bwagy, the blog of Ben Young

I was listening to this Jack Altman interviewing Keith Rabois podcast, and he touched on some of the things that make him a good investor and/or board member. Which I liked.

Riffing off that, I think of some of the benefits having fellow founders as investors/board members.

• As a fellow founder, who is active, they are in market. Meaning they can find/intro to live opportunities or see openings in the market as they happen…
• They (typically) have an active network, and founders know other founders.
• They’ve experienced a lot, meaning which you hit a speed bump or need specific advice/framework on how to handle something. They can share it. Vice versa, they’re learning from you too. You’re broadening your lesson/solution catchment net.
• They can act as a counter balance to the VC firms representation.
• Typically available to speak whenever or whatever hours.
• They get it, they’ve been there.
• Not afraid to do the hard work, you know that saying if you want something done, give it to a busy person. Founders are busy.

He touches on some interesting points, about board members from VC firms. If things get hard, the partner now might be under water, or have to think about how they position it to their partners. They don’t want to lose face. Or in the recent downturn, some VC firms had loaned against their carry, making them literally underwater once the market corrected. Founder investors have a lot more agency. They don’t have that same pressure. You can have a better more constructive conversation with a founder investor on navigating tough times.

I enjoyed Kevin Kellys travel tips from 50 years of traveling. They’re brilliant, and I think tee up, how to set up a trip for success.

My travel philosophy, is to try travel at least once every 3 months. To get away, to reset, to get out of your normal schedule. That doesn’t always happen, but it’s what we aim to do. And now the kids are in New York school with their long summer breaks, something we don’t get in New Zealand, we try to capitalize on that to see the world and work from afar.

I’ve had this post lingering for a while, I thought I’d write some of my own tips.

