What makes an investment promising, from the perspective of a venture capitalist? As any VC will tell you, it's not so much the idea being invested in; rather, it’s the team behind the idea, and most specifically, the founder.
A Smart Bet
VC investment is very much like gambling. Even having the best team and idea does not guarantee any level of success. That’s why many VCs spread their bets across a number of different companies; the way the math works out, you only need one outsized win to more than make up for all of your losses (or mediocre wins). But how do you optimize your chances of getting that outsized win? How do you know what to look for in a startup?
Well, there are many immeasurable factors that go into the success of a company, and to be honest, luck is probably one of the most important. Other factors, however, are much more concrete. And over the years, I’ve found that finding businesses with great founders significantly increases my odds of success.
What are they and how can you benefit?
Real estate investors are constantly looking for new trends or the new “hot” investment. In recent years, Delaware Statutory Trusts (DST’s) have grown in popularity because of their diversification, tax planning opportunities, high-quality asset holdings, and passive nature. Delaware Statutory Trusts are an alternative investment vehicle to a traditional real estate property in a 1031 Exchange. DST’s allow investors to purchase tenant-in-common (TIC) share(s) of an investment fund. These funds can appear extremely similar to a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT). The trust owns the property, but the investor owns a portion of the trust.
What I Am Reading
Why the ‘paradox mindset’ is the key to success
Although paradoxes often trip us up, embracing contradictory ideas may actually be the secret to creativity and leadership.
Revealed: British accents are the world’s sexiest
Sorry, France: in our latest global survey, accents from the UK swept the world off their feet
Why Do We See Dead People?
Humans have always sensed the ghosts of loved ones. It’s only in the last century that we convinced ourselves this was a problem
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What I Am Reading
The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness
Doing well with money isn’t necessarily about what you know. It’s about how you behave. And behavior is hard to teach, even to really smart people. Money―investing, personal finance, and business decisions―is typically taught as a math-based field, where data and formulas tell us exactly what to do. But in the real world people don’t make financial decisions on a spreadsheet. They make them at the dinner table, or in a meeting room, where personal history, your own unique view of the world, ego, pride, marketing, and odd incentives are scrambled together. In The Psychology of Money, award-winning author Morgan Housel shares 19 short stories exploring the strange ways people think about money and teaches you how to make better sense of one of life’s most important topics.
The Science of Wisdom
As it turns out, wisdom doesn’t vary only between people who read about hypothetical scenarios in a laboratory. Even the same person typically shows substantial variability over time. Several years back, researchers asked a group of Berliners to report their most challenging personal issue. Participants also reported how they reasoned about each challenge, including meta-cognitive strategies similar to those described above. When inspecting the results, scholars observed a peculiar pattern: for most characteristics, there was more variability within the same person over time than there was between people. In short, wisdom was highly variable from one situation to the next. The variability also followed systematic rules. It heightened when participants focused on close others and work colleagues, compared with cases when participants focused solely on themselves.
These studies reveal a certain irony: in those situations where we might care the most about behaving wisely, we’re least likely to do so. Is there a way to use evidence-based insights to counter this tendency?
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When most business owners hear “taxes” they either stop paying attention or only think about how much in taxes they’re going to owe. However, Research & Development (R&D) Tax Credits are something every entrepreneur & existing business owner MUST understand and utilize. Many expenses that qualify for R&D Tax Credits are expenditures that your business is already encountering which you may not be capitalizing on. Having a thorough understanding of the following rules & ideas can save your business a lot of money each year in taxes.
Let’s start by understanding the difference between a tax credit and a tax deduction. Tax credits are more valuable because they are a dollar for dollar offset of a tax liability. In contrast, a tax deduction simply reduces your taxable income before the tax rate is applied. A tax credit directly reduces your tax liability in the amount of the credit, whereas a tax deduction only reduces a portion (your tax rate) of your tax liability. Because certain R&D costs are treated as a tax credit rather than a tax deduction, the tax savings are much larger for your business.
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What I Am Reading
“A small clinical study in California has suggested for the first time that it might be possible to reverse the body’s epigenetic clock, which measures a person’s biological age.”
“I suspect that some meditative or religious practices which extoll the virtue of acknowledging only the present tense, or accepting our fate, might help reduce stress by attenuating our sensitivity to uncertainty,” he says. “Since uncertainty is about what’s going to happen in the future, if you’re completely absorbed in the present, then it seems likely that uncertainty will impact your stress less.”
A cell phone power source that lasts nine years. An auto-battery pack that lasts nearly a century. A pacemaker that is powered to last 28,000 years. These surreal claims are being made by a California-based battery company that says successful early test results recently competed on a nano-diamond battery brings them closer to realizing such claims.
The key to their revolutionary batteries is radioactive nuclear waste. There are massive quantities of leftover nuclear waste from nuclear plant facilities. Such waste is extremely toxic, lasts thousands of years, and poses a challenge when it comes to disposing of it (burying and encasing it) safely.
