I. Narrative is the first source of capital in your company.

Every company starts with a mission to solve a problem and a vision of what the world looks like when you succeed.

Before any code exists, before any contracts are signed, before any product gets built, the narrative you construct around that mission is the fundamental source of equity value in your business.

Narrative isn't communications—it's capital.

Narrative compounds and flows through every part of your company, providing leverage to:

• Attract the capital, talent, and customers you need to scale
• Filter product decisions through a clear strategic framework that determines what you build and what you don't
• Create internal conviction that guides difficult choices when the path gets unclear
• Build ecosystem momentum where partners, regulators, and customers become advocates for your vision

The fundamental asset people invest in isn't your technology, team, or valuation. It's a narrative that promises asymmetric returns in a marketplace where the best ideas deliver unlimited economic upside.

II. Make people want something before you build it.

Paul Graham's "make something people want" became gospel for a generation of builders. The old logic was simple: elegant solutions to real problems create exponential growth that attracts capital, customers, and talent organically.

This worked in 2007, when two founders with a couple of MacBooks could get a sublet in Russian Hill and hack their way to generational wealth and freedom. That ecosystem is extinct.

Let's Hug it Out

VCs used to pride themselves on being the spiritual descendants of Victorian-era merchants who risked their gold to finance perilous whaling voyages. If one captain brought back the humpback, his returns would more than cover the losses of the nine other ships that got lost at sea.

Today's venture ecosystem operates more like the talent agency from Entourage - and for good reason. In a market where all of the world's wealth is trying to find its way into venture-backed companies, VCs evolved from risk-taking merchants into institutional asset managers focused on status and narrative control. The best VCs:

• Act as full-time media influencers - acting intentionally to curate large social followings, endlessly podcast circuit, and produce content like it’s their full time job
• Serve as the external face and public representative of their portcos in the corporate world (think Ari pushing Vinny into Smokejumpers)
• Construct perception scaffolding around their portcos—founder-forward content, strategic intros, and talent optics calibrated to signal momentum
• Manage their status and reputation as carefully as their returns, knowing both determine future fund-raising