Tag: tips

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A Reminder of “Why I Love You” – Managing Downtime and Dynamics Between Fundraising Meetings

love, founder vc love, vc fundraising meetings

I recently read Mark Suster‘s 2018 blog post about startups on “Remind me why I love you again?”. As an extremely active VC, he specifically detailed why, unfortunately, by meeting 2, 3, and so on with a founder, he may forget the context of reconnecting and why the founder/startup is so amazing. And, simply, he calls it “love decay”.

Mark Suster’s graph on ‘Love Decay’

The longer it has been since a VC/founder’s last meeting, the harder it is to recall the context of the current meeting. Though I may not be as over-saturated with deal flow as Mark is, it is an unfortunate circumstance I come across in meeting 5-10 founders and replying to 100+ emails a week.

Continue reading “A Reminder of “Why I Love You” – Managing Downtime and Dynamics Between Fundraising Meetings”
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#unfiltered #20 You Will Be What You Eat, You Are What You Excrete – Leading vs Lagging Indicators, One of My Relationship-Building/Networking Practices

stars, starry night, networking tips

Yesterday evening, I sat in our backyard, sipping homemade lemonade and sketching out my weekly creative endeavor (why). Between sips and furtive glances upwards, I hoped to catch a glimpse of NEOWISE. But alas, I forgot to pray to the weather gods in the morning.

Disappointed, I packed up to head inside. As if by a stroke of fate, my phone buzzed. You know, this story would be more dramatic if my disappointment was telepathically transmitted to my friends. Tongue in cheek, I apologize if I got your hopes up. But, it was merely the influx of messages after my timed “Do Not Disturb” mode switched off. Yet one of these blips came from a good ol’ swim team pal into our group chat. Lo and behold – an HD cross section in time of the exact comet.

I propped my cell above my head, positioned just north of the horizon. And unable to hold my smile back, I stuck around for a while longer.

So what?

You’re probably wondering: How the hell does yesterday’s smile have to do with “You will be what you eat, you are what you excrete”. As the title of the post so kindly suggests. Trust me it does. Admittedly, probably not the greatest of blog post titles, but, hey, it rhymes. Which might be the lamest excuse you’ve heard this month. But I digress.

You will be what put in your body. You are already what comes out of your body. Literally. Well, I’m sure my cousins who are molecular cell biologists will point out some (or many) of the nuances I missed. But we don’t have to count the cards.

The same is true for your personality. You build your personality based on the inputs in your life from when you’re younger. Your personality is subsequently evidenced by what you say and do.

And, I can say the same for education, biases, and so on. For the purpose of this post, I’d like to underscore one other – relationship-building. Or as most others understand it, networking. But I have a mild allergic reaction to that nomination.

Continue reading “#unfiltered #20 You Will Be What You Eat, You Are What You Excrete – Leading vs Lagging Indicators, One of My Relationship-Building/Networking Practices”
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Drawing Inspiration

drawing inspiration, ideas, eclipse, writer's block

On Tuesday, I had the great honor to jump on a call with someone who is both a brilliant composer and an acclaimed orchestral conductor. Though he was classically trained, he found fame in the world of video games. And I couldn’t help but ask where he draws his inspiration when composing musicality to pair with various mediums of entertainment, even outside of games. He answered simply:

“Everywhere.”

He followed up that to help him frame his ideas around the subject of his piece: “I watch a little bit, not too much to have the show or game dominate in his mind, but enough to start off.” Just a small spark to start the fire. What he said echoed in mind, reminding me of a conversation I had with another friend – entrepreneur, author, and podcaster – prior to self-quarantining ourselves. He told me: “There’s no such thing as writer’s block. It’s that desire for perfection that holds us back from putting our pen on paper. But once we let go of trying to be perfect, we can find inspiration from everything around us.”

In all honesty, when he first told me this, I thought he was being quite presumptive. Especially it was at a point in time I was struggling to find content to put out weekly. But he was right. And, as you may have guessed, that became the kindling for the #unfiltered series.

Similarly, a few weeks back, a college buddy asked me where I find my inspiration for pieces on this blog. Though I am echelons shy of the musical talent I spoke with two days ago, I offered him the path I took to get me here:

  • Practice ideating daily.
  • Talk to people.
  • Meditate and/or write in a gratitude journal.
  • Write an audience of one.

