Venture Beyond with Trevor Loy

Managing Partner @FlywheelVC. Lecturer in Management Science & Engineering @Stanford University. Board Alumni @NVCA. Zen caminante @MindfulStartups. Flyfisherman. Husband. Dad.
image

continuations:

I Miss Writing Here

It’s been a long time since I have written here. And I miss it. There has been a confluence of factors that have made it difficult.

First, there has been simply finding the time. I have been crazy busy at work with many portfolio companies going through some kind of crisis as part of the adjustments in the financing environment over the last couple of years. I have also been working through some personal issues that have provided an opportunity for growth but have been time intensive (more on that some day, maybe). I have also been investing in staying fit by working out consistently, with strength training on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and cardio on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. And finally I have been preparing for a transatlantic sail (more on that shortly).

Second, the world is continuing to descend back into tribalism. And it has been exhausting trying to maintain a high rung approach to topics amid an onslaught of low rung bullshit. Whether it is Israel-Gaza, the Climate Crisis or Artificial Intelligence, the online dialog is dominated by the loudest voices. Words have been rendered devoid of meaning and reduced to pledges of allegiance to a tribe. I start reading what people are saying and often wind up feeling isolated and exhausted. I don’t belong to any of the tribes nor would I want to. But the effort required to maintain internally consistent and intellectually honest positions in such an environment is daunting. And it often seems futile.

But I don’t give up easily. And I have started to miss writing here so much that I will figure out how to resume it. I am writing as much for myself as for anyone who may feel similarly distraught at the state of discourse.

image

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us … devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion … that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Little by little, we are making progress in the fight against cancer 🔥💪🙌

image

Key life advice masked as investing advice:

“There’s a big diff between probability & outcome.

Probable things fail to happen-

and improbable things happen-

all the time.

That’s 1 of the most important things you can know abt investment risk.”


-Howard Marks,

_The Most Important Thing_

image

Source: Paul Farhi (@farhip) on Twitter

Farolitos tonight on Canyon Road in Santa Fe. Merry Christmas / Feliz Navidad. 🎄❤️Peace on Earth and Good Will to All. 🙏🕊️

image
image

Season’s Greetings

image

Chorus from The Cure of Troy

by Seamus Heaney

One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.

- Sigmund Freud