Consumer brand builder and investor | Lover of all things Syracuse | Flawed
USA
Joined August 2008
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Michael Duda retweeted
Pedigree is overrated. Grit isn't.
Bloomberg on who he'd hire: "the person whose father never was there, whose mother was in a drug treatment program. And he had to go and work three shifts at McDonald's to take care of his siblings."
"No matter how bad things are — looks on the bright side, takes the bull by the horns, puts in the sweat capital. That's where the results are."
Michael Duda retweeted
Was just speaking to a room of 30 Bay Area tech founders. Asked: “if I gave you a thousand shares, for free, of Anthropic, openAI or SpaceX, which would you choose?”
Two thirds took Anthropic. One third took SpaceX. Not a single taker for OpenAI.
Michael Duda retweeted
The Giants are alone in first place in the NFC East for the first time since November 2015.
Michael Duda retweeted
SCOOP: OpenAI, Anthropic and security researchers are investigating tens of thousands of incidents - not dozens - in which their frontier models took steps that outside evaluators would consider problematic, sources told Axios.
The sheer volume of incidents found in our reporting indicate that the problem is orders of magnitude more complex than what is currently publicly known and disclosed.
The findings also raise questions about what level of control anyone working on AI development can expect to have over their own technology, and whether these kinds of incidents are becoming synonymous with frontier deployment.
Read my latest for Axios here: axios.com/2026/09/26/openai-…
Michael Duda retweeted
Michael Moritz's investment memo for Stripe was under 4 pages.
"The shorter the memo, the better. If you can express yourself clearly and have a strong opinion, you don't need a lot of paper."
"Being able to distill things to their essence and keep it very short has stood me in good stead over the years."
My conversation with Michael Moritz, one of the great venture investors of the last 40 years.
Michael joined Sequoia in 1986 and co-led the firm with Doug Leone (@dougleone) from 1995 to 2012. His investments include Google, Yahoo, PayPal, and Stripe.
His new book, Ausländer, traces his parents' escape from Nazi Germany and helps explain his lifelong interest in what shapes exceptional people.
We discuss:
- The infamous Steve Jobs profile
- Why Don Valentine hired him
- The question he finds most revealing when interviewing people
- Monomania and the cost of greatness
- Why he has never felt good at anything
- Writing, journalism and AI
- What he learned about himself writing Ausländer
I'd recommend watching this one if you can. Michael was incredibly thoughtful and reflective throughout, particularly when talking about his parents, childhood, and the more difficult parts of his personal story.
Enjoy!
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
0:53 Family History & Identity
7:03 Survival & Outsider Instinct
18:53 Studying Exceptional People
33:50 Self-Doubt & Success
41:17 Steve Jobs & Obsession
52:50 Joining Sequoia
1:03:22 Leadership & Alex Ferguson
1:08:25 Elon Musk & AI
1:17:12 Becoming Who You Are
Michael Duda retweeted
Drones re-create Twin Towers over NYC skyline to honor 9/11 victims trib.al/TEvezkd
Michael Duda retweeted
Here is Tim Cook’s official farewell address on Apple Park to employees on his last day as Apple CEO. 😢
You can clearly see how touched, sad, and nervous he is. Thank you, Tim. ❤️🥺
Michael Duda retweeted
Sending lots of love to the Apple community on my last day as CEO. My title changes tomorrow, but the love I have for the Apple community never will. Thank you for being a constant source of inspiration. My gratitude is endless, and I’m excited for the next chapter!
Michael Duda retweeted
AI can be both a speculative bubble and also a technology that fundamerntally transforms all of our lives.
Just like the Internet.
Michael Duda retweeted
$HOOD was one of the first companies to approach IR from a consumer marketing lens. If you take a look at the content they put out during earnings, it's very evident they are either plugging marketers into the IR function or having their IR team work very closely with marketing.
This all makes a ton of sense -- very few companies have this kind of front row seat into retail investors and how they want to engage with companies. No surprise why Robinhood has emerged as one of the top case studies for how to approach 'retail IR.'
I got a chance to interview Vlad for @Stocktwits last year. His team actually reached out to US, because as they put it, they like to prio at least one 'new media' outlet or creator interview for their earnings news.
We had a great convo where he told me about how they view IR and a big part of that goes back to giving everyday investors a platform for asking questions and giving feedback, right alongside the big dogs. He also made a really astute observation about the American Dream transitioning from real estate (Home Ownership) to multi-asset portfolios. They are building at the center of that insight.
I wrote about all this in my book TICKER SHOCK which is out now on Amazon, B&N and everywhere else you get books -- tickershockbook.com
Michael Duda retweeted
No. 1 on the Fortune Global 500: Amazon's Jeff Bezos talks to @fortunemagazine @kristinstoller about how his garage startup became the largest company in the world fortune.com/2026/07/28/amazo…
Michael Duda retweeted
Trying to think about what would happen if OAI and/or Anthropic were to fail, in terms of the VC/startup ecosystem.
Yes, there have been startup bubbles before. But never so much concentration and capital into just a couple companies. The ripples would be tsunamis.
Michael Duda retweeted
AI videos are flooding TikTok Shop.
Creators and brands are pushing back.
Sharkninja recently warned affiliate marketers that they can’t use TikTok’s own generative AI tools if they want to keep getting paid.
wsj.com/cmo-today/ai-videos-…
Michael Duda retweeted
USA Today Co CEO told me it will soon look at blocking Google altogether. "The traditional Google search model is dead."
Michael Duda retweeted
David founder @PeterRahal on why Big Food can't innovate:
"They're all public, massive, and profitable. You buy the stock for consistent earnings and a dividend.
They can't do anything that would mess that up. The stock would plummet and the CEO would get fired."
New @ThePeelPod with @PeterRahal
Peter built RXBAR from his parents' basement with $10k and sold it to Kellogg for $600M.
Then he waited out a non-compete and started the same company again, David.
We get into how buying an ingredient supplier made food venture-backable, why RXBAR's paleo positioning was a trap, how GLP-1’s have changed diet trends forever, selling cans of fish as a marketing weapon, the lawsuit that got him 120M impressions in a week, and why he studies fashion houses instead of food companies.
Full episode here + links below.
Timestamps:
0:00 David: Tools to increase muscle, decrease fat
2:24 Making nutrition evidence-based, not ideological
4:27 $300M revenue in year two
5:19 Why he rebuilt the same company again
7:12 Do what you're already good at
9:57 In food, the only edge is brand
12:13 The RXBAR playbook and $600M exit
14:20 RXBAR's original positioning was too fragile
15:25 Designing David from first principles
18:22 Why people don't eat protein bars
19:33 Building a multi-brand company that lasts
25:44 How EPG made David venture-backable
29:44 The Medici name and structure
31:38 Food entrepreneurs are Luddites
33:37 Why Big Food can't innovate
38:21 Beverage is a better business than food
40:34 Deciding which products to launch
43:21 GLP-1's ended diet trends forever
48:09 Looking good is the new status symbol
51:30 Sleep first, exercise second, nutrition third
54:35 Brand is just a unique human being
59:05 Humor travels
1:01:09 Marketing is finding mispriced attention
1:06:35 When to bail on a marketing trend
1:09:05 What makes a good meme
1:10:00 Why David sold cans of fish
1:13:30 How to navigate a lawsuit
1:17:02 120M impressions from a lawsuit
1:18:52 Lessons from Bezos and Brad Jacobs
1:23:30 Why the best brands are fashion and beauty
1:25:00 Women set culture
