Book

I haven’t been posting about my reading lately. While I continue to read at my typical pace , I think I was a little tired of writing book reports, but that has passed. Last night I read The 80/80 Marriage: A New Model for a Happier, Stronger Relationship . Kaley and Nate Klemp have written an excellent book that can help any married couple improve their relationship. This is especially true in the time of Covid, given all the additional dynamics about being home together most of the time. ...

I’m continuing my weekend reading goal of a book on racial equity. Last week was Kingonomics: Twelve Innovative Currencies for Transforming Your Business and Life Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by Rodney Sampson who I’m partnering with on the #RacialEquityEcosystemPledge. Yesterday I read Ijeoma Oluo’s So you want to talk about race . It was excellent. My goal with reading these books is to bring a beginners mind to racial equity, allow myself to feel uncomfortable while reading, and let the impact of what I read over the summer accumulate, with a hope that I can personally eliminate many of my unconscious biases, unhelpful behavior, while unlearning (or challenging my own) perspectives that I’ve built up over my 54 years as a White person in America. ...

I took a digital sabbath yesterday. I ended up doing three things. Read The End of October by Lawrence Wright Took a nap Watched three episodes of Breaking Bad I feel so much better than I did at the end of the day Friday. After I finish this blog post, I’m going to participate in the Emerge Family Virtual 5k . The End of October was intense. It’s the story of a modern day pandemic. It’s fiction, but deeply researched. I have no idea how much was modified to suit the actual reality, but given the time frame for publishing most books, my guess is “not that much.” ...

Jason Mendelson and I recently published the 4th Edition of Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist . The book now has three forewords – one by each of Fred Wilson (USV), James Park (Fitbit), and Dick Costolo (now 01 Advisors, then Twitter). The 1st edition had 13 chapters. We are now up to 19. The Players Preparing for Fundraising How to Raise Money Overview of the Term Sheet Economic Terms of the Term Sheet Control Terms Other Terms of the Term Sheet Convertible Debt The Capitalization Table Crowdfunding Venture Debt How Venture Capital Funds Work Negotiation Tactics Raising Money the Right Way Issues at Different Financing Stages Letters of Intent: The Other Term Sheet How to Engage an Investment Banker Why Do Term Sheets Even Exist? Legal Things Every Entrepreneur Should Know The new chapters in this edition are 11. Venture Debt (with help from SVB), and 17. How to Engage an Investment Banker (with help from Golding Partners). ...

Amy and I didn’t feel like taking a Christmas or New Year’s vacation this year so we just hung around Boulder, worked, and did our thing. We then decamped to Mexico last week for warmth, sun, beach, and books. News flash: there are a lot fewer people at a fancy resort in Mexico in the third week of January. It was a good reading week. How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success : We don’t have kids, but a friend recommended this. I decided to read it to see if any of it applied to being an investor or board member in a company. Yup – a bunch of it was spot on. After reading it, I’m still glad I don’t have kids. ...

I stayed up late last night finishing Lost and Wanted . If you are a reader, get this book in physical form. It’s worth savoring. Amy bought this book for me last week. When I asked her why, she belted out a stream of words: “MIT, female professor, the afterlife, sexual harassment, physics, racism, women.” She then said, “Fiction is a good way to access complicated topics.” This is a recurring dynamic in our relationship, as we often use shared fiction to discuss complex topics. Amy hasn’t read the book yet, so it’s now on the top of her infinite pile of books to read. ...

29 years of nightmares. Over 10,000 nights in a row. That’s hard to fathom. David R. Mellor , the Senior Director of Grounds for the Boston Red Sox Baseball team, experienced this. His eloquent memoir, One Base at a Time: How I Survived PTSD and Found My Field of Dreams , takes the reader on a very complicated journey, with extremely obvious physical pain intermingled with less apparent emotional pain. ...

As Amy and I settle into our time in Homer, we spent a lot of last weekend (and the evenings) reading. We don’t have a TV up here, so our lying around entertainment is reading with some bonus knitting time for Amy. I’ve been working my way through the books at the upcoming Authors and Innovators Business Ideas Festival and got through three of them so far. I also read a near-final draft of John Minnihan’ s upcoming book and The Impossible Long Run: My Journey to Becoming Ultra by Janet Patkowa. ...

The view from my living room in Homer, Alaska Amy and I arrived in Homer this evening for some time in a different place. We are TV-free up here, so that means, well, books. She fell asleep early so I finished off The Bookish Life of Nina Hill which I had started several weeks ago but got distracted and read a few other things. The distraction was more a function of being in Boulder, surrounded by physical books which I read, in contrast to being in Homer with my Kindle, where I simply picked up on the last thing I had been reading. ...

I’m keynoting the Authors and Innovators Business Ideas Festival on 10/24/19 at the UMASS campus in Newton, MA. As a writer, I’m excited to see events like this happening. When I got the invite from Larry Gennari , I was delighted that it overlapped with a Wellesley College board meeting that Amy was attending. So, while we won’t be together (she’ll be in Wellesley and I’ll be in Newton), we’ll be near each other. ...