how to mog as a startup founder:

1. show up to networking event with VCs
2. skip every activity. make sure to NOT socialize
3. let VCs notice
4. if they don’t notice, make sure they notice
5. profit

booked a trip to tokyo 2 days before my flight. 4 days later, i somehow assembled the avengers:

> youtuber w/ 1.5m subs
> #1 pickleball player in asia
> professional basketball coach
> professional pickleball event host
> pageant queen
> united nations counterrorism representative

co

last full day in tokyo! @HunterBiden wya? got a table in shinjuku tn, pull up

every VC-hosted event is just a reverse psychology test to identify the most autistic / antisocial founders to invest in. to the 47 people who actually took part in the planned weekend activities, im sorry, but you failed the test

sir this is yc cofounder matching, not seeking arrangements

been staying in seoul and what's interesting is there's no culture of small talk

turns out it's not just korea. japan, finland, sweden, singapore all run this way.

swedes literally call small talk "dead talk." a survey of 23 countries found only 15% of japanese travelers would talk to the stranger next to them on a plane vs 60% in india and 59% in mexico.

it's called being respectful and "reading the room", but then you realize it kinda sucks

in a lot of the world, friends come from serendipitous encounter. a guy at the gym, someone at a party, the girl who complimented your jacket in line. small talk is how a stranger turns into a friend.

in the quiet countries, you mostly connect with people you already have a reason to know: school, work, a friend of a friend. if you're not already in someone's circle, it's hard to get in.

which works great until you lose the circle. switch jobs, move cities, get older, and there's no easy way to start over.

japan appointed a minister of loneliness in 2021. seoul launched a 24/7 loneliness hotline that got 13,000+ calls in five months, 4x its goal for the year.

everyone loves to clown on small talk as fake, but it's actually how people find real friends

if your team doesn’t do this, you’re NGMI

considering flying back to the US from seoul just to watch you can see everything in theatres, the twitter fomo is hitting

i give up

sf bros spent the last 5 years grinding with zero social life, made their bag, remembered the only thing that make people happy is love, and now they’re too socially cooked to find it themselves. matchmakers are the real winners of this AI boom

sir this is yc cofounder matching, not seeking arrangements

in korea, you can buy a bottle of soju at 7-eleven for under $2, cheaper than a bottle of water at most US airports

for $10, you can get your entire friend group hammered for the night

every startup event has all 12 of these in one room. which founder type are you?

i've never been one to make my entire personality about traveling to asia, but seoul is the first city that has made me not miss new york, for these reasons:

1. english-friendly / westernized, most people speak english
2. peak cafe culture with modern, airy coffee shops on g clean bathrooms wherever you go, even at the club
4. super convenient to get around without a car
5. fresh, high quality food with free banchan (side dishes) and great service even at $15 fast-casual spots
6. high trust society where you can leave your phone somewhere and trust that nobody is going to take it
7. bustling city with lots of things to do

here for the next week, hmu if you’re around

your runway hitting 3 months.

anthropic announcing a new product.

your biggest prospect saying “we went with an internal solution".

come dressed as your worst nightmare to our halloween party for founders & operators on oct 27th in NYC 🎃

hosted by @asian_founders x vibranium labst.co/o4cngGNyUH & @PlugandPlayTC!

@asian_founders event link (approval required): luma.com/9yreeb7u

i'm hosting a founders vs creators gameshow mr. beast style tomorrow in NYC - last chance to apply, got a ton of cracked people going. comment or dm for the link!

here's the squid games challenge i hosted last year

there's a gap between how companies talk about their AI strategy publicly and what's actually happening inside in production, so i'm hosting a panel on it at the @OpenAI office on Sept 9th in NYC! hear from:

- @vral, Head of Applied AI @tryramp
- @diamondbishop, Director of lison Candido, CTO @flatironhealth

excited to be hosting this with @credal_ai. we're keeping the group to ~50 people, curated for leaders of AI adoption in the enterprise. if that's you, reply or DM for an invite.

@OpenAI @vral @tryramp @diamondbishop Here's the event link: luma.com/rejfs2o5