Practice ideating daily.

My brain, like your brain, is a muscle. The more I practice using it, the better it gets. The same is true for ideas. The more ideas I write, the better I’ll get. It can be one sentence. Or, it can be 5 pages. But make sure to dedicate at least a full page to each day, even if 95% of it may be blank. The point is to deliberately do so every day, with no cheat days. Personally, I spent the first 2 weeks, writing one sentence entries.

So, I invested in an idea journal. In fact, probably my best investment I made in the past 3 years. And, I didn’t bother buying a cheap one. It was a Moleskine art sketchbook. At the time, a $17 purchase plus tax. And for a broke college student, that was a sizable amount – two good meals worth. A good alternative and the one I use now is a Leuchtturm1917 sketchbook. Why? Because it forced me to use it. I realized for me, the better the notebook is, the more I’m inclined to not let it go to waste.

Although I wish this was my original idea, my professor at Cal taught me this simple, but effective strategy.

Talk to people.

When I found myself unable to grasp at any ideas (that I thought were good), I talked to people. The more obsessive they were about their passion, the better. The more (positive and negative) emotion they channel into their work, the more insight they’ll have. And, frankly, excitement is contagious.

Talk to at least one of them from this cohort a week. Take notes, follow up, and ask more questions. The last part usually more independently, depending on their bandwidth.

Meditate and/or write in a gratitude journal.

Be thankful. It’s a useful frame of mind to be in. Positive thinking helps with more expansive creativity. Negative thoughts and stress, depending on its severity, narrows down the scope of your creativity.

Write for an audience of one.

Many professional writers are taught to find a target audience and write for them. Focus on a specific segment, before broadening, if ever. My mentors taught me to take this one step further. Instead one specific segment, just one person. It’s much better to write for 1 person who I know will always love my content than to write for a hypothetical many who may or may not even like it. For me, it’s myself. When I’m writing here, I’m merely a hobbyist. I don’t have any grand goal of reaching one million subscribers (not that I’m opposed to it). I’m just here to immerse myself in the joy of writing. And if I am lucky to have affected someone else’s life in a meaningful way, that’s my cherry on top.

Photo by Jongsun Lee on Unsplash

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#unfiltered #9 Living to Eat – Supporting the Service Industry, Fine Dining Musings, Restaurant Selection Criteria, Tipping, and the Notebook

living to eat, fine dining

I had originally planned to write this post back in February, but when the coronavirus came crashing in 6th gear, I thought it would have been unwise to urge you, friends and family to venture beyond your doorstep. So this post fell into the depths of despair, hoping to find its way to center stage after we were on the road to recovery and when restaurants reopened.

But yesterday, over a Zoom call, in catching up with a fellow foodie and college buddy, he suggested that I still post this. Not to urge people to eat out. But as a voice to support the many struggling restaurants, cafés and bars out there – many of which include our personal favorites. Before I dive into this post, I want to explicitly note 2 disclaimers:

Disclaimer 1: As I mentioned above, this post is not written to incentivize you to go eat out now, but rather just illustrate my musings as someone who loves food. And as many other businesses are feeling the brunt of the impact in the status quo, the culinary industry is no exception. Your favorite restaurant yesterday may not exist tomorrow. And you won’t even be able to experiment with any of the below musings if we don’t put a hand out now and support them when they need us most.

Disclaimer 2: I am neither a professional chef/cook nor is my trade being a food critic. So take what I say with a grain of salt, as with anything I write. Below is merely my observations in one of my most expensive hobbies as a foodie.

Given the extravagant length of this post, here’s a TL;DR:

  • Why I don’t resort to Yelp/Google when picking a new dinner destination
    • And a couple of my favorite restaurants in the Bay Area
  • My calculus for tipping – and why there are times I choose to not tip
  • Why a notebook may be your best friend in your culinary adventures
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#unfiltered #2 Culinary Tips – Cook vs. Chef vs. Flavor Mad Scientist- The Carbs, the Proteins, and the Whole Spectrum

unfiltered vc, cooking tips
Photo by Calum Lewis on Unsplash

As a result of my love for food, and eating out, honestly, a bit too much, what started as engaging conversations with chefs at some of my restaurants, and eventually chefs from across the country turned into a passion for cooking. Uhh, well, although I can’t call myself a cook or chef, I have categorized myself as a flavor mad scientist.

