Your twenties seem to be the time where the only thing that matters is to get to know yourself. Becoming your own best friend seems to be core to this process. You need to accept and get to know yourself.

The people that struggle seem to project an image of themselves into the world that is not who they are or how they feel. The difference between reality and self image creates a lot of emotional turmoil, self loathing and unstable mental health.

People who find direction seem to be happier. How do you find it? Ask yourself: ‘What did I do hours on end as a kid?’ As a kid you are honest, and you only do what you’re interested in.

What did you like as a kid? That is the general direction you should go in.

This is the second installment of my series on young VC’s in New York. I’m interested to learn what processes, frameworks and mental models these new VC’s are adapting and using to evaluate early stage companies.

The goal of this series is threefold. First, understand the mental models that each young VC has developed for him- or herself. Two, learn from them. Three, showcase their ideas and insights for others to learn from.

This interview is with Mat Kaliski.

Mat appeared on my radar at one of the Founders Friday events he hosts. He is often the person interviewing the founders and isn’t afraid to ask the hard questions. …

The beta (β) of a stock is the relative change in value of that stock versus the change of the stock market as a whole. By definition, the stock market has a beta of 1. It is a measure of volatility.

I believe mental health also has a beta. And it’s different for everyone. When you mental beta is high, it means your mental health fluctuates more than when it’s low.

Just like stocks you might end up at a higher level over the long run, but there can be a lot of volatility involved to get there.

Writing good emails is a valuable skill. Yet, many people just send out stuff that gets lost in trash or gets archived immediately.

So I wanted to share what I’ve learned from writing many, many emails (like ‘12,000 cold emails’ many) as an SDR and in my personal life. I’m definitely not an expert, but have found a couple of simple methods that are quite effective.

1. Have a clear reason for why you’re reaching out

You need to have a clear and simple reason when you reach out to people with cold emails. You need to make their time valuable if you want to receive some of it. Always have a reason and a simple ask. For the example I’m using here, I’m reaching out as I’m doing some work for a company that built a FinTech SaaS platform to manage model risk for large financial institutions and want to set up a meeting. …

Technology is changing the real estate industry. I categorize these new developments in the space along two axes: access vs ownership and commercial vs residential.

We saw a first wave of change in residential real estate, focusing on creating (Airbnb) or fragmenting (HotelTonight, Common) access. The commercial market followed with WeWork as its biggest player.

In a second wave we’re seeing innovation in residential ownership. Companies like Point, Knock and OpenDoor are shaking things up.

An observation: systems that thrive in nature do so by putting the whole before the parts.

All living creatures kill off individual cells to replace them with new ones. This helps the organism as a whole to stay healthy.

Forests thrive when there are occasional fires that filter out the weak spots in the system. It prevents total destruction of the ecosystem by avoiding an accumulation of flammable material.

In order to win you first have to survive. This requires sacrifice.

I’ve written about biomimicry before and how I believe humanity is reinventing or discovering solutions nature already figured out. Computer science is just us trying to build a brain. Transportation is an attempt to find an efficient way to disperse goods and people, similar to the bloodstream. I also believe the ‘end state’ of technology looks like the Avatar world, where our technology is so advanced we control and merge with the world around us. …

1. People
2. Market
3. Product
4. Distribution

The first two, product and market, seem to be the most important when starting out as a new venture. It’s the only thing you can judge before there’s a solid product or revenue.

The last two, product and distribution, is what will set you apart from other companies in the market. If you have a better product and are more effective and efficient and distributing it, you will win.

This is the first installment of my series on young VC’s in New York. I’m interested to learn what processes, frameworks and mental models these new VC’s are adapting and using to evaluate early stage companies.

The goal of this series is threefold. First, understand the mental models that each young VC has developed for him- or herself. Two, learn from them. Three, showcase their ideas and insights for others to learn from.

The first interview is with Nina Stepanov.

I met Nina on Twitter. She’s a go getter with a lot of good ideas about venture and entrepreneurship. She currently works at Acceleprise as a Principal and Director of Partnerships. …