Bryan Johnson's Blueprint goes viral (again), Bob Johnson chats with David Rubenstein, and more
Stretch Four Volume 50
Happy Sunday,
It’s game day here in the Bay area as the 49er gang is in Philadelphia looking to punch the Super Bowl ticket. My bet, if I was a betting man, would be that we get the 49ers and the Bengals will be the Super Bowl, but that is why the games are played.
This is volume 50 of this newsletter so than you all for reading and I hope this provides value to you in your journey.
In other news, thanks to everyone who checked out the first episode of the Stretch Four Podcast, if you did not get a chance check it out here.
As always, I am interested in any feedback so send it to me at matt@stretchfour.co
Let’s get to this week’s newsletter.
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Quote of the Week:
“The value of assets isn't a fixed or even a knowable thing. It's a matter of judgment. Examiners are no more able to predict the future than the bankers are.” - Thomas Hoenig, Lords of Easy Money
I finished two books this week and Lord of Easy Money is one I recommend to anyone who is wondering how the monetary system here in the US works.
Chart of the Week:
Exit values are the top metric to look at in Silicon Valley. This chart produced by Stanford shows some interesting statistics on the value of these exits based on the number of founders. I am a big fan of solo founders and this chat proves a lot of my thinking there. You are much more incentivized over time to have a big outcome as a solo founder versus a team with say nine founders.
Tweet of the Week:
While I highlight the ongoing story of Bryan Johnson below — I found this tweet funny. I live in between the worlds of over-optimizing your every waking hour to be as productive and sitting on my couch watching 3-4 hours of basketball on a weeknight. So much of the advice out there is very limited to people with specific responsibilities and sometimes we all need to relax.
Health & Performance
How to Be 18 Years Old Again for Only $2 Million a Year (Bloomberg)
Bryan Johnson’s new Blueprint is causing a stir across multiple places on the internet. Scientists are made, tech bro haters are mad, and even sports enthusiasts are upset. Open-sourcing your health and wellness routine to move from a 45-year-old biological age to an 18-year-old biological age turns out to be fairly controversial.
Johnson is in the class of Tom Brady, LeBron James, and Novak Djokovic when it comes to practicing the most extreme of things to stay young, but it is ironic that the others are often celebrated while Johnson is considered an ultrawealthy tech elite setting unrealistic expectations for the common man.
This year, he’s on track to spend at least $2 million on his body. He wants to have the brain, heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, tendons, teeth, skin, hair, bladder, penis, and rectum of an 18-year-old.
The Blueprint project:
1,977 vegan calories a day
Exercise (an hour a day, high-intensity three times a week)
Sleep (at the same time every night, after two hours of wearing glasses that block the blue light)
Supplements:
Lycopene for artery and skin health
Metformin to prevent bowel polyps
Turmeric, black pepper, and ginger root for liver enzymes and to reduce inflammation
Zinc to supplement his vegan diet;
A microdose of lithium for, he says, brain health.
The results so far:
The heart of a 37-year-old
The skin of a 28-year-old
The lung capacity and fitness of an 18-year-old
My take:
I think the pushback to Johnson’s approach is overblown and while it is extreme I think it is commendable he is a real-life guinea pig and do it all on his own dime with 30 doctors. If you have that much wealth why should you be able to try and live forever?
I think in America we are on the wrong side of these approaches. Over 45% of the country is overweight and obese — and while Johnson’s approach definitely is not for everyone his results speak for themselves thus far. Adjusting your lifestyle starting in the kitchen can have excellent results and literally turn back the biological clock.
Founder Tips
Tip 1 — Founder interview with Laduram Vishnoi of Middleware (YCW23)
This week I interviewed a good friend of mine so check out tomorrow’s episode of the Stretch Four Podcast. I gathered some insights from the episode that was crucial to learning and Ram is currently participating in Y Combinator with his new startup.
Tip 2 — Robert Johnson says $50 billion in pledges have been made to invest in the black community and less than 5%
I always enjoy Robert Johnson's interviews as he is the first African-American to become a billionaire. This interview with David Rubenstein was short but Johnson is always transparent about how race impacts capitalism and wealth creation for black people here in the United States.
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Faith, Family, and Fatherhood
On the podcast this week, I used this tweet and did a deep dive into how child care has a huge impact on the lives of founders who are parents. This tweet has an overarching premise about how far we need to go to improve it for parents, in general, to be productive. Check out the podcast for more on this.
Final Thoughts
Last week I mentioned a talk I am doing here in San Francisco. I have some more formal updates to the event. The event is hosted by Finix which is a big partner to the CapTable Coalition.
Here is the registration link for the event on February 10th at 5:00 pm.
If you are in SF, I would love for you to come out for the discussion on a highly critical area within the venture and technology ecosystem.
Back to the trenches.
Best, Matt