  • Cook – someone who can prepare food
  • Chef – someone who can create recipes appreciated by a wider audience (personally, don’t care if they’re a professional or not)
  • Flavor mad scientist – someone who attempts to be innovative and likes experimenting with permutations of flavors and textures (80-90% ‘failure’ rate), aka me

So, I chatted/learned from chefs/cooks, ranging from some of the most prestigious kitchens to my favorite home kitchens. Here are some tips and hacks I got from some of the best:

For the carbs:

  • You can tell if a risotto (or rice in general) is cooked by smearing a rice grain on a flat surface. If it smears without noticeable lumps, you’re good.
  • Add a teaspoon of olive oil in the pasta dough to give it a bit of shine.
  • Flour matters. Don’t just use all-purpose. 00 (double zero) for silkier flour and pasta chewiness. Durum for coarser grinds, longer cook times, and for making flatbreads; some use it for pasta too, depending on the chef. And so on.

For the proteins:

  • Score the fat of a (ribeye) steak before searing, so it’s easier to render the fat. Score is a cross-hatch pattern. More surface area to render.
  • Use tongs to cook steak and a spoon to butter-baste (I swear I used to think it was spelled “butter-basing”)
  • Don’t cook cold proteins (meats/seafood). Let it rest till room temperature before cooking.
  • Allow for meats to rest for as long as you’ve had it in the pan to better absorb the flavors.
  • Before searing proteins, dry with a paper towel or season generously with salt to reduce moisture and splatter once you put it into the pan.
  • Hot pan/hot oil, quick sear and won’t stick to the pan.
  • Brush fish with mayonnaise to prevent them from sticking to the grill. And a great browning too.
  • Use cuts of meat that are rich in marrow and collagen (cartilage) to make stock, like wings, chicken feet, chicken carcass, pork knuckle, etc.
  • If you don’t have a meat thermometer, stick a metal rod (or a cake tester) into the center of the meat. Then place the rod on your lower lip. If it’s cold, more time. Hot, it’s done. If you’ve burnt your lips, well… in gamer terms, GG.

For everything else:

  • If your meats or onions ain’t sizzling in the oil, the oil in your pan isn’t hot enough.
  • To not bruise your herbs when chopping (or chiffonading if you want to be fancy), you need a sharp knife and cut once per cross-section. You can tell if you bruised your herbs by the residue they leave on the chopping block.
  • Lemon juice, ideally fresh, helps fruits from oxidizing (after being cut), so it retains its fresh color.
  • Flavor extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) with herbs (i.e. bay leaves, basil, rosemary, thyme, oregano, etc.) for the “secret” zing to your recipes. You can do the same with white wine that’s used for deglazing the pot/pan.
  • Zest citrus in once in one fluid motion with a zester to prevent mixing in the bitter rind.
  • Use fine grinds for salt and pepper to season pre-cook, and coarse grinds for post-cook/presentation.
  • Buy whole spices and a spice grinder (or pestle and mortar), instead of ground spices. You’ll get fresher and richer flavor that way.
  • Toast spices for more flavor.
  • Under-seasoning is a rookie mistake. (Admittedly, after this tip, I fell under the category of over-seasoning.)
  • Keep your work station clean. Mise en place.
  • Wear short sleeves while cooking, or roll up your sleeves.
  • If you’re a 4-eyes, like me, invest in contacts. Glasses can fog up from the steam, and possibly blur your vision in critical moments.
  • Don’t skimp on costs. Quality cookware and ingredients lead to quality food. (Not saying you can’t otherwise get a good meal, but you’ll notice the difference.)

This post was inspired by a friend’s comment on my Instagram post on February 5, 2020.

culinary tips, unfiltered, plating
You may notice that I just transcribed what I wrote on paper to this blog, with some extra sprinkles on top.

#unfiltered is a series where I share my raw thoughts and unfiltered commentary about anything and everything. It’s not designed to go down smoothly like the best cup of cappuccino you’ve ever had (although here‘s where I found mine), more like the lonely coffee bean still struggling to find its identity (which also may one day find its way into a more thesis-driven blogpost). Who knows? The possibilities are endless.

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