When Facebook ushered in the era of social media, the core insight was that by creating a space for us and our friends online, we would be motivated to share more. What we shared in the beginning was predominantly text because our phone cameras produced low-quality photos. Instagram changed all…

This is an excerpt from my newsletter titled A newsletter about the newsletter (Ricky Weekly #17). If you want more of my newsletters, I recommend Ideas matter, but clear-seeing matters more (Ricky Weekly #4), “Strong opinions, weakly held” (Ricky Weekly #12), and Dabblin’ (Ricky Weekly #20). Or just subscribe. Thing…

Whenever people talk about the loneliness epidemic, I can’t help but nod my head in agreement. For people who know me, that may seem odd because I’m constantly surrounded by friends and loved ones. But loneliness is felt in the soul rather than in physical space. I guess that’s why…

The era of social media feels like it’s coming to an end, but it shouldn’t because I’m not done with it yet. Recently Eugene Wei’s Invisible Asymptotes and Kevin Kwok’s The Arc of Collaboration gave me the language to decipher why I feel like there’s still a ton of white…

A snapshot of what I’m interested in working on next — This post will be continuously updated on my website. Last updated June 19, 2019 “I GOT NEXT!” is what you say when you walk up to a pick-up basketball game that’s in session to declare that you’re next-up. You gotta do it loudly so people know. I’m at the phase…

For me, college was the best time to build startups. Living and working in the Silicon Valley has been the second best. Nowhere else in the world comes close, but will it stay that way? No. The next Silicon Valley is already online. Why do all the best startups come out of Silicon Valley? Life is just a game. We can…

The most important atomic unit of Silicon Valley is a team of two or three building something together out of nothing. I’ve been watching the team formation process over the last ten years and even though it’s more popular than ever to do startups today, finding teammates to work on…

I remember the sense of wonder when I first signed up for Facebook and Twitter. Facebook helped me feel more connected to my friends, especially as I was graduating high school and going away to college. Twitter helped me find like-minded people who were also obsessed about technology and encouraged…

As pure software opportunities become more scarce and capital becomes more abundant, full-stack startups are in vogue. What distinguishes a full-stack startup from a traditional startup? Traditional startups sell software tools, full-stack startups are services that sell outcomes. It’s the difference between Taxi Magic and Uber. I’ve written about this…