Episode XIII: Thanksgiving Update/The Patterns
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I have an incredible amount to be thankful for. Exactly six months ago, I graduated from Princeton. Today, I will happily share that I was promoted to be a Team Lead at Newchip. In this blog, I’ll share with you a not-so-new lesson I’ve re-learned in my first few months in the VC space and where it’s applied in the startup world.
Oh, and by the way, I’m hiring one more person for my team. Full details on what I’m personally looking for in a candidate and a way to stand out at the bottom (marked by —__—).
https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/search/?currentJobId=3341242189&keywords=newchip%20accelerator
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I’ll begin with the lesson itself: patterns are everywhere. For some reason, I’ve always loved looking at patterns. My obsession with patterns began in 2006 when I entered a science fair at Desert Sun Elementary School. Here’s where the science fair idea came from.
In the house my brother and I grew up in, we had a forward-facing mirror and two side mirrors on the walls above our bathroom counter. I used to step on a stool to look in the main mirror, then stand on the counter to see the side mirrors. It was always fun to stare into the infinite abyss of parallel objects. Every morning, I wondered why the picture would always look the same if you looked directly in the middle of the side mirrors.
That equal reflection of light on glass made me mesmerized with the concept of infinite and beyond. I then wondered if infinite could go backwards, too. So, I tested it by taking parallel mirrors and snaking some dominoes between them to see the infinite reflection of them falling. Did this prove the concept?
Short answer: yes.
Longer answer: if you were perfectly in the middle not interfering with the mirrors’ reflectivity (which was impossible), it technically would go on forever. Was there a visible delay between mirror frames reflecting off of each other? Definitely not. Could you see the dominos’ reflection enough times to know it would go on forever from that middle point? Yes. So, I concluded that you could see the same snake pattern the dominoes fell in infinitely.
That experiment won the science fair. The following year, I wanted to enter it again. Interesting story into how I got into that project.
Scottsdale never snowed, but the one day in my entire childhood I saw snow (and when I say snow, I mean maybe half an inch), the snowflakes had an exact pattern to them. It was fascinating that the same patterns appeared everywhere in an item, but I lost sight of where those patterns originally came from.
So, I went hunting for the patterns. How could I test it, though? I didn’t know; I was seven.
Instead of doing what most normal kids would do, I started researching how I could prove that there were patterns in the universe from snowflakes. Eventually, I learned that those patterns in snowflakes were called fractals.
How could I test it? Could I freeze and save a snowflake if I caught two of them? Would photos work? I researched for a month to try and find a way to prove that fractals existed everywhere, but couldn’t come up with a viable enough solution like the previous year.
So, while I didn’t submit a final project, I did recognize one thing:
Patterns are everywhere. You just have to find them.
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It’s February of 2011. I’m at Cal Ripken baseball camp trying out for a 14U team. There’s a 6’4” lefty on the mound, I’m playing second baseman in a scrimmage, and am utterly confused as to how he whipped the ball across the mound with such force or if he’s even in the right league. The dude was MILES better than everyone else, throwing 77 MPH at thirteen years old. Because I was the youngest player there, more eyes were on me to perform at second while he was pitching or else I’d be back down playing with kids my age.
There was a runner on first with one out in the scrimmage; there were two twins playing shortstop and first base, with the left-handed twin playing shortstop and the right-handed twin playing first. The pitch comes from the man-child on the mound, and the ball shoots to the ground. It’s a roller.
“Great, double pl—!”
Then, the ball shoots back up and to my left. What? I’d never seen that bounce with a baseball before.
You’d think I’m in a Naruto episode or making excuses for an error with how I’ve set this up, but I’m not.
Without hesitation, I sprung out for the ball, barely grasp it with my black oversized Mizuno glove, get on a knee, whip it to the lefty twin, who whips it back to his righty brother, and we have a 4-6-3 double play.
The next thing I know, coaches are giving me fistbumps and I’m up to bat.
In the dugout, the lefty twin asked me how I read the bounce. He was significantly bigger than me being in the eighth grade. Then, I remembered.
In the house I grew up in, the wooden front door had jagged curves in the middle. Every time I saw a different bounce, I’d take a mental picture of the spin to react to the ball. When I saw the bounce, it became instinct because of the unkiltered bounces off the door. So, I saw it before and reacted to it.
Now, I’m up to bat at the plate. First pitch comes in low and inside. Ball. After the ump called a ball, I instantly knew he was throwing a curveball next pitch and my tail wagged like a dog with a bone.
My dad was a baseball player growing up and used to throw me curveballs in the backyard. If you wait for the ball to move down and to the right, the ball will paint the plate. So, when he threw a curve, I waited.
As soon as I felt it would break over the plate, BOOM. The ball goes flying off of the barrel left and up and away, hugging the outfield line.
Please stay in!
Sure enough, it did. I was eleven hitting 335 ft home runs off of a fourteen year old, but only because I knew the pattern of how the ball moved.
There are always patterns to find.
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In the real world, I help founders. I was a founder over COVID and chose working at Newchip to understand the startup ecosystem independent of industry, vertical, and geographic location. I’ve seen a lot of patterns from both the investor’s and founder’s sides of the coin; my job gives me a rare opportunity to do so and survey the action live. Here are some observations I’ve made.
I argue that the best logical decisions are paired with data and intuition. The only course of action that removes value from data is instinct; for example, every metric in the world pointed to a fantastic economic landscape in January 2020, but the pandemic then hit and altered the course of business forever.