• My wife and I have set a yearly budget for travel, and we know we have to make work what we want to do in that budget. But it’s good, as it means we don’t second guess wanting to do a trip, as we have made budget for it, but also it means we try find ways to make that budget go further. It changes it from getting permission, to how can I best use this.
• When traveling, have an average price in mind, i.e. for a week I’m aiming to spend about $x on accommodation. Then mix up your stay, sometimes you’ll have wins, where you get something cheaper and below, then something nicer and above. But that’s ok, you’re trying to hit that average. It helps shift the mindset from absolute best for each part, which only maxes your spend.
• When booking somewhere that is super busy or rammed – and you can’t change the dates. Try breaking it up into 2 stays. This is a pain. But it is now the reality. Explore HotelTonight for one half, or the other half. Then pair with something else. I’ve had to do this in a pinch, and it isn’t as fun, but does help get the price down.
• If you stay somewhere lovely, revisit and stay again, mix it into a new trip. You’ll enjoy it, and if you have kids they love that too.
• Always try bundle a visit to friends/families/people you know. Or if you can, host something in a city on the way. i.e. I stopped in Copenhagen last year and had some drinks with colleagues to get people together.
• Every location, I look for the best free things to do, frugal tips for visiting the location and best things to do with kids. That helps triangulate a couple of activities or experiences that are often overlooked. A bonus is, best running routes in X.
• (If you are using AI to research, a little tip, is to also ask it to research in the language of the country you are visiting, to get overlooked spots, sounds simple but it works).
• If you arrive at a hotel, and don’t like your room, ask for another. Simply go back down to the front desk, explain the issue and kindly ask if anything else is available. It’s no big deal. And you have paid for it, if a meal turned up faulty or not what you asked for, you’d probably ask them for the right one, right?
• If the experience is a let down, let them know, open the door for them to fix it. We stayed in a place once and the air con was broken, in the morning we simply said that’s not what we expected when we booked. In lieu of a refund they offered us a nice bottle of wine, was that worth the lack of air con? We were happy enough to take it.
• That leads to another rule, always book direct. Where possible, book with the airline, with the hotel, this tends to avoid the most headaches. Nothing worse than something going wrong and they point you to talk to your discounttravelretailer.com to waste your life away trying to resolve the issue with them. If you book indirect, make sure with a service that will look after you.
• If you rent an AirBNB or home direct, take photos/videos of when you arrive. And when you leave. Same with rental cars. You never know when that’s going to save you – and when it does, it’ll be worth the 30 seconds it takes at either end.
• Leverage the front desk/concierge at hotels. They are a good source of intel, tips, and just a good orientation on wherever you are. Sometimes I’ll email ahead and ask if they recommend any restaurants, and get them to book it for me. Often it’s helpful having a local call, to get you that harder to get spot. Or just stop by and talk through plans for the day, see if they have any recs. It’s literally their job to be friendly and helpful.
• If you exercise frequently at home, keep up the exercise, I take bands like this, meaning I can work out anywhere. And then I will lean into running more. I love a good foreign run.
  • This also creates new opportunities to meet people/have a different experience. I’ve stopped in bakeries to get a coffee & treats for the day after a morning run, bumped into New Yorkers at an outdoor calisthenics park. There’s a website to search for them (recommended by one such visit).
• If you have younger kids, plan out where you will buy toys or gifts. That way you can set expectations with them i.e. “remember when we get to Zurich, they have that amazing toy store, let’s grab something from there” Tied to this, if you do pocket money, in the months leading up, will swap or match their pocket money in local currency. That makes it fun.
• Also if you have younger kids, take a ball with you, creates opportunities for them to play with local kids. Nothing like a ball to get a game going anywhere.
• In the build up to the trip, also letting them play on Duolingo, or 5-10 minutes with you each day, practicing. The aim is not to build full vocabulary, but to familiarize and get some basics down they can use.
• FlyingTigerCopenhagen, or other dollar stores, are good for offline activities, or travel games.
• Bring some of their favourite treats from home, I tend to put aside some treats from home, to pop up during the trip. A bit of surprise and delight, familiar food for them.
• Send postcards home, the kids will love that when they turn up.
• In the build up to your trip, average in your expected currency by converting funds ahead of time, or a little bit each week. I use Wise (referral link), but whichever you prefer. I create jars with different labels, i.e. ‘espresso jar’ or ‘toy store’, and then when I add money to them, I’m thinking about the experience. The gelato jar! Mum & dad cocktails! And it makes it so much nicer when traveling to already have some funds there. Another neat way to build anticipation & enjoyment ahead of the trip- and it saves you money.
• Also if you use Wise, add it to Apple Pay. Everywhere now post covid supports wireless. And Wise do give you free local cash withdrawals (up to a limit) which is handy.
• Visit farmers markets, take money, and buy stuff! Don’t just peruse, buy a few things, even if it’s just fruit for the day. A fav of mine is to grab some honey to take home, to enjoy for the months after. A post trip reminder. A bonus, let the kids buy something from a flea market.
• Take gifts, I always try take a few local gifts, some NZ chocolate, or a NYC cap, or some MOMA pencils, notebooks. Even a few bottles of beer, or my fav coffee. Doesn’t have to be fancy, but it can be nice to be able to give or share something from home. We’ve given to friends, people we meet along the way, or AirBNB hosts as a thank you. It’s just a nice touch to start with generosity.
• Kevin Kelly had a great one, for a multi-stop trip, go to the furtherest point first, then work your way back. I think this is good, and I haven’t always done this. It create a weird sense when you stop somewhere, knowing you need to go further, harder to relax and be in the moment or present. This is where those flights, that say you can stop over in the location for a few days, fall off. You look at it and go, well I’m trying to get here, I don’t want to stop. But the deals do get you to consider visiting that place, so it is helpful from a destinations point of view.
• Take More Vacations: How to Search Better, Book Cheaper, and Travel the World is a good read, in this idea of making the most of your travel.
• Post trip, sit with your partner, and do a bit of a review, what worked, what didn’t, what were the highlights. If you can, put together a video, or a photo book, which help encapsulate the trip.
• When you visit somewhere, do your most high priority or must dos first, this means any interruptions, cancellations, or delays, you have the most time to do it.
• And when you face a challenge, a roadblock, treat it as an opportunity for something unexpected. That tone also sets how your kids will respond. We had a car break down in the south of France, that we had to get back to Milan. Or in Austria, there was a rock slide, and they had to dig the road out, or in Oregon we nearly got stuck in a storm in the middle of nowhere. All part and parcel of the road of travel.
• And the final rule, the most important rule, optimise to the most adventure, whatever choice leads to most adventure, take that one.

And that’s it! I’m sure more will come up over time, I’ll try share them. But some of the ingredients I’ve found to have a good trip.

Prior I also wrote on 2 months traveling with two kids under five. Since that post, we have done another 5 months of travel in the same vein ha. My wives brilliant travel activity packs.

I thought I’d write about some of the things I find exciting about AI.

It’s bringing about such a profound rapid change and quickly. One of those bursts where the future happens a bit quicker.

