Friday Fuel - September 4th, 2020

Welcome to all of the new members of the Crashing Up family who’ve joined since last Friday! If you’re reading this, but haven’t subscribed make sure to do so here.

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Hi friends,

Here’s your weekly boost of Friday Fuel, a collection of things that I’ve been learning from or enjoying recently.

📕What I’ve Been Reading - Silicon Valley is notoriously known for being one of the hardest entrepreneurial ecosystems to break into. In a land fueled by connections and warm introductions, social capital is essential for building credibility. Without access to these, it can be hard for even the smartest, most interesting individuals to make a name for themselves. As someone who’s currently on the outside looking in, I find this dynamic to be both fascinating and troubling. This article does a great job of breaking down the sociology of Silicon Valley and the importance of social capital in the working world and beyond. If you’re a current founder seeking funding, have ever had dreams of starting a venture-backed company, or you’re just looking to build your network, you should definitely give this article a look.

📺What I’ve Been Watching - Chances are you’ve heard of David Blaine. If you haven’t, he’s a world-famous magician and stuntman who is constantly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. To be a bit more blunt, this dude is batshit crazy.

On Wednesday, David partnered with YouTube to bring fans a live look at his most insane performance yet. The record-breaking stunt, titled Ascension, consisted of David holding onto 52 jumbo, helium-filled balloons and floating up into FAA Class 1 airspace (you know, where planes fly?). Once he reached an altitude of 24,900 feet, he released himself from the balloons and parachuted down.

Words truly don’t capture the insanity of this stunt, so I’ll let you watch it yourself. Here, you can find a two minute recap featuring memorable moments of the three hour special. If you’re curious about the science and preparation behind the stunt (or you like watching people re-creating the movie Up in real life), I’d highly recommend checking out the full video here.

🤯What’s Blown My Mind Part 1 -

Paul Graham is a man of many talents. A skilled programmer, he co-founded the first application service provider called Viaweb. Viaweb, which let users create their own online stores (think really early version of Shopify), sold to Yahoo for 49 million in 1998. From there, Paul continued to build a following around his prolific essays.

In 2005, Graham co-founded a small early stage accelerator called Y Combinator. Fifteen years later, Y-Combinator has made a name for itself as the most sought after accelerator in the entrepreneurial ecosystem with thousands of entrepreneurs applying to each biannual batch and a reported acceptance rate of 1.5%. Stripe, Airbnb, DoorDash, Dropbox, Coinbase, and Instacart are all examples of notable companies that have gone through the program. Paul himself is also an early investor in many of these companies.

Here’s an early email exchange between Paul and AirBnb co-founder Brian Chesky discussing the early days of the company. The idea that at one point the goal was to be ramen profitable and now the company eyeing an IPO is mind-blowing.

Paul Graham @paulg

"This week so far we have done $734 in fees..."

Here’s a closer look at the chart featured in this email:

Paul Graham @paulg

Here's the graph from Brian's email. There was still no growth as of late 2008. In January 2009 there was a spike, due I think to Obama's inauguration, after which the numbers returned to normal. So this email may represent the point at which growth started.

Let this serve as weekly reminder that everyone starts somewhere.

🧵A Thread that Inspired Me -

Nothing to say here besides Barbara Corcoran is a BADASS. If there’s one link you click in this email, make sure it’s this one. Trust me, it’s worth it.

Kevin Lee @kevinleeme

1/ Barbara Corcoran is a self made millionaire known for her role on Shark Tank. What you may not know is her rags-to-riches story building NYC's largest residential brokerage that sold for $66mm. This is a lesson in how finding opportunity is a matter of believing it's there.

If you decide not to read the thread (poor choice), at least take the time to look over this letter. Barbara sent this to Shark Tank producer Mark Burnett when she found out that she wasn’t selected for a spot on the show.

Talk about having confidence in yourself…

🎤A Quote I Enjoyed -

Jack Butcher @jackbutcher

Promoting yourself is selfless. People will tell you the opposite, but they're wrong. If you don't promote yourself, someone else has to.

That’s a wrap. If you’re new here and want to catch up on some old editions, here are a couple of my favorites: No Ads, No Problem and Snap’s “Big” Announcement.

If you like what you’ve been reading recently, it would mean the world to me if you gave it a like and shared it with someone else you think would enjoy.

Enjoy the long weekend,

Randy