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The Friday Five: Angel Investing 101, Getting Acquired, & More
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The Friday Five: Angel Investing 101, Getting Acquired, & More

Episode XXXIII

Sahil Bloom
Dec 24, 2021
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Welcome to the 210 new members of the curiosity tribe who have joined us since Wednesday. Join the 56,565 others who are receiving high-signal, curiosity-inducing content every single week. As a Christmas gift, please take a moment to leave a review for my new podcast on Apple & Spotify to help me reach a broader audience!


Special Announcement: The Audience Building Course is back!

We're running our 3rd cohort of the Audience Building Course in January. It's a live cohort-based course designed to help you build a high-leverage audience. Results from prior cohorts speak for themselves—hundreds of thousands of new followers and subscribers and countless new monetization opportunities created.e\

The course will take place from January 18-21. I’ll share all my frameworks and tactics that helped me grow my Twitter audience from 0 to 400K+ in 18 months and my newsletter from 0 to 50K+ in 6 months.

Only 100 spots remaining—you can grab your seat before we fill up here.


Today at a Glance:

  • Quote: JFK on the fight against conformity.

  • Tweet: Jaime Schmidt on achieving a $100m exit.

  • Article: The absurdity of the rental car industry.

  • Podcast: All-In Podcast on politicians trading stocks.

  • Bonus: Justin Kan on red flags of angel investing.


One Quote:

“Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” — John F. Kennedy

Stop conforming to appease others.

Fight normalcy. Be different—it is the ultimate competitive advantage.

(Share this on Twitter!)


One Tweet:

Twitter avatar for @jaimeschmidtJaime Schmidt @jaimeschmidt
An acquisition was never in my thinking. Yet, I caught the attention of Unilever who paid $100M+ for my brand. Here are 10 overlooked truths about getting acquired. 🧵

December 13th 2021

169 Retweets1,292 Likes

Jaime Schmidt literally started a business making all-natural personal care products in large pots in her kitchen. She wound up selling it to Unilever for $100 million a few years later. Seriously, check out the tweet below…

In this thread, she shares the lessons and realities from the process of getting acquired. This was a “I can’t believe Twitter is free” thread for me.

Twitter avatar for @jaimeschmidtJaime Schmidt @jaimeschmidt
left: R&D lab where my biz was born right: R&D lab of competitor who paid $100M+ for my biz Never underestimate what you’re capable of.
Image
Image

November 6th 2021

169 Retweets1,875 Likes

One Article:

The Absurdity of Renting a Car Will No Longer Be Tolerated

Fascinating—and hilarious—article from The Atlantic on the absurdity of the rental car industry. Next to utilities, airlines, and cable companies, it has to be up there for the worst customer experience industry in the world.

The complexity of rental car company business models was new to me, so now I’m going down the rabbit hole. Wish me luck…

By the way, pro tip: just spend the extra money to have premium status with whatever rental car company you use. It’s definitely worth it for the peace of mind.


One Podcast:

All-In Podcast: Episode 59 (Politicians Trading Stocks & More)

This was a really fun episode—especially when the guys got into the discussion about politicians, Fed officials, and judges trading stocks. Chamath didn’t pull any punches (as usual) and it made for an entertaining and educational session.

Listen to this one on 1.5x over the weekend. You won’t regret it.

Listen to it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.


One Bonus:

Twitter avatar for @justinkanJustin Kan @justinkan
These are the biggest startup red flags I look for when getting pitched. If I see any of these, I am out:

December 2nd 2021

455 Retweets2,631 Likes

I recently met Justin when we recorded a podcast together. Great guy.

He shares an insane amount of value in this short thread on angel investing—specifically the red flags he looks out for that cause him to pass on investments.

The University of Twitter is free—and class is always in session!


That does it for Episode XXXIII of The Friday Five. Merry Christmas to all who are celebrating! Join the 56,500+ others who are receiving high-signal, curiosity-inducing content every single week! Until next time, stay curious, friends!


Where It Happens Podcast

The Unlimited Potential of Web3 with Alexis Ohanian

Watch it on YouTube and listen to it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Want more? Join the 3,000+ in our unique community on Discord.

Special thanks to our sponsors for providing us with the support to bring this episode to life.

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moviewise 🎟
Writes moviewise: Life Lessons From Mo… ·Dec 24, 2021

"Stop conforming to appease others" is great advice! Be authentic—to yourself, and in how you communicate with others: "If you want to be a true friend to them, be honest and unmerciful."

https://moviewise.substack.com/p/communication-insights-from-movies

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Sergey @ Substack
Writes How the Hell ·Dec 24, 2021

Happy Holidays!

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