Chuck Norris, despite being a kickboxing world champion himself.

Chuck held a 10th degree black belt in Chun Kuk Do, a 9th degree black belt in Tang Soo Do, an 8th degree black belt in Taekwondo, a 5th degree black belt in Karate, a 3rd degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and a black belt in Judo.

Rest in peace, Chuck!

[Kevin Rose @kevinrose]

RIP @chucknorris. In 1990 he founded Chun Kuk Do, which included these principles to live by:

1. I will develop myself to the maximum of my potential in all ways.

2. I will forget the mistakes of the past and press on to greater achievements.

3. I will continually work at developing love, happiness and loyalty in my family.

4. I will look for the good in all people and make them feel worthwhile.

5. If I have nothing good to say about a person, I will say nothing.

6. I will always be as enthusiastic about the success of others as I am about my own.

7. I will maintain an attitude of open-mindedness.

8. I will maintain respect for those in authority and demonstrate this respect at all times.

9. I will always remain loyal to my God, my country, family and my friends.

10. I will remain highly goal-oriented throughout my life because that positive attitude helps my family, my country and myself.

[Antonio Linares @alc2022]

https://t.co/tv5bvXdubv

[Jonathan Dickerson @jon_lives]

Sunday sunrise run

[Gumption Financial @GumptionCRE]

$9.8M refinance closed right in our backyard.

Gumption sources financing for properties all over the country. Ohio. Oregon. Georgia. Florida. Texas. But Park Tower is a Chattanooga landmark.

Built in 1915, nine stories of history in the heart of downtown. Freshly renovated with 41 condo units. A boutique hotel. Restaurants. Event space. Office space. It's been part of this city's story for over a century.

And it's right down the road from our office.

Huge congrats to Sean Compton and Lizzette Compton of Southern Spear Properties LLC for bringing this vision to life. Revitalizing a 110-year-old building isn't easy. It takes vision, hard work, and incredible execution. They're doing exactly what Chattanooga needs: honoring our history while building for the future.

This loan was placed with an incredible East Tennessee bank partner who believed in the project from the initial pitch.

Our mission at Gumption is to power the flow of capital that shapes our cities. We're proud to play a small part in this project that is meaningful for downtown Chattanooga.

If you're looking to finance or refinance commercial real estate, whether it's in your backyard or across the country, reach out to [email protected].

[Jeff Morris Jr. @jmj]

One of the biggest traps I see early VCs and new venture firms make is convincing yourself that you're only allowed to invest in a specific category.

You fall into the trap of becoming a SaaS investor or a fintech/crypto investor or a deep tech investor & that tunnel vision prevents you from seeing what's happening in the world outside of your domain.

If you look at most of the greatest investors in our industry and study their careers, the very best VCs have redefined themselves with every important technology shift.

This might look effortless to the outside, but it requires an immense amount of humility as you'll often feel like you're starting from scratch learning new subjects & building new networks again.

You might also worry that your limited partners won't trust that you know what's going on in this new area & you’ll have to prove yourself all over again.

Some investors don’t want to “start over” because it requires putting your career on the line every few years but it's really the only way to stay relevant.

As the rate of technology progress accelerates at rates we’ve never seen, you should consider stepping outside the box that you've trapped yourself in.

[The White House @WhiteHouse]

AMERICA WINS GOLD!!! 🥇🇺🇸

[Anthony Pompliano 🌪 @APompliano]

Cathie Wood says deflation is coming.

Her evidence may surprise you.

[David Lieb @dflieb]

“Well you see, honey, there were some employees at OpenAI who worried about the AI taking over, so they built a thing called Claude. Then another guy made a thing called Clawdbot, and Claude made him rename it to Moltbot. Then someone made a website called Moltbook for the Moltbots to talk to each other, tho it’s more like Moltreddit. And yeah anyway it’s funny or maybe really bad who knows lol”

[Ray Dalio @RayDalio]

It's now happening. The existing fiat monetary order, the domestic political order, and the international geopolitical order are all breaking down, so we are at the brink of wars. It all is happening because of the Big Cycle that is driven by the five big forces I've described repeatedly and laid out in detail in my book and Youtube video titled Principles for Dealing with The Changing World Order. You can find the video linked in the comments below.

[Bobby Weir @BobWeir]

It is with profound sadness that we share the passing of Bobby Weir. We send him off the way he sent so many of us on our way: with a farewell that isn’t an ending, but a blessing.  A reward for a life worth livin'. https://t.co/2qdBbh80v1

📸 Chloe Weir

[Dad Jokes @Dadsaysjokes]

Hiking in your 40s is a great way to meet new people.

Today I met two paramedics, three nurses, a cardiologist and nearly met Jesus.

[Robert Scoble @Scobleizer]

Factories can’t get enough people. I hear that over and over. Maybe our worry about jobs is misplaced. Maybe we need robots to keep our factories working. Not to replace humans.

[QE Infinity @StealthQE4]

Live video of the Fed fighting inflation

[Eric Glyman @eglyman]

People often ask how we balance speed and quality at @tryramp.

We don’t. Because speed is how you get to quality.

Even the best hitters in baseball miss 70% of the time. A .300 batting average means the world’s best still fail twice as often as they succeed.

Building products is no different.
Even if you deeply understand your customer, you’ll still be wrong most of the time — it just takes iteration to discover what actually works.

Take two teams:
Team A ships every 2 weeks.
Weeks 2, 4, 6, 8 — all wrong. Week 10 — nailed it.
Team B waits for “perfect.”
Week 8 — wrong. Week 16 — wrong. Week 24 — finally right.

Team A made more mistakes, but found truth faster.
Team B “protected” quality and ended up slower, later, and with less conviction.

In the real world, there’s no limit to your at-bats per inning.
You can swing 100 times if you design your org and culture for it.

Speed isn’t a trade-off with quality. Speed is the way to get to quality.

[Mayank Agrawal @mayankagrawal]

One common tension between operators and investors is long-term value versus short-term optics. Matt and I spent 13 months in Chattanooga, Tennessee funded by @BrickyardVC Ventures (shoutout @camdoody @__MattPatt__ ). It was a temporary departure from the coastal hubs (NYC, SF), but an important transition period.

Some of the tenets we learned:

1. Cash efficiency. Business (and life?) is a game of survival. When we first started, we didn’t need more capital. We needed time. Time to iterate. Time to talk to customers. Time to understand how to turn an experiment into a business.

2. Sales rules everything. The Southeast produces some of the best salespeople in the country. There’s no magic. It's grit, empathy, and repetition.

3. Nick Saban is the king. SEC football is one of the fast-growing industries in the U.S. over the past decade. Nick Saban became the kingmaker, championing operational excellence as ritual. Don't worry about the scoreboard. Win the next play.

4. Remember why you're doing this. History is filled with entrepreneurs who built fast-growing businesses but ended up unfulfilled. Business is important, but so is family. So is community.

When we came back to San Francisco, we were remarkably different -- in tone, ambition, and vision.