Teaching my 4-month old how to code, Sequoia launches it’s own YCombinator competitor, SBF is the Crypto Savior & more
Stretch Four Insights Volume 31
Happy Saturday,
I have completed 192 workouts, burned 98,168 calories, and worked out for over 9,426 minutes. It is a life-changing app for me my personal trainer Alex is on maternity leave and my substitute trainer Sarah has kept me in stride this week coming off my Fourth of July travel week. The app gives me one on one training, feedback, and recommendations and Sarah is usually the first person who reaches out to me in the morning to let me know what’s on tap at the gym. I also like that it tracks my workouts outside of the app like I played basketball this morning and it logged my 950 calories. I am able to get the workouts in on my time and share videos, ask questions, and get feedback from my trainer. I can also set goals for myself. I am all in on losing the 10-15 pounds I have gained since becoming a dad so my workouts focus on weights and cardio.
Check out Future for 50% off for the first three months using our exclusive link and let me know what you think.
Hi All,
This week there is a lot of great content and I am bringing mine highly across general tech and startup news, tax and accounting, and a new area of interest for me which I will generalize for now as health and wellness. Pretty much I am 35 and I live a high-stress life as a startup founder. I am generally a 4-5x a week gym person but diet, sleep, and other life hacking are not as consistent for me.
The NBA-related stuff is going to be on here and I am excited for this week as I am checking out 1.5 days of the NBA Summer League in Vegas for the first time. Here is the link to my new publication.
As always send me feedback at matt@stretchfour.co.
This week’s newsletter will cover:
Cal Newport’s advice on teaching kids how to code.
Sequoia’s New Arc Program
Deep dive inside FTX leader SBF’s political strategy + crypto buyouts
Walmart getting exposed by scammers
How #TaxTech is the New Frontier in banking
Ben Greenfield’s Daily Routine
Let’s dive in.
Teaching kids to code from Cal Newport
I have recently started to listen to Cal Newport’s podcast and he has some good content. This week he took questions and two were particularly interesting being a new dad.
The question was:
At what age should my kids start coding? [37:51]
Newport recommended starting kids with coding at around six or seven years old. He gave some plugs to some tools to use to get them started like Replit (a web-based coding environment) and he said you should start with a real language. Newport also gave other good recommendations as far as reading science-related books that are written by scientific journalists and playing text-based logic games to prepare them for coding.
Jess Lee - Designing Investment Products
Patrick O’Shaughnessy interviewed Jess Lee about the new Sequoia Arc Program. The interview went deep into Lee’s background and inside the mind of how Sequoia thinks about company building. She has a similar story to a lot of younger VCs. She started a company it flamed out and she also is a Google alumnus. While she did not go too deep into the thinking about the Arc Program she was able to share about how it is pretty much a competitor/complement to YCombinator which Sequoia is no longer an LP in.
Deep dive inside SBF’s political strategy + crypto buyouts
I consumed two podcasts that went deep on SBF’s moves. In summary, he is single-handily saving a lot of crypto companies. In a nutshell, SBF is a capitalist first, and a lot of the moves he is making are to grow the FTX user base and help FTX overtake Coinbase as the leader in the US market.
E85: SBF's crypto bailout, Zendesk sells for ~$10B, buyout targets, US diplomacy, AlphaFold & more
Eric Newcomer’s Dead Cat: SBF Plays Crypto Savior (w/ Tedd Schleifer & Jeff John Roberts)
Articles
Walmart let scammers use money transfer services to fleece people, FTC says
THE NEXT TABLE STAKES FEATURE IN DIGITAL BANKING
IRS Approval Of A Man's 76 Fake Charities Exposes Flaw In Review Process
Youtube & Podcasts
That’s all for this week’s newsletter.
Thanks again to Future for sponsoring this week’s newsletter. Be sure to check out our link {insert link} to receive 50% off your training for the first three months.
Until next time, have a great week.
[Email Feedback: matt@stretchfour.co
Back to the trenches,
Matt