I’ve decided to start a regular update to share some of the things I’ve been reading, writing, doing, etc. as a way to stay in touch with you. Not to mention, so many friends and colleagues are doing such amazing things in the world, so I wanted to celebrate some of their updates as well. If you have updates to celebrate, let me know. In a world where Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other platforms control what you see, you may not see any updates from me even if we are best friends. So to take back some control from the social platforms and to stay better connected, with a simple update like this one. I’m going to try to send these updates more regularly, every few weeks, but we’ll see how it goes. Since this is the first update, it’s a little longer than I’d like, but I’ve got a backlog of things to share – so expect a shorter update in the future.

Celebrating
— Adriana Gascoigne, my SF friend, and entrepreneur on the launch of her book, Tech Boss Lady.
— Brian Solis, my SF friend, a futurist & thought-leader on his 7th book, Lifescale.
— Stefan Weitz, my Seattle & Chicago friend, and entrepreneur on the launch of his probiotic startup, Jetson – more in this video.
— Zvi Band, my DC tech friend, and entrepreneur on the launch of his book, Success Is In Your Sphere.

Reading

I’m fascinated by health and wellness lately, so here are a few recent articles:

— How Exercise Affects Our Memory

— Thousands of cancer diagnoses tied to a poor diet, study finds

— How the Microbiome Might Predict Diabetes, Premature Birth and Gut Diseases

These tech and startups articles caught my attention:

— Swedish Startup to Bring Pogo Sticks to S.F. as E-Scooter Alternative

— Small VC Funds Continue To Raise, Despite Pressure From Above

— In San Francisco, Tech Money Doesn’t Buy Happiness

— The End Of Mobile

If you love food, Las Vegas is an excellent place to be:

— Las Vegas is Having a Food Moment That Couldn’t Happen Anywhere Else

UFOs? Yikes!

— ‘Wow, What Is That?’ Navy Pilots Report Unexplained Flying Objects

I’m just diving into this leadership book…

— Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Alan Eagle

Also if you’re ever in Las Vegas, one of my favorite book stores is a magical place downtown Las Vegas called Writer’s Block. They just reopened and now have a cute little coffee shop too. You’ll know what I mean by “magical” when you step inside. Oh, and one other reason I love them is they always have copies of my book on the shelf. 😉

Listening
If you like podcasts, I was recently the guest on the Austinpreneur podcast with Joshua Baer of Capital Factory. It was recorded during SXSW in Austin, Texas. If your ears are ringing, take a listen, maybe you are mentioned as I share some stories and what we’ve been up to with Established, Established Ventures, and our Startup of the Year program. You can take a listen here.

This week I’ve been working with our team at Established on writing up the final report for our SBIR Phase I with AFWERX and the USAF. Our project mission is to help the USAF become more engaged in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. We’ll know if we get the contract in August so please keep those fingers crossed for us.

I’ve been thinking about Opportunity Zones (more on them here) as they pertain to an investment fund focused on investing in early-stage startups. This quote by Brett Messing of SkyBridge may have summed it up best by saying:

We’re currently in the process of setting up our third fund (our first two were micro-funds via our investment community) at Established Ventures and exploring if Opportunity Zones could play into it at all. If you’re investing in startups in Opportunity Zones, I’d love to hear how you’re doing it, how it’s going, and learn from your learning as we explore it further.

I have a toddler, so we have been watching lots of Disney movies lately. That said, a new one that’s worth seeing is Aladdin. Will Smith nailed it as a genie. I think I enjoyed it as much as our little one did.

After selling TechCo last year to MVF Global, we took a short break and spent the summer near the ocean in southern Maine. It was refreshing to be able to do regular beach walks and be closer to nature. So I’m excited to be headed back again this week. If you’re in Maine, New Hampshire, or Boston area and want to sync up for coffee or something, let me know.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this update. I’d love to hear from you as well, so feel free to shoot me a note, especially if you have something for us to include an upcoming update.

Sharing is caring.

Positive Vibes only.

Bring happiness to life.

You can sign-up for my updates delivered by email here.