2x founder currently working in a VC, building in public to use AI to accelerate biology research specifically to cure his girlfriend’s brain tumor. Met at SXSW conference. Highly structured, operates strictly on Expected Value (EV) and ATP management. Offered $50/day at SXSW to formalize my networking learning.
March 12, 2025 - SXSW Conference
Andrew: "These are the industries I’m hoping to apply my line of questioning to. The best deliverables would be: 1. A spreadsheet with the names/contact info of people who you spoke to using our questions 2. An introduction to people you think could become customers. The types of people we are looking to work with would be able to afford $100k+ contracts.
I’ll put this in writing for the record: I’m offering $50 per day at SXSW for you to gather this info and develop your system for meeting people. What I hope for is that you’ll be deliberate with your time and learn from this experience. I also hope you’ll be brave and make a point to talk to the speakers whenever you attend a panel and ask for followups/ their contact info.
For reference, I just went up to the Chief Security Officer at CoinBase the other day and he’s going to connect us to his security team about how we can use our tech internally. This is something that’s scary, but worst case they never remember you anyway."
Adele: "I’m at this session and he seems particularly relevant to who you’re looking for. I’m in line to ask questions, I’m curious how you’d approach this? I’m planning to ask more about white vs black AI and follow your flow of questions. If ur at Hilton you should definitely speak to him (if he’s relevant). I’m at the end of the session rn and I don’t think I understand the product enough but I’ll try my best to just ask follow-ups."
June 17, 2025 - ATP & Modulating Energy
Andrew: "How familiar are you with baseball - specifically a player called Shohei Othani? He’s capable of throwing a baseball really freaking hard - around 100 mph when he’s locked in. Most of the time, he’ll throw in the 95-96 mph range to conserve his energy. If he gets into a high pressure situation, he uses that extra energy to throw closer to his max range.
Similarly, I think when you’re working, concentration and willpower are finite resources that have to be managed. I try to lower the amount of willpower needed to do good work by setting up my environment to make good choices. For example, I try not to work from home too much because it’s really distracting and it should be where I relax. I want to work around other highly motivated people more because I’ll find a deeper pool of energy. Then, I really focus on tasks that require total concentration (reading a contract, planning a negotiation) versus easier tasks (sending basic emails, working in excel, writing plans that use tactics I’ve used before, etc).
If I give the easy tasks the same amount of concentration as the hard ones, I’ll get tired way faster and start feeling anxious due to fatigue. Anxiety begets procrastination, and I’ll end up getting almost nothing done."
Adele: "For instance lately I discovered a trend- it’s kinda weird but when I go to events, old successful Asian founders have the tendency to mentor me maybe cuz I remind them of their daughter? So I could go to an event tonight, but alternatively my friend told me about this sales opportunity for water treatment technology, and I’m also interning for the 2 startups (a venture studio and a biotech startup), and doing customer discovery interview for my own startup."
Andrew: "What is the expected value of each of the things you listed here? For events, they can be hit or miss depending on who you get to talk to. Sales is an incredible skill to have, your internships probably have some leeway where less is expected of you immediately, and customer discovery is always an informative when done right. I’d probably try to learn from the sales opportunity because the skills you gain are likely to translate to everything else, but trust your gut and move with conviction."