Author’s Note: This will be the last personal story I’ll share on the newsletter. I want to keep things strictly professional going forward. I hope you understand.
Hi Founders,
I hope you all are well. I have a couple of housekeeping items.
Housekeeping
First, the older versions of the Case Studies are free starting October 1st. And that includes the newer version I did with Jason Alvarez-Cohen lately.
All Case Studies afterward will be for paid subscribers only.
Exciting, I know! I hope you enjoy the content.
Paid Case Studies will start…once I can consistently produce them. It’s my number one priority while in school right now.
So, it’ll be some time before I start fully monetizing the newsletter again. I’m not going to commit to a date yet publicly.
Logistical stuff aside, I’d like to share a short personal story.
Personal Story
The year was 2021. This was the happiest moment of my professional life. I had just moved to LA and gotten my dream job.
I had everything I’d ever wanted in life. Beyond the material success, the most important thing was the sense of self that came from carving my own unique path.
It was the best moment of my professional life. Words cannot express how fulfilled I was at this moment.
Success is one thing - but achieving it on your own terms is the most self-affirming feeling ever.
I could spend all day going down memory lane, but I’d rather not.
Fast forward to now. I’m in my last year of school, and one month has already passed.
HBS was supposed to be the victory lap—a coronation of sorts.
It won’t be.
It’s okay - I’ve come to accept it.
One thing I regret about my time at HBS so far is that I did an abysmal job of keeping in touch with the founders I covered on Forbes and F2F over the past five years.
They’re a huge reason why I’m here in the first place.
It’s been a great privilege to know some of them for a long time now. Our conversations aren’t about covering fundraising rounds or product launches.
We speak about intimate life events and milestones — marriage, the birth of a child, the death of a loved one, and everything in between.
I’m thankful that these professional relationships blossomed into personal friendships.
I’m grateful these founders will be with me at the end when I walk across the stage one last time.
But that won’t be for a while.
In the meantime, I’ll tie up some loose ends that originated from my time at MIT. One of them involves writing an important, personal story—it will be for the record. And then there’s another end involving a sort of “journey” or challenge I started over a decade ago when I was a freshman at the Institute. Once again, I’ll follow my curiosity and see if I can reach the end of that pursuit.
I have a lot of work to do.
I hope you’ve been enjoying the Startup Spotlights! It’s been great publishing them again consistently.
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Housekeeping + A Personal Note
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Author’s Note: This will be the last personal story I’ll share on the newsletter. I want to keep things strictly professional going forward. I hope you understand.
Hi Founders,
I hope you all are well. I have a couple of housekeeping items.
Housekeeping
First, the older versions of the Case Studies are free starting October 1st. And that includes the newer version I did with Jason Alvarez-Cohen lately.
All Case Studies afterward will be for paid subscribers only.
Exciting, I know! I hope you enjoy the content.
Paid Case Studies will start…once I can consistently produce them. It’s my number one priority while in school right now.
So, it’ll be some time before I start fully monetizing the newsletter again. I’m not going to commit to a date yet publicly.
Logistical stuff aside, I’d like to share a short personal story.
Personal Story
The year was 2021. This was the happiest moment of my professional life. I had just moved to LA and gotten my dream job.
I had everything I’d ever wanted in life. Beyond the material success, the most important thing was the sense of self that came from carving my own unique path.
It was the best moment of my professional life. Words cannot express how fulfilled I was at this moment.
Success is one thing - but achieving it on your own terms is the most self-affirming feeling ever.
I could spend all day going down memory lane, but I’d rather not.
Fast forward to now. I’m in my last year of school, and one month has already passed.
HBS was supposed to be the victory lap—a coronation of sorts.
It won’t be.
It’s okay - I’ve come to accept it.
One thing I regret about my time at HBS so far is that I did an abysmal job of keeping in touch with the founders I covered on Forbes and F2F over the past five years.
They’re a huge reason why I’m here in the first place.
It’s been a great privilege to know some of them for a long time now. Our conversations aren’t about covering fundraising rounds or product launches.
We speak about intimate life events and milestones — marriage, the birth of a child, the death of a loved one, and everything in between.
I’m thankful that these professional relationships blossomed into personal friendships.
I’m grateful these founders will be with me at the end when I walk across the stage one last time.
But that won’t be for a while.
In the meantime, I’ll tie up some loose ends that originated from my time at MIT. One of them involves writing an important, personal story—it will be for the record. And then there’s another end involving a sort of “journey” or challenge I started over a decade ago when I was a freshman at the Institute. Once again, I’ll follow my curiosity and see if I can reach the end of that pursuit.
I have a lot of work to do.
I hope you’ve been enjoying the Startup Spotlights! It’s been great publishing them again consistently.
Soda