Is it not time to run?

#133 - From idea to Series A - Weekly Newsletter

3 minutes to reflect

“What did you get done this week?” This direct question was posed to Twitter’s CEO by Elon Musk. The rest is history. The billionaire didn’t like the answer, bought the blue bird company for $44 billion, and transformed it into X. He fired 80% of the staff and created xAI. Incidentally, X was also largely instrumental in Trump’s election victory, I believe.

So what did I accomplish this past week?

Honestly, not much. I produced this newsletter, advanced a couple of deals we have in play with my holding company, met with a few founders, and little else worth mentioning. I don’t think I am moving slowly, but when I think of Musk, I feel like the wheelchair-bound sister of a turtle.

How is it possible that some people can execute so much while others do little, and still others accomplish nothing at all? I have a theory, though it’s not entirely mine. I borrowed it from a book by a samurai master about rhythm and how central it is to combat.

Rhythm consists of two paces: fast and slow.

Neither pace is superior to the other—they complement each other in battle. Defend, slow down, stop, pause. Attack, accelerate, destroy. This is how all our lives unfold—like a dance, like the seasons and their cycles. We accelerate, then decelerate, only to accelerate again.

I’m not running fast enough right now, but I’m not troubled by this. This is the rhythm of this moment, where understanding and analyzing—in the face of the AI revolution—seems like the best pace. Will I accelerate? Absolutely. When? When the rhythm demands it.

2 Tools to advance to pro

STILL QUESTIONING THE AI BOOM?

I know a lot of people are still wondering if all this AI hype is actually turning into real business -- but just look at Azure this quarter. They added $4.3B in net new cloud revenue -- that’s more than double any other quarter in $MSFT history.

Is Trump is “dumb-smart”? AKA Execution beats Strategy.

A controversial take from Twitter

1 Reason to smile

Have a great weekend,

Simone