Published in TEST Foundation·Aug 15, 2020TEST Token-Curated RegistryAll commerce relies on trust. In a perfect world, buyers and sellers would each have perfect information about a transaction, making it easy to trust the other party. However, it is easy for this trust to break down. Sellers are worried that buyers will use fraudulent payment methods like counterfeit…4 min read
Aug 15, 2020The Founder TreeThis essay was originally published in 2015 on neilthanedar.com. Who is the greatest football coach of all time? Championships matter, of course. …Football2 min read
Published in TEST Foundation·Jun 28, 2018TEST Foundation: Decentralized Regulation of Health Products“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not have the authority to review dietary supplement products for safety and effectiveness before they are marketed.” — FDA, 2017. We believe that all consumer health products should be reviewed for safety and effectiveness before they are sold. For the past 6…Health4 min read
Jul 25, 2017Mission: Zero RecallsA full-stack solution to quality control — Everyone is sick of product recalls. If it feels like you hear about a new recall every day, that’s because there’s actually a new US food recall every 11.5 hours. Our initial Labdoor thesis was formed through a series of observations: Recalls are the wrong way to regulate consumer products. Recalls are reactive by definition. Just like in healthcare…Startup7 min read
Jun 28, 20172017 Labdoor State of the StartupFrom product to platform. — Labdoor turned five years old in May. We celebrated with 22 team members in three countries and told startup ghost stories — reminiscing about old offices and failed products and toasting to the 10+ million people who have used our data and rankings to research the best supplements. Mistakes? We’ve…Startup5 min read
Published in Labdoor·Feb 7, 2017An open letter to the next FDA CommissionerThe FDA spent $4.7B last year. Where did it go? Did it make us safer? All of this work will have been in vain if the results are not accessible to the public. That’s why it is alarming to see the Trump administration freeze USDA and EPA releases, further limiting…4 min read
Mar 31, 2015Jay-Z’s Y Combinator Demo Day PitchHi. I’m Jay-Z. CEO of Tidal. Tidal is HBO for music. Did you know that the average musician gets paid less than one cent every time you play their music? Spotify and Pandora have built multi-billion dollar businesses on the backs of hard-working musicians. I have experienced this pain firsthand…2 min read
Dec 23, 2014An open letter to Stan KroenkeOne fan’s plea to a billionaire owner. — I read Sunday that the St. Louis Rams were the “clear front-runner” to move to Los Angeles in 2016. At the time, I was watching the second half of a Rams game that was on pace to feature more penalties than points for the home team. Late in the 4th…4 min read
Nov 7, 2014Bootstrapping is incredible!in·cred·i·ble — adjective — \inˈkredəb(ə)l\: difficult or impossible to believe. Examples of Fake Bootstrapping: When I was 20 years old, I found an amazing job opening at a research institution. The only problem was that the position required an MD and/or MBA. I offered the director an offer they couldn’t refuse — I would…3 min read
