Indirect connection
A quick time-out to talk about something that happened long and and has no connection to today.
With everything going on yesterday — both in my head and in Washington — I somehow didn’t even mention that it was Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Here’s the best story I’ve shared in this newsletter over the years about King, in my own opinion, about the 15-minute speech he gave at the outset of the Montgomery bus boycott December 1955.
Meanwhile, I need a minute to catch my breath. So today, I’ll share one of my favorite bizarre entrepreneurship tales that has almost nothing to do with current events. I’m glad I remembered it before the end of the month, so we can peg it as a “exactly 15 years ago” story.
It starts with a tweet. Remember when we called them that? (I still do.) This one:
That’s Travis Kalanick, who at the time had just cofounded an insane, shoot-the-moon startup called UberCab (he later dropped the “Cab”). Even now, 15 years later, there aren’t that many replies to it.
But still on Twitter, for all to see (OK, fine, X), is the response that a guy named Ryan Graves posted just a few minutes later:
(The @KonaTbone part was Kalanick’s “other” Twitter account at the time.)
Things worked out for Graves in a way almost unparalleled in the history of the Internet. Kalanick brought him in as UberCab’s first non-founder employee—in fact, as its first chief executive officer.
He held that post until Kalanick decided he wanted it for himself, but stayed on as senior vice president of global operations and a board member. His equity made him a billionaire.
At one point Graves had a $1.5 billion fortune; now Forbes pegs him at only $1.1 billion. So I guess this is sort of the story of someone who lost $400 million in a decade.
Still, you have to have that first in order to lose it, so I still think he comes out on top.
We should say a little more about Graves. Honestly, even if he’d never replied to Kalanick or joined Uber or become a billionaire, I think there would be some good takeaways here.
The short version is that he was working as a database administrator for GE Health Care just before he saw this tweet, probably making about $109,000 a year (if the data at GlassDoor is accurate).
It was "unglamorous" work, he later told Daily Finance. So, while working at GE, Graves decided in 2009 to apply for a job at Foursquare.
As Daily Finance explained:
He spent hours each week cold-calling bars around his adopted home of Chicago, explaining the benefits of Foursquare, showing business owners how the app worked, and encouraging them to sign up. And he didn't even work for Foursquare.
That's the kicker: Foursquare didn't actually hire him. It turned him down, but he decided to fake working there anyway, and signed up 30 businesses to the company.
Then, he "emailed that list of new customers to people connected with Foursquare, including investors."
Gutsy move. No downside, really.
And while I’m not sure there’s a direct line between just working for Foursquare without being hired and talking your way into what turned out to be the job of a lifetime at Uber, you can see the indirect connection.
7 other things worth knowing today
O.K. We are not going to spend the next four years filling up every item in the "7 other things" or the equivalent with whatever political issue is hot or whatever President Trump did that day.
In fact, a big part of the changes I have coming soon involving dealing with this in a better way. That said, we're less than 24 hours into the second Trump administration -- inauguration coverage here -- so we're going to include some of these for the next few days.
Pardons Part 1: President Donald Trump on Monday issued roughly 1,500 pardons and commuted the sentences of 14 of his supporters in connection with the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, amid his false claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against him. "This is a big one," Trump said in the Oval Office while signing the document, adding, "We hope they come out tonight, frankly." (NBC News)
Pardons Part 2: President Biden on Monday preemptively pardoned prominent critics of then-President-elect Donald Trump including Gen. Mark Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci and members of Congress who served on the committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack. Minutes before Trump was to be inaugurated, Biden also issued pardons for members of his family: his brothers James and Frank, his sister Valerie, and their respective spouses. (CNN)
Trump signed dozens, maybe hundreds of executive orders. Worth noting is one attempting to challenge the 14th Amendment of the Constutition by ending birthright citizenship. Reading this quickly, it seems that it's intended to apply to children born to anyone born here without at least one parent who has permanent residency or citizenship -- so, it would cover not only illegal immigrants, but asylum seekers, people here on H1B visas, student visas, tourist visas, etc. This one is headed straight for the courts, of course. (Axios)
Trump suggested that he could still hit Canada and Meico with tariffs as early as next month: "We're thinking in terms of 25% on Mexico and Canada because they're allowing vast numbers of people … and fentanyl to come in. ... I think we'll do it Feb. 1." (CBC News)
Champagne sales have lost their pop as people around the world aren’t in the mood to say “cheers.” The total number of Champagne shipments from France sank nearly 10% last year to 271 million bottles, marking the second consecutive year of declines as inflation-weary consumers cut back and a generally glum mood permeates across the globe. (CNN)
The first study to assess how weight-loss drugs affect the whole of human health has discovered an "eye-opening" impact on the body, researchers say. The analysis, involving about 2 million people, linked the drugs to better heart health, fewer infections, a lower risk of drug abuse and fewer cases of dementia. However, researchers also warned the drugs were "not without risk" and seemed to increase joint pain and potentially deadly inflammation in the pancreas. (BBC)
It wasn't a great game, but Ohio State held on to beat Notre Dame to win the college football championship last night, 34 to 23. (CBS Sports)
“O.K. We are not going to spend the next four years filling up every item in the "7 other things" or the equivalent with whatever political issue is hot or whatever President Trump did that day.” THANK YOU
So what’s the saying about Luck=preparation+sweat+opportunity? Or something along those lines.