But that change isn’t evenly distributed (it never is!) a similar reference, I remember a time where someone surveyed Americans for the broader awareness of Uber and AirBNB – and there was a point in time where everyone in tech knew them but the others didn’t. AI has the same problem, but for actual usage.

But that’s ok, that’s how new tech works. You find your initial core audience, hash out the best use cases and they spread out. KK 1000 true fans etc.

Here we go:

1. Helping do things, that you were prior stuck with.

By being able to better phrase your thinking, beyond just a ‘google search’ you can get better more pinpoint responses. This helps the end user massively. Not only are you getting a response, it’s meeting you where you are.

There was a time where being a ‘good googler’ was a level up, because you could find the information. LLMs are the same but WAY more flexible.

Like all prior tech, victory goes to those that give it a go. That have the nouse.

2. Perplexity & AI Overviews

It took a bit for Perplexity to click for me, but it did for me when doing travel research. If you search for ‘best activities for kids in Paris’. You get individual curated responses ranked 1 to 10 and so on in Google. That Google has deemed the best on par, for the top 10 results.

With Perplexity you can get a synopsis across all the posts, even if they didn’t make the front page. You might have a response that is informed by ranked pages, 2, 7 and 23. It’s (in theory) better at harvesting the right information. Fwiw AI overviews does this too.

3. Mass democratization

This is a HUGE democratization, in a long running process of information democratization. The internet itself created a huge step up from the prior. For me, I grew up on the other side of the planet, but was able to access the same information, as everyone else. This has the same effect.

We used to use encyclopedias & white pages, because the information was in a nice tidy bundle. But search and wikipedia helped filled the gaps we didn’t realise they missed. And now we’re experiencing the same with AI overviews.

The internet provided a more tailored approach than yellow pages.

Blogs the provided a more tailored approach than articles.

Tweets then provided a more tailor approach than blogs.

Now intelligence, slices across this to pinpoint the knowledge you need.

4. Better to be in than out

LLMs are going to incentivise and reward those that participate, like most prior tech, it tends to be in rather than out. At least for the vast majority of us.

And for those that opt out, that’s an opportunity for others to take their place.

5. Intersection with other tech

LLMs with Robots, which themselves have benefited from other mobile driven tech – sensors, connectivity. Suddenly they have more capabilities. Or pair it with drones.

Now should we rush to do all that? No. But the risks are very easily offset, or ‘bound’ with rules, that can be unlocked over time.

6. Ads!

In the later stages of the last cycle, people have bagged on ads. This tends to be folks with disposable incomes. But ads are a democratizing force, they mean that the rich and the poor can access the same product. Ads enable the platforms to spread the cost over a large population in return for access. And they’ve provided billions in subsidizing this wonder we call the internet.

For economic mobility, this accessibility is fantastic. And important for tech to continue to lift us all up.

At Nudge we have seen that clicks from LLMs tend to perform even better than search ads. Yes there is less volume, but it’s early innings into this trend and there’s signs of the value they can drive.

This is a trivial but fun thing I’ve done with friends in New York.

And that is, each time you catch up, you only go to a new spot that neither of you have been.

It forces you to look for new spots that are genuinely new, or to finally go to a spot you often overlook.

And then it’s also a shared experience, sometimes it’s a winner, sometimes not.

The other thing is, it then keeps you attune to new spots, or places you’ve wanted to go and now you have a good excuse.

I’m starting the year with enthusiasm for all the new technology & things we can build.

It feels reductive to say that it is like a whole new world of opportunity, the same as when we all first got access to the internet. But it is exactly that.

The initial thought with the internet was, you could look up anything, and that access would help you do anything. Or at least that mass opening of information, was the culture and ethos.

But that reached an asymptote, where as much information was released that could be.

And it had a huge impact. Khan Academy is a perfect example, where there is free education, accessible to all, from anywhere in the world. Breathtaking.

Phase 1: Unlock access to information.

But now, that’s moved up a step.

Phase 2: Unlock the ability to access more of that information.

What we didn’t know, was that to unlock more value, changing the interface of how we access and action the information. And that is what LLMs have opened up.

By letting people interact with knowledge, in a way that they understand (dictated by their prompt) is profound.

And this stepwise change is happening in an already connected world, a world of robotics, space travel, DNA editing. A huge canvas of which to have an impact on. And that’s super exciting.

If you haven’t watched Jensens keynote, even if you’re peripheral to tech, it’s worth a watch or listen in the background.

