April 15, 2023

January 29, 2025

Two Great Reads

As I spent the week on the road, I'm sharing two great quick reads instead of writing my own newsletters. Both I highly recommend thinking about as an early stage founder / operator.

pascal's notes

Episode Transcript

#1: 2023 tech reality check

#2: Pocket guide of essential YC advice

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👋 - Looking For Pre-Seed Funding?

At focal, we lead pre-seed rounds backing software / platform / infrastructure builders across the 🇺🇸/ 🇨🇦 reinventing how industries operate and business is done.

Featured Resources

June 6, 2023

January 29, 2025

Introducing findfunding.vc 🧨
We're thrilled to announce the launch of our open source VC database - findfunding.vc
company news

April 26, 2023

January 29, 2025

focal is live 👋
We just launched our firm's new name and bold brand: focal
company news

June 13, 2025

June 13, 2025

Speed Is Your Only Advantage
(3/3) Chewing glass through endless pivots: The pivot playbook with Han Wang, Co-Founder and CEO of Mintlify who found product-market-fit after 8 pivots in 14 months.
pascal's notes

June 12, 2025

June 12, 2025

If, when, and how to Pivot: Lessons from 8 Pivots in 14 Months
(2/3) Chewing glass through endless pivots: The pivot playbook with Han Wang, Co-Founder and CEO of Mintlify who found product-market-fit after 8 pivots in 14 months.
pascal's notes

June 11, 2025

June 11, 2025

Bet on a Space You Care About, Not a Specific Idea
(1/3) Chewing glass through endless pivots: The pivot playbook with Han Wang, Co-Founder and CEO of Mintlify who found product-market-fit after 8 pivots in 14 months.
pascal's notes

July 13, 2023

January 29, 2025

🧱#8: The VC Rebrand Guide
Rebranding and revamping your website is no easy task. We lay out step-by-step how we did it for focal, all the way to launch.
brick by brick

April 12, 2023

January 29, 2025

🧱#7: Navigating Year-End
Now that the busy year-end season is (mostly) behind us, we look back at the operational lessons we've learned in the last six months.
brick by brick

March 20, 2023

January 29, 2025

🧱#6: On Point Offsite
In January, we had a week-long team offsite across Virginia & Miami. While the primary draw was to see each other, reconnect, & align, we also got a ton of work done. Here's what we learned.
brick by brick
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June 11, 2025

June 11, 2025

5YF Episode #38: Graphite Co-Founder & CEO Merrill Lutsky
The 100X Engineer, Vibe Coding Bottlenecks, Agents As Evaluators, AI Roll-ups w/ Graphite Co-Founder & CEO Merrill Lutsky
5 year frontier

May 14, 2025

June 11, 2025

5YF Episode #37: AIRCO Co-Founder & CEO Greg Constantine
Global Energy Race, Creating With Carbon, CO2 As Fuel, Powering Mars w/ AIRCO Co-Founder & CEO Greg Constantine
5 year frontier

April 30, 2025

April 30, 2025

5YF Episode #36: Clari Co-Founder & CEO Andy Byrne
Sales Co-Pilots, AI Revenue Intelligence, Procurement Agents, and the CRO in 2030 w/ Clari Co-Founder & CEO Andy Byrne
5 year frontier