Bill Maris of Google Ventures adds context to recent his comments in a New York Times article about Secret shutting down and how the founders sold shares early in “A Few Thoughts on Secret”

Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures advises founders to ‘not measure yourself on valuation, as it’s just a number’ in “Valuation as a Scorecard”

Leo Polovets of Susa Ventures tells founders to ask themselves if they are ‘operating in a bubble’ in terms of ignoring the feedback, cues, and context of other people in “The Bubble That Matters”

Andy Weissman of Union Square Ventures provides examples of the ‘no stack startup’ – one that can focus on doing only one thing and utilize other services for everything else in “No Stack Startups”

Ben Einstein of Bolt realizes it’s difficult for hardware companies to prove traction before launching, so outlines his tips ‘to make the process easier’ in “Can You Show Traction for a Product You Haven’t Manufactured Yet?”

Angel Investor Joanne Wilson questions the use of convertible notes for the first round of a company’s funding in “Notes?”

Ezra Galston of Chicago Ventures contemplates the business strategies of both vertical and horizontal mobile service aggregators (i.e. UberEats and WeChat) in “Are We Already Unbundling Mobile?”

Erin Lenhardt of Sustainable Local Food Investment Group highlights food startup related groups and fundraising resources in “List: Sources of Equity Financing for Food Startups”

From the Operators

Author Tim Ferriss bares it all with his personal story of depression, contemplating suicide, and how he overcame the darkness in “Some Practical Thoughts on Suicide”

Ellie Day of Women Of Code shares why her mission is ‘to help as many underserved people learn to code as possible’ in “Why I Learned to Code”

Joel Gascoigne of Buffer recaps his recent adventures of working remotely over the past 3 months in 11 cities in “11 Cities in 3 Months: The Highs and Lows of Digital Nomad Lifestyle”

Ben Thompson of Stratechery says, ‘the sky is the limit for AWS’ and analyzes three key parts of Amazon’s business strategy in “The AWS IPO”

Andrew Ghobs of Denarri explains why he doesn’t think all mobile apps should be evaluated by Daily Active User metrics in “Why Using Our Product Less Means We’re Succeeding”

Hansmeet Sethi of Neighborly discusses how and why he believes the future of the multi-trillion dollar financial industry is being built today in “The Future of Finance Serves Real People”