Month: December 2019

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Case Study: WeWork and the finances behind the business.

Before, and after, becoming an entrepreneur I flew F-16’s for the US Military.

One of the things we did religiously after every mission was a non-emotional, fact-based debrief.

The debrief had one purpose… to dig for the facts and then from those facts derive concrete lessons learned that we could export to the rest of the Squadron in order to be more effective as warfighters. We debriefed after every mission both in peacetime and in combat focusing on our survivability and lethality. Debriefing is part of who I am now and I do it daily in both my military and civilian life.

I”ve watched with interest the events surrounding WeWork over the last year. Recently the WSJ published an article on the financing side of WeWork. The link to the WSJ article is here. I’m by no means rendering an opinion given that I was not in the board meetings, but one wonders what kind of debrief the team there is conducting and what lessons they will all learn from this experience.

I’m currently serving on an active duty tour with the US Military. This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of any element of the US Government or my views as a US Government employee.

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AVC and the “Butter Thesis”

I spend a lot of time every day reading and consuming information.

For years I have followed Fred Wilson’s “AVC” blog. Fred has been a VC since 1987 and is a Managing Partner at Union Square Ventures in NYC. I’ve learned a lot from Fred over the years and sincerely enjoy his writing.

I loved his blog today on “Butter” and the associated piece from his colleague Nick Grossman known as “The Butter Thesis” and wanted to pass it on. I highly recommend that you both read this blog and subscribe to both Fred’s blog and Nicks.

You can subscribe to Fred’s blog here: https://avc.com/subscribe/

You can read Fred’s blog from today here: https://avc.com/2019/12/butter/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AVc+%28A+VC%29

I’m currently on active duty as a US Military Officer. This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of any element of the US Government or my views as a US Government employee.

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Energy and National Security

I am fortunate enough to be spending a few days at the Kennedy School at Harvard as part of the Kennedy School’s program for Senior Executives for National and International Security.

One of the lectures we listened to today was on the role of energy in our national security policy and how energy transitions from carbon-based approaches to more sustainable energy will impact both global economies as well as the underlying fabric of global security

The US and our allies and partners need to think strongly about what a world looks like where oil is not a baseline power source.

What happens when that political and policy lever is not in play for global decision-makers. What does that look like, and what investments are leaders making now to ensure decision space in that new market?

This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of any element of the US Government or my views as a US Government employee.