February ‘25

Startups, emotional intelligence, and the rise and fall of Rome

Adrien Brody starring in ‘The Brutalist’

Startup Trends

Y Combinator is a startup mixer that takes business pitches (Shark Tank style) and connects founders with investors (assuming they’re viable). Here’s some notes from poking around:

• Several YC backed startups that are entirely focused on India

  • India is its own little market economy

  • large enough to operate on its own (1 billion people, and semi-advanced)

  • yet undeveloped enough to warrant opportunity that doesn't exist in more advanced marketplaces (like the US)

• Edge AI

  • Lots of generative AI startups (as one would expect)

  • But a surprising number of startups trying to use AI on small/concentrated hardware

  • Colloquially termed “edge ai” (AI running on the edge of the network)

• Interesting startups

  • Ironclad — using generative AI to disrupt contract law

  • Clipboard Health — imagine uber for healthcare. Allowing nurses and doctors to freelance jobs across hospitals

  • Embark Trucks — self driving trucks (but their software works for all types of equipment, like tractors and forklifts)

  • Odeko — making it easier to start/streamline coffee shop operations. Supply chain automation

  • Instacart — similar to Odeko, but more consumer facing. Forseeable market overlap if Instacart expands to B2B

Emotional Intelligence

I talk a lot about emotional intelligence, perhaps foremost with my Mom. And as I get older, I’m seeing more and more of my friends reach emotional maturity, which makes it easier to connect with them (at least for me).

Emotional Intelligence is many things. It’s the ability to be self aware. Which is simply understanding how others perceive you and knowing how to respond this fact. It’s also an understanding of who the other person is and utilizing this knowledge to remain objective. Which naturally leads to empathy, where you understand and “feel” for someone when they express something to you.

Often times when you express that someone is “immature” you are expressing the opposite of this. That they are acting ignorantly. With no understanding of their actions — no matter how harmful to others.

It’s not necessarily being the optimist in the room. It’s more about having the sheer ability to understand someone else’s emotions. How they’re feeling.

Which also makes it #1 on my “qualities in a partner list”. Being with someone who understands how I’m feeling most of the time is so refreshing. No need to clarify, argue, or fight. We’re on the same page 95% of the time. And when we’re not? We talk about it. Simple as that.

Contrasting Rome

THE RISE

• Aristocracy and peasants (eventually having to concede that people as slaves ensues the notion of “peasants”)

• Primarily agrarian based

• Focused on protection from outside forces

• Strong focus on civic virtue and duty

THE FALL

• Corruption and inefficiency within the government (lawmakers not upholding their civic duty)

• Reliance on mercenaries

• Economic stagnation (inflation and heavy taxation)

Some Literature

We were so poor I had to take the place of the bait in the mousetrap. All alone in the cellar. I could hear them pacing upstairs, tossing and turning in their beds. "These are dark and evil days," the mouse told me as he nibbled my ear. Years passed. My mother wore a cat-fur collar which she stroked until its sparks lit up the cellar.

— Charles Simic (The World Doesn’t End)