Ed Suh

One of the simplest sources of alpha in VC is to consistently do the mundane: market research, screening companies, doing the diligence work, writing the memos, showing up in working sessions, sending follow ups. 99.9% of investing, even in VC, is boring; it's muck and grunt…

This is a masterclass in customer service + execution speed

The best startup teams are the ones where everyone doesn't just work insanely hard, but they *love* doing so. Every teammate, not just the founder, is 100% self motivated & inspired to succeed. Their energy levels at night and on the weekends can surpass those during normal work…

Some of the highest performing founders I know are the most understated early on. They're not loud, barely active on social media, & come off as normal, nice people. They're underestimated because they seem almost too well balanced: not charismatic or aggressive enough, or…

the goal of life is to be excited to go to work and excited to go home

The variance in quality between the best and average investor at most VC firms, even at the top firms, is very large, and is far greater than the variance between the average and the worst

OAI's poker moves: - Check raise: acquire Cursor w/ an offer too good to refuse ($30B+, founders get C-level roles at OAI) - Go all in: make a play to merge w/ Anthropic

In the most competitive & seemingly most commoditized software markets, raw team speed & product velocity most often determine the winners. A simple litmus test for S-tier product velocity: does your team ship as much in a week as your competitors ship in a quarter?

Really enjoyed this episode of 20VC. Lots of bangers. The money quote: "I got asked the other day: 'Harry, what do we do with employees who are not embracing AI because they are fearful of it & don't want it?' I said you fire them." youtube.com/watch?v=OWcKAu…

I've noticed a common trait amongst the most elite venture firms that stay elite: the most senior partners continue to play the ground game. They do their own research, source companies directly, take prodigious notes, write memos, dive into data rooms. They continue to take…

💯💯💯 there’s a contingent of employees (and founders) who are incredibly AI resistant for various reasons. That’s akin to refusing to use a computer. It’s fast becoming a basic skill

I think about this rule often. When a startup is cagey about sharing standard KPIs (net revenue, gross profit, net income/cash burn, CAC/LTV/payback, gross & net retention, DAUs/MAUs), or heavily footnotes them, instant 🚩

The use of expert networks amongst investment firms is so widespread & budget insensitive that I know multiple people who earn more from expert network calls than their full time job

Green flags for VCs during a fundraise: - Founder is on top of metrics. Knows them cold. - Most things are up & to the right. For things that aren't, there are clear plans to address the gaps. - Respectful of the competition. Self aware to know where competitors are strong, &…

Much of the AI investing thesis revolves around labor budgets transitioning to agentic software. It's quite likely the value will be there, but not yet clear if software companies can capture that value. For better or worse, the first generation of LLM apps (including the models…

There is a huge opportunity for someone to build a high quality secondary marketplace for private companies. The existing ones are rife with issues: lack of transparency, hyper-aggressive sales tactics, lack of understanding of the underlying assets & seller universe, &…

OH from a founder today: I have 2 types of board members - ones who bring drama, and ones who resolve drama. The ones who bring the most drama, think they are the most value add.

X is inundated with a specific type of pseudo-scam: the health & wellness scam. I've seen tons of threads structured exactly the same: 1) Start with some bold health claim as a hook: "everything you've been told about losing belly fat is wrong. Here are 9 things that actually…

In the entertainment world, there is a natural tension between "creatives" and "suits". The creatives are writers, actors, directors, etc. who develop and produce content. Their roles are, like the word suggests, to be creative, to think up, design, create, and edit entertaining…

So many emerging manager VCs have an oversimplified view of how investment performance is actually measured. In VC circles, there is an overemphasis on DPI/MOIC and a lack of focus on IRR. It’s true that in the short term, IRRs are a poor indicator of eventual returns. They are…