Every VC has a thesis. @MikeTaylor built @WTGVentures without one, deliberately. His view: once a thesis becomes too rigid, it stops helping you read the market and starts reinforcing what you already believe. So what does he back? Founders who know their domain, have done it before, and can get a product in front of users. Because code is no longer the moat. Claude Code, Codex and AI tooling have made building dramatically easier. Distribution is the moat. Mike thinks Web3 learned this the hard way: hundreds of chains built beautiful infrastructure, then went looking for users. Watch now: youtu.be/A_OKUUlec-A

A bad result isn't the same as failure. Quitting is. As long as you're still learning, adjusting, and moving forward, the story is still being written. You're not done yet.

A lot of unhappiness comes from wanting life to be different from what it is. The moment you accept reality, peace becomes easier. Sometimes the secret to wanting less isn't losing ambition. It's learning to stop needing everything to go your way.

I've been building out of a house in Hawke's Bay for a few weeks, staying with two friends I studied engineering with at university. Both of them are deep in AI right now. We sit around a table and build, break things, and argue about how it all actually works. I spent months doing this alone in a room. One week next to people who think fast has taught me more than the month before it did. Someone spots the thing you're too close to see. Someone asks "why are you doing it that way" and saves you a whole day. I keep relearning the same lesson. You get so much further with other people than you ever do stuck in your own head. Note to self: stop building in a cave. Who's the person that makes your work better just by being in the room?

Most people underestimate how much their environment shapes them. Your career. Your routines. Your location. Your relationships. Your self-talk. These things quietly influence who you become. Build them intentionally.