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411Rx Introduces RxChat – Innovative Chatbot That Saves You Money on Prescription Drugs
411Rx’s RxChat allows you to find and compare pricing of any prescription drug at your local or online pharmacy and receive free money saving coupons which can be redeemed for huge discounts either with or without insurance benefits.
MIAMI, FL. – September 23rd, 2020 – 411Rx, the maker of automated healthcare software solutions, today launched an intelligent Chatbot prescription drug price comparison and saving tool, RxChat, as part of the company’s continuing efforts to help all American consumers find the best priced prescription drugs at their favorite local or online pharmacies.
Whether it’s a daily fitness log, an all-purpose bullet journal, or a traditional “Dear Diary,” there’s no doubt that journaling is a fashionable habit these days.
Personally, I started journaling in 2013, having read about it on a self-help blog that I can’t now recall (maybe Tim Ferris?) and I haven’t missed a day since then.
When I tell my friends and colleagues about my journaling habit, they usually ask what the point is. Did I want to meet some goal, achieve some benefit, hit some benchmark? Ironically, I didn’t start journaling as a means to any kind of end - I just wanted to see where it would take me.
There are a lot of different approaches to journaling, and different things work well for different people. Over time, I’ve found a method that works perfectly for me. Here’s what I do.
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What I Am Reading:
Comfort Is The Silent Killer Of Your Happiness
My motto is to always make myself uncomfortable. This article explains why a lot more eloquently than I ever have been able to. Things you’ll learn:The Nasty Things Comfort Does To UsYou’re Robbing Your Kids Of What They Need Most
Against Busyness and Surfaces: Emerson on Living with Presence and Authenticity
Two millennia after Seneca admonished against how living with haste and expectancy constricts our lives and more than half a century before Hermann Hesse made his case for the most important habit in living with presence, Emerson writes:
“Life goes headlong. Each of us is always to be found hurrying headlong in the chase of some fact, hunted by some fear or command behind us. Suddenly we meet a friend. We pause. Our hurry & embarrassment look ridiculous. Now pause, now possession is required, and the power to swell the moment from the resources of our own heart until it supersedes sun & moon & solar system in its expanding immensity. The moment is all, in all noble relations.”
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Throughout my professional career, I’ve worked hard to stay aware of technology trends & changes. My first gig in college was working for a blog publishing website – well before anyone even knew what a blog was! Since that day, I’ve been involved in many entrepreneurial tech ventures that both increased my awareness & improved my ability to evaluate opportunities. 5G Networks are a major real estate opportunity that landlords are currently overlooking and need to capitalize on.
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You’re more likely to be struck by lightning. You’re more likely to be eaten by sharks. You’re more likely to score a royal flush in your first hand of poker. And on and on it goes. Basically, it’s scientifically proven that playing the lottery is a waste of money. So... why do it?
Every week, I play the lottery, and I have for years. I don’t plan on breaking this habit, either, even though I know that it’s essentially statistically impossible for me to win, and so the $2 I spend is a loss from the get-go. I’ve gotten some strange looks from friends and others when they find out I play or notice the tickets in my wallet. People are often surprised, and in some cases, disapproving-- playing the lottery has something of a taboo about it!
But for me, it’s not about the odds that I might not win-- it’s about the fact that I definitely can’t win if I don’t play. Let me explain ….
As a real estate investor and developer, I have learned that every dollar counts. Development budgets are tight and the returns on any deal are impacted by every decision. One often overlooked is the potential tax savings and planning opportunities available for a transaction. There is no better tax-saving opportunity for an investor than a Cost Segregation Study. Most investors do not fully understand the benefits of a Cost Segregation Study, and it’s amazing how few tax professionals are aware of this opportunity.
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What I Am Reading:
Why Nerds Are Unpopular
"Popularity is only partially about individual attractiveness. It's much more about alliances. To become more popular, you need to be constantly doing things that bring you close to other popular people, and nothing brings people closer than a common enemy. Like a politician who wants to distract voters from bad times at home, you can create an enemy if there isn't a real one."
Why Walking Helps Us Think
I do my best thinking and memorizing while pacing back and forth. This finally explains why!
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Relocating From NYC to Florida? Know This Before You Take the Leap
Had a blast talking to the gracious host of the Miami Real Estate PodCast Omar De Windt from Cervera for almost an hour about:
✅ Being an Entrepreneur in NYC for almost 20 years
✅ Why I decided to move my home and company outside of NYC
✅ The logistical process of moving to Miami and going through a tough residency audit
✅ What the personal benefits of living in South Florida are and why I don’t regret one minute of moving
✅ My Predictions for NYC and Miami in the Next 10 years
✅ Why it completely sucks to be a startup entrepreneur
#Miami #NYC #RealEstate #Startups #Investing #VentureCapital #EntrepreneurLife #NemanVentures
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My experience in the nightlife industry while developing JoonBug showed me that every new opportunity has two sides - one that complements the status quo, and the other that opens up avenues for innovation. I see Opportunity Zones as the perfect example, because while most entrepreneurs are focused on the tax cuts offered by the program, there is also a way for businesses to earn multiple benefits by becoming the cornerstone of the initiative, relocating or re-focusing their business to these Opportunity Zones.