Love the saying “you are what you eat”. It is quite literally true. But the same goes for what you read, what new information you bring in, where you get it from, what topics.

The same as you can be conscious about what you eat, or where you source your food, you can be the same with your information, your media, your conversations.

An interesting thought huh, if you summed up all the ‘new information’ you received in the past 2 weeks. Is that what you’d want it to be? Or do you need to change or adjust the mix? Is all of it vital?

Just a post in recognition of the Kindle, it’s a fantastic, simple device. And opens up accessibility to more books.

In some countries you can loan books from your library on it (check Libby out). Or if you have Amazon Prime there is also Prime Lending Library.

And as a friend pointed out, in countries like New Zealand, buying the digital copy of a book is cheaper than the print copy.

It’s not perfect, but on a usage per dollar basis, it must be as good as or even exceed an iPhone.

Do I also read print? Yes absolutely. Some books I actually have both. Going on holiday I have a stack of both.

If in doubt, optimise to what decision has the most adventure involved.

A solid rule to live by.

Loved this.

It tells a whole story in one line. What we are here for, what the mission is, what you’ll be doing. And gives a sense of ownership & responsibility and accountability.

Brilliant.

For years I’ve carved out a couple of hours each Thursday night to keep projects moving along. Whether it’s something I want to learn/explore/tinker with. Investments – due diligence/reading docs/sourcing etc. Or extra projects at work that I’m moving along. I call them Thursday night projects. Creative huh. Sometimes accompanied by a good whiskey 😀

But the thought is, usually on a Thursday I can squeeze a bit more in. Friday, you’re ending the week – and trying to work on something in the evening feels double hard then. So the ideas is to spend a few hours each Thursday, on a project, keeps it moving and means in the weekend you’re like, oh I have moved ahead on that! Which creates a nice sense of progress. And lets you enjoy the weekend. Should you want to dive in again, you can.

It’s also a great time each week, for those new years resolutions, or things you want to work on this year. You have some built in time. Does it happen every Thursday? No, it’s often a day of events, or long work days. But over a year, it’s not too hard to get 30-40 evenings in.

And it’s a nice thought, oh on Thursday I’ll spend a bit of time on that.

What’s on your Thursday night project list?

I attending the inaugural MeasureCamp New York in the weekend. It’s a kind of unconference, where the participants set the agenda. I haven’t been to one in at least 12 years?! They were popular early Web 2.0 era, as kind of a way to connect with this emerging digital community you were taking part in.

And post-covid, I think it’s the same thing, to get out and reconnect with the community. One aspect I like, is this is in the weekend. You kind of have to care about it, to get away for a day.

How it works is, there is a board, with session times & rooms. You simply take a card and put your session up. Typically eyeing up what else is on at that time, because hey you don’t want to miss out. Quite neat.

The best sessions tend to be those that are come up with on the day, based on demand/discussion or seeing gaps in the topics. These are often smaller groups and end up mainly conversations. And this environment is SO conducive for that.

And in New Zealand, more of them were like that, at least the ones I went to. This one though, folks were way more were prepared with some slick presentations (which is fine!).

I did a little session on ‘How to be more strategic’ pulling the thread on a recent LinkedIn post I did. If you speak with a wide slice of data & analytics folks, or peruse Reddit. Many are complaining about getting in modes of reactivity or being drowned with requests. And so sharing these, as a way to help elevate the teams.

The idea is to help give some tools or skills to get these teams to a better place. I pulled the slides together on the Path train on the way over. Thank goodness for Keynote. And managed to do a few tidy ups once I got there.

I promised I’d share the slides, here they are:

For future revisions to this presentation, I think I would, add more examples, build a template for the data brief. Expand on the reading.

Maybe some suggestions might be on an individual level getting mentors, or bringing in my coffee onboarding approach.

I would have loved to do a session on building machine learning models, or building analytics products, reducing cognitive load in analytics. But maybe for the next one!

Thanks to Jason Packer for getting it on my radar, I had completely missed it. If you get a chance to get along to an Unconference, give it a try, it’s a bit weird to start with but by the end you’ll have had a good time.

I’ve had a few founders ask recently on my best sales books.

When I asked the founders what they had found, I realized that they were missing some of the best ones ha. The best books in this space are often hidden behind cheesy titles and cliches. But hey, think about the authors and the intended audience .

Sales is a skill you always want to develop, practice and learn more on. I think, developing those skills whilst in sales conversations is entirely achievable for anyone. Those epic sales people you love, they just had some strengths in some of the skills that got them started, then developed more over time.

