(I'm finally getting around to posting abbreviated deal memos for the investments I've made so far. I'm following Jason's advice from Angel about posting these online as blog posts. I'm doing this more for my own benefit of analyzing how I make investment decisions and tracking that over time. This also keeps me accountable and allows me to give a small shout out to the team I'm supporting. Below is the first such abbreviated deal memo post of several to come soon.) I’m really excited to have been able to invest in Cafe X. Based in San Francisco, Cafe X designs, manufactures, and operates Robotic Coffee Bars that serve specialty coffee from local roasters. The company was started by a founder who loves good coffee but hates waiting in line for it and inefficiency in general. He dropped out of college and sold his car to buy his first robot and start working towards what Cafe X would become. Since that time, he and his team have launched three live locations in SF that have awesome customer reviews. I’m proud to have invested alongside Jason Calacanis, LAUNCH, Khosla Ventures, Social Capital, Felicis Ventures, The Thiel Foundation, Innospring, and Base Ventures. I’m personally excited about the company because I believe in the potential of robotics to automate work and produce a high-end experience for more people at lower cost. I like that the founder has been able to execute and bring to market a product that has been bringing joy to many repeat customers. It’s not that I believe that a robot is always better than a barista or that I don’t appreciate the craftsmanship of an amazing, handmade product; I just believe that there is great value in the technology that Cafe X is developing and that it can be a great fit in many situations. Here is recent press coverage on the company: Curbed, CBS SF, Fast Co. Design, ABC7 News, Barrons, SF Chronicle, MIT Technology Review What I love:
Risks:
Here is a video of the Robotic Coffee Bar 2.0 machine that Cafe X launched last week:
0 Comments
I enjoyed the other parenting books by Dan Siegel, and I just finished reading Parenting from the Inside Out: How a Deeper Self-Understanding Can Help You Raise Children Who Thrive by Dr. Daniel J. Siegel and Mary Hartzell. It was written before the others I read, and it actually seemed to me to be more about therapy/self-reflection for the parent as opposed to strategies and tactics for better parenting and responding to children. The authors' main point is that parents who have unresolved emotional/psychological issues (such as from childhood) are more likely to struggle through parenthood and be more easily triggered into "low-road" emotional responses and states. And the more work parents can do on themselves to come to terms with and work on their own "issues," the better parents they can be. I thought this was a good point, and it's something I've thought about a lot before. I just personally didn't as much out of this book (as opposed to the others by this author) in terms of parenting principles and strategies. My full notes on the book are below (not as extensive of notes as on the other books of his). |
Archives
February 2023
Categories
All
Subscribe |