Jamie Thingelstad

Tech Community

From today’s Economist Espresso:

The valuation of Stripe reached $95bn in its latest funding round, the highest of any privately held startup in America, and more than either Facebook or Uber before they went public. The online payments processor raised $600m of new equity from investors including Allianz, AXA, Baillie Gifford, Fidelity and Sequoia Capital.

I think Stripe is a great company and one I would love to invest in. Rather than getting into the public markets, the upside potential here will be locked in even longer to only those limited VC’s and those with access. 🤨

In Paul Jarvis Sunday Dispatch today he highlights how he disagrees with the assumption in “main-stream startup culture” that you have to “move at break-neck speed”. I started writing a reply in email and decided to make it a post instead. 🙂

I think Jarvis is largely right on this. I strongly dislike the growing use of the word “hustle” in startups. It feel cheap and underhanded (to pressure or coerce). Hustle and pivot are now widely accepted terms, and both describe what are likely failure modes.

Also bringing in physics, fast isn’t enough. Speed in a direction is needed. Velocity. A lot of speed at all costs ignores the fundamental question of “where are we going?”

Maybe ignoring where you are going is why pivot and hustle are so prominent in the language?

It was great to see the current ACE Leadership class present at todays MnTech Board meeting. They formed multiple teams and engaged with Genesys Works, Lunar Startups, Reve Academy, PCs for People, and Technovation[MN]. These teams worked with their non-profit partners to do analysis on recommendations, new programs and other ways to continue to drive their mission forward. This was a great way to learn more about these groups and what they are doing, further develop technology talent with real world experience, and give back to organizations that are doing good in our community! 👏