In August 2024 he was ‘considering’ a complete and permanent move to New Zealand. Read More

As of yesterday he’s outta here - Kiwi passport in hand - and still hanging on to a large chunk of property in the South Island.

• Other than that what exactly was that all about?
• How much of that wealth trickled into New Zealand?
• How did it benefit any Kiwi?

It was a publicity stunt. The Kiwis were played. And they are going to be played again because National have just brought that idea back …

New Zealand changes ‘golden visa’ to lure wealthy migrants

To Remind Real Thiel’ emerged in his attack on Gawker.

But his Palantir investment is tanking …. but am sure that it will all be ok once his old Paypal mates ‘sort out America’

And please don’t cry too much. After dropping 30% in the past 5 days, the Palantir price is still UP 150% just since August last year.

Love The Waterboys and today discovered these two tracks via The Rockenteurs in a conversation with Mike Scott.

🔗🎵 Hopper’s On Top (Genius) by The Waterboys

🔗🎵 Andy (A Guy Like You) by The Waterboys

If these two are any example of the other 23 tracks - it is going to ROCK.

I keep coming back to this visual .. because the other one makes me feel sick.

📼🔗 https://youtu.be/HykF5KX4STA

🔗 Krasnov - Wikipedia

🔗 This Is Where We Are // Patrick Rhone

Over on LinkedIN .. 🔗 The downfall of Soho House.

Turns out that SH is in the ‘dodo’. Personally not surprised. Never a member - often as a guest back in the day - but more recently as I noticed that ‘everyone was a member’, I felt something was up - but too many other rabbit holes to dive into.

Back in the day it was a wonderful place. Seems to me that it fails for similar reasons that exclusive fine dining restaurants and this ‘boutique wineries’ ultimately fail .. you can’t scale exclusivity.

‘But what about Patek Philippe Watches and Hermes bags’ I hear you cry. ‘Different’ I reply. Product - not service. You can manage the demand. For example - there are Hermes bags for sale that you can’t buy - even if you can afford one.

Anyway - back to Soho. This came to mind.

That’s why it was predictable.

🔗 Simple Advice for Junior Folks in Venture Capital

Don’t Be a Generalist. Do One Thing Really Well for your GP and One Thing Really Well for Founders.

💬 Hunter Walk

I know what he’s trying to say .. and it is ‘simple advice’ that is said a lot - not just VCS.

BUT if everybody does this - without exception - who will;

• Connect the dots
• See the ocean
• Provide the context
• Understand the big picture
• Make the leaps

I worry that the continual cry to double down on specialisation is going to mean that we miss a lot. Too much even.

Which Is Why

I thought it was quiet - 🔗 Sill disappeared. It’s back.

🔗 The Braindump Blog reporting that Twitter (sic) is blocking ‘Signal.me’.

Signal has been especially important over these past few weeks as federal employees have reached out to journalists to blow the whistle on what Elon Musk’s DOGE have been doing with access to data within numerous government agencies.
……
An astonishing coincidence I’m sure.

💬 Braindump

First it was Deepseek - and now it’s cars. 🔗 Looks like China are doing it again. … via The Information.