While the example might sound a little vague, I left it vague because the start-up world is still feeling the repercussions of a shifted economy. Venture capital funding boomed in 2021 over the pandemic; however, many of the investment theses are shifting to a later-stage focus by increasing their allocated capital to already established businesses. Thus, these next six weeks will be the toughest time in the past 20 years to get fundraised as an early-stage startup.
There is no one singular right answer to solving a problem. The best founders are those who are solving a problem in the most efficient way for a business, consumer, or government. The use case of a product or service will always change because consumer trends will always alter over time. For example, if Apple stopped updating how they made the iPhone, their model would become obsolete relative to other companies like Samsung or Google. Competition raises the bar for how many problems a company can solve; companies that consistently grow consistently resolve problems for customers over time.
For founders, it’s difficult to start a company in a recession because there’s less money to play with in the market just starting out. However, those who become relevant during troubling times will have a formidable use case that thrives in a different market. For anyone considering building out an idea, now is a great time to test the waters in a cost-efficient manner. Nothing beats traction in the startup game, especially in today’s market, so it can’t hurt to try.
I’ve never gotten a dopamine thrill like the one I get from the startup ecosystem. Asking people how I can help is a joy because there’s so many different ways for me to create value for both them and me. In a very short time period, the startup ecosystem has started to make sense because of the massive sample size I’m seeing. At Newchip, we help over 600 startups learn what it takes to succeed and connect them to investors. When you sit back and listen, you can learn an incredible amount. So, I pride myself on being a great listener to create value for both investors and founders.
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Sometimes, you just have to wait on the curveball to cross the plate and then swing for the fences. I’m putting myself in a position to play some ball and knock it out of the park to help as many people as possible, but can’t do this without the right team. If you have an itch to enter the VC space, help founders, and want to fulfill a massive learning appetite with room for vertical growth in your career, I’m hiring for one more spot.
Here’s what the Investor Relations Analyst role entails. Remote work is best. The LinkedIn description above has most points, but I’ll explain the three crucial parts of the role.
Outreach. Every day, your job will rely upon how many phone calls or investor connections you can make. Newchip has many talented founders that investors want to see and offers deal flow for free; it’s your job to see how many investors you can talk to so you can help the most founders. The more phone calls you set up, the more founders in our accelerator you can help.
Investor Calls. Since the role is heavily reliant upon the relationships we build with investors, understanding how to help an investor while on the phone is arguably the most integral part of the role.
Founder Calls. At Newchip, the Investor Relations department supports founders receiving our services along their fundraising journey. Making sure they have everything they need in their journey on the phone is one of my favorite parts of the role because we actively learn how to help in further detail.
Here’s what I’m qualitatively looking for in a candidate to join my team:
1) Undying curiosity.
Curiosity is essential to studying the startups that enter our accelerator and figuring out how to create value. The most successful analysts align their curiosities about the startup world with their role by setting up phone calls that help them personally learn and founders along the way. The more curious you are, the more you will learn within the role.
2) Adaptability.
As Newchip continues to grow, our processes will constantly change. The avenues of opportunity cannot be capitalized if one doesn’t change their processes to be as efficient as possible. As stated earlier, the best companies solve the most problems. My department is constantly innovating to eliminate fundraising problems for founders, so adapting to efficiency remains a vital element to success.
3) Personality.
The people who make the best relationships with both investors and founders aren’t afraid to demonstrate who they are to others. Many VC’s receive free deal flow; what makes their experience with Newchip more valuable is the relationship they can build to receive that tailored deal flow. Our department has many personable people that truly understand who they are and makes working a true joy. Show us who you truly are when you apply.
4) Passion.
If you’re not driven, then this role isn’t for you. I want the people at Newchip to feel so personally aligned with the mission, that nothing will stop them on their journey to helping founders. Passion is irreplaceable; it’s felt by everyone, and I need that energy on my team. I want people that will maximize who they are, learn as much about startups as possible, and adapt to innovative methods of efficiency with a positive energy.
If you’ve made it to the end, I’m giving you an opportunity to stand out amongst the crowd of applicants. Record a two minute video describing what exactly drives you, who you really are, why you love startups, and how you’ve adapted to a situation. Send me a video message on Instagram @lukeaschenbrand, Twitter @lukeaschenbrand, or my LinkedIn and I’ll watch every single video sent.
Show me who you truly are if you want to work for me. Looking forward to seeing the responses!
PS: I wouldn’t be enjoying this role as much as I have if I didn’t already have an incredible team. I’m very thankful for these men coming in and working their tails off with me.
Alec Kremins started at Newchip two weeks ago and is already a top-performing analyst. He is a recent graduate of the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, immensely passionate about inspiring young talent to start their own successful companies, and helping current founders and operators practice mindfulness.
Scotland Butler is one of the the most personable and dedicated people I’ve met at Newchip. Outside of Newchip, Scotland is a co-founder for an AI EdTech startup out of Nigeria helping women enter the tech space. In his free time, he loves riding my bicycles around Austin, playing disc golf, making music, and acting.
Alex Uys is one of the sharpest men I’ve ever met. An adventurer in life, born and raised in Brooklyn, NYC, he has used the city as a home base from which to explore the far corners of the globe. Alex loves talking to founders and investors with that spark in their eyes. Outside of Newchip, some of his favorite activities are skydiving, motorcycling, surfing, off-roading, and camping. Alex loves languages, with working proficiency in Spanish and conversational Arabic. Alex is a writer at heart – he studied English at Bowdoin College along Maine’s rugged coastline.
