August for me used to be a time for relaxation and languidness. In VC, when a percentage of the partners are out on summer holidays, it just naturally slowed down the investment pace. Do you really want to make a new investment without all of your partners buying into it? As a young family, we
Category: HBS
Still and Chill
It’s been a busy summer, and most of it has been self-inflicted. I’m writing six cases for my HBS class when I probably should have attempted one or two. But I’ve learned this about myself: I am happiest when I’m very busy. I think the curveball was a family funeral that was surprisingly uplifting. But
In Memoriam: David Swensen
Arthur Brooks is teaching a great deal about happiness: at HBS and HKS, as a regular columnist for The Atlantic, and via a podcast (it is great!). He says that if you summarize thousands of social science studies, happiness is a function of three things: friends and family, faith (religion or a coherent life philosophy),
Comfort with Discomfort
When the New England cold and rains hit last fall, I jumped for the first time on a Peloton bike. It has been a lifeline for me since. Biking has always fascinated me. Before the pandemic, our family tried to take a biking trip each summer. These days, it is a great outlet through which
Bridges 2021
Just after booking my first vaccine shot, I felt compelled to do the next best thing: plan a fly-fishing trip! In fact, I planned two, a solo trip in the Berkshires and a long weekend in Maine with my fly-fishing-blog posse. I’ve taken a few days from work this week to fish. Uncharacteristically for me,
Book Review: Tom Eisenmann’s ‘Why Startups Fail’
Tom Eisenmann’s Why Startups Fail is a gem of a book. As I’ve blogged before (here), the success rate in venture capital is only about 33%: a super-majority of investments made by people who supposedly know what they’re doing comprises of flops. Some mainstream-media articles extol and chronicle successes that, truthfully, are few in number;