Opportunity Zones (OZs) are a novelty, introduced barely more than two years ago back in December of 2017 with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. But they’re also well-known in the sense of being a good idea turned utterly convoluted by heaps and heaps of limitations, exceptions and requirements. In fact, some say that merely understanding the inner workings of the opportunity zones mechanism is the biggest barrier for entry.
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What I Am Reading:
The Case Against Reality: Why Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes by Donald Hoffman
A few months ago I wrote about Donald Hoffman’s Interview on Sam Harris’ PODCast. I had watched his TED Talk and was fascinated by his Interface Theory of Perception. Well now he’s written a book about how Darwinian Natural Selection has actually not selected for us to perceive objective reality as it truly is, but rather has shaped our perceptions as an interface that abstracts away the complexities of whatever the objective reality is. Instead of perceiving the true nature of reality, we perceive everything as icons that give us cues about fitness payoffs in our interface. I’ve drank the kool aid on this one. This book will 🤯.
The Playing Field - Graham Duncan’s Blog
During these uncertain financial times, fear reigns on the markets and investors. This article gave me some great insights on how I should be thinking and acting by breaking down the different levels of investors from the Apprentice to the Expert to the Professional and finally, to the Master. Get to know what it takes to up your investing game and act accordingly.
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Check out what I’ve been reading and listening to that has helped me navigate through these crazy and unprecedented times. From remaining unemotional during tough decision making in this economic whirlwind, to adapting in Quarantine isolation while still staying happily married, sane, and productive, to new ways of rejuvenating my immune system in a time when immunity is extra important. These resources helped me keep perspective, stay motivated and bring a lot of benefit and positivity into my life during the otherwise devastating crisis of COVID-19.
What I Am Reading:
The Three Equations for a Happy Life, Even During a Pandemic
The point of everything you do is ultimately for you and yours to be happy. If you can figure out how to be happy during lockdown then imagine how happy you will be once things start to open up again!
Standing on the Shoulders of Solitude: Newton, the Plague, and How Quarantine Fomented the Greatest Leap in Science
How are you spending your time in quarantine? Seems like Newton was able to accept his situation and make the best of it by using that downtime to come up with his most brilliant theorems. Stop watching Netflix and get to work on your next business venture, the book you always wanted to write, or the course you’ve always wanted to take.
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What I am reading:
If You’re Willing To Look Stupid For Long Enough, You’ll Eventually Become a Millionaire - Publishous
This article resonated with me a lot. I clearly remember when I first started JoonBug everyone thought that there would be no way people wanted to see their party photos online nor wanted to buy tickets to events online. Every event producer or club owner rejected us for months until all of a sudden they loved us when we started to bring in cash $$ for them. Likewise when I started EZ Texting everyone told me that SMS was old news and that apps were the things of the future. "SMS is dead," is what I was told by investors and users. Now SMS has the highest open rates and is growing in usage by 25%+ a year. Who looks stupid in the end?
The 20 Best Works of Nonfiction of the Decade - Lit Hub
I exclusively read non-fiction books and I am always looking for great recommendations. This is one of the best lists I have found so far. My favorite: How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell.
Human Health Is in the Hands of Bacteria - Time
Ever since I have taken my health and diet seriously, I've noticed that many of the benefits and results I've achieved is because of my healthy gut. Your health is definitely the sum of your parts and this article shows you how true that is. Take care of your gut and live well and long.
The Illusory Truth Effect: Why We Believe Fake News, Conspiracy Theories and Propaganda
I read Farnam Street religiously every Sunday and subscribe to their email newsletter. If you are looking to change the way you think, learn, and live life then this is the right blog for you. In particular this article compels you to rethink what you find to be true and how you came to believe in your truth in the first place.
What I am watching:
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Dungeon and Dragons is a lot more than just a role-playing game; D&D is a sneak peek into the bigger game of life and business.
Games are regarded by society as a means of relaxation, a fun pastime during those cherished Sunday early evenings with family and friends. And while games are certainly an enjoyable recreation, oftentimes they also teach a lot more about life and business than conventional educational methods do. Take chess for example; a good chess player often turns out to be an excellent strategist in life because they analyze and find the best solutions to multifaceted problems. One particular game that helped me numerous times in both life and business decision making is none other than Dungeons and Dragons. If you've ever played it, you have first hand knowledge of the advantage it gives you in so many aspects of life.