Here’s my top ones:

• Discovered via Seth Godin, but anything Zig Ziglar, including his old sales tapes, secrets of closing the sale. He was a door to door salesman back in the day, selling crockery and in later life became a bit of an inspirational speaker & author.
• Jack Daly, in a similar vein, very much on the craft of a diligent salesperson, and the skills.
• Challenger Sale is a good more recent book, and it’s not rocket science but it was the first book that summed a bunch of trends in sales.
• Win without Pitching is also excellent, on shaping the business pitch, elements of the challenger sale in there.

I would recommend getting a mix of formats (audio, paperback) do check Ebay for second hand copies, just as good and way cheaper. But I’ve read and listened multiple times, and prepare yourself to reread over time. Take to them with a highlighter, or take photos, create notes on takeaways for yourself.

You’ve probably come across this story at one point or another, the story goes..

A young girl was walking along a beach upon which thousands of starfish had been washed up during a terrible storm. When she came to each starfish, she would pick it up, and throw it back into the ocean. People watched her with amusement.

She had been doing this for some time when a man approached her and said, “Little girl, why are you doing this? Look at this beach! You can’t save all these starfish. You can’t begin to make a difference!”

The girl seemed crushed, suddenly deflated. But after a few moments, she bent down, picked up another starfish, and hurled it as far as she could into the ocean. Then she looked up at the man and replied,

“Well, I made a difference for that one!”

From The Tale of the Starfish.

What a great mantra. No you can’t change everything but you can have an impact for that one person right there, or with that one client, or with that one friend. And for that person, it makes a world of difference.

You can’t help everyone but you can help this person right here right now. It’s refreshing.

I really like this as a mode of thinking, when I meet new people, I try to do what I can to help. No I can’t do everything but maybe 1-2 things will help make all the difference.

The life of a founder & entrepreneur has its ups and downs. Its times of surplus and as a friend said being skint. It just comes with the job.

Ideally you have more of the former than the latter! But the longer you’re in the game, the more likely you’ll have time periods of both.

The good (or bad news) is that after good times, comes bad times. And after bad times comes good times. The challenge is you don’t know how long either will last!

And life happens, just because you are a founder, it doesn’t mean you’re immune from the regular swings and roundabouts of life 😉

Here’s some thoughts on how you can self insure as you go. You can build things to insulate yourself from these shocks, a few I’ve found:

• When times are good, save & save & save as much as you can. Have at times saved as much as 80% of income.
• At all times, keep your living costs in line. Keep fixed costs low. Keep a focus on value, am I getting a good deal from this.
• Get smart & savvy at investing. Not the kind of investing you do at work, but the safe, patient kind. Remember this is to counter balance. This is a common mistake, to take the same risk profile as you do at work. Know where you earn the money, and where you invest it. Intelligent Investor, Bogle. Become an index fund maven.
• Do all the tax deductions you can, be smart with retirement accounts, health savings accounts, college funds. The more boring the better.
• Get life insurance, or other insurances to look after you and your loved ones.
• Take cash off the table at regular events or as opportunities arise. Taking some cash to give future you a buffer is a good thing.
• Get better at talking with friends (founders and non-founders alike) at how they’re investing, what they’re investing in, be a sponge to learn.

The more resiliency you have built up, the more enduring and durable you can be as a founder.

Which is a great super power to add. And the lessons/muscle memory & habits learnt from building up your insurance, you can apply to continuing to build your company.

Best case you don’t ever need to tap into your self insurance. In which case you can always donate it down the track!

After my wife and I got married, we did an exercise that had been suggested to me. And that was to sit and writing down, your perfectly average day, week, month and year.

You get your spouse to do it too, then you compare notes. And this helps uncover what’s the same, what’s different but it also gives you a language. This is what we’re working towards as a couple (amongst other things) and when things get hard, or when you achieve that, it brings you together.

And of course, what you do on a day, is what your life is. So it’s also a fantastic way to define how you want to live or aspire to live like.

BUT only recently have I clicked, that doing the same exercise professionally is probably a good idea. We all set new year goals, have KPIs or OKRs or objectives we are trying to achieve. But spending the time to jot down what the perfect year looks like.

• What happens and when?
• How would you balance work and play? Friends and family?
• Learning? New connections?
• Conferences? Events?

For me, more conferences or getting better at repeating the same events each year, to build up that rhythm through the year and habit.