I'm proud to announce that Jeanne & I have invested in our latest venture: Lunchbox. We've teamed up with good friends of ours to make this a reality and we're really excited about what the future holds.

But then again I'm probably biased about this... See, photography is probably the only "hobby" that I practice enough to even classify it as a hobby. My work takes up most of my days, which means that something that was a hobby in the past (technology, the internet and even reading) has now become more of a chore. Photography however remains.

So I'm very excited to be part of a new startup that will hopefully make photography more fun and help thousands / millions (?) of people take better photos. Check it out if you have a minute!

I recently joined EO, where I get to spend time with like-minded entrepreneurs and business owners. In our original training, I was introduced to a concept called "Gestalt", which all members practice. The aim of Gestalt is never to give any advice to another member and instead we're only permitted to share relevant experiences.

As soon as the facilitator finished his explanation of Gestalt and why it was one of the foundation on which the organization had been built, I dawned on me: I'm really opinionated about so many things. Whilst being opinionated isn't necessarily wrong, I just realized that I'm always very quick to offer my opinion and advice to anyone that shows even the smallest inclination to listen to me.

I felt embarrassed. I felt like a fool for being so liberal with my opinions & advice. I felt arrogant. Foolish.

I have since vowed that I will try my best to instead just share my own experiences and avoid giving advice as much possible. I realized that I've found the most value in conversations where I could extract the value that I wanted, instead of being pushed in a direction as a result of someone else's advice. The truly value for me has always been in tapping into the experience of others that have already navigated the challenges I'm currently facing. So why wouldn't I apply the same when I'm on the other side of that conversation?

Today, 4 years ago, WooThemes was born.

I've never spent much time scrutinizing my own birthday, but every year on the 9th of July I reminisce & reflect on the year that's been for WooThemes. This year WooThemes turns 4 and thinking about the magnitude of the impact that it has had on my own life, leaves me with little words.

In searching for words, I guess the easy way out would be to say "In the last year, we more than doubled the size of the team, revenues are continuing North and even though we experienced a life-threatening hack, we've recovered well." (ala last year's post). Yet, this wouldn't encapsulate any of the real, true & sincere things that happened in the last year.

Today, WooThemes defines a large part of my life. And this has been the case for at least the past 4 years. Regardless of how confident, self-assured, independent or autonomous I am, I can't deny the inherent hand that WooThemes has in most things in my life.

WooThemes is the source of all of my income and thus also the source of most of my (materialistic) blessings. Similarly, WooThemes has given me a platform from which I've gotten many great speaking, investment and other professional opportunities. I've also met many great people, mentors & friends via this platform. But it stretches further than that... If I've had a shit day at the office, WooThemes has a direct, negative influence on all other spheres of my life. WooThemes is my creative & professional outlet and if I'm not happy within that space, I struggle to find energy to pour into those other spheres.

I'm not a workaholic. Instead I'm only human. I'm my own man, make my own rules and have a very happy, multi-sphered life. I would however be selling you bullshit if I said that my work with WooThemes has not had a far-reaching impact on my entire life (both good & bad).

This makes me feel vulnerable. When things like the hack happens, it just naturally spawns a complete evaluation of absolutely everything: the business, my livelihood, myself.

The good news is that I've learnt in the past year that even though this is a natural reaction (which I'm unlikely to ever evade), this isn't the truth and not an accurate representation of who I am. Yes, my daily life is inter-related with what's going on (and sometimes, not going on) at Woo, but it doesn't define who I am.

Instead this is me... "Hello! My name is Adii. Amongst other things I'm co-founder of WooThemes and we're celebrating all that's good on our 4th birthday today. Let's break out a couple of beers."

A lot has been written about Y Combinator's decision to allow founders to apply to the program without necessarily having an idea.

I think Vinicius Vacanti's opinion is mostly spot-on and summarized well with this quote:

"And, so I thank Y-Combinator for helping to dispel the myth that to become an entrepreneur you need a moment of brilliance."

You definitely don't need a moment of brilliance and your first idea won't be the only determining factor in whether you're a success or a failure (eventually). But that's pretty much as far as I can agree with this whole concept.

Whilst a moment of brilliance or a first idea doesn't define whether you're an entrepreneur or not, it surely neither warrants that you should be funded (i.e. risk other people's money for you to figure out which of your ideas will eventually be successful).

This explains perfectly why the "money makes money" plays such a huge role here: if you're funding someone without an actual idea, you're taking a gamble. There's just no reason to determine the founding team actually warrants that investment.

I'm open to someone convincing me that funding an entrepreneur without an idea is actually a rational, viable & generic decision that applies to all investors (and not just those with pockets that are inevitably too deep). Or we can all agree that this strategy is at best a calculated risk and semi-gamble.

I read Ben Horowitz' post about their investment in Instagram that made them a 312x return, turning a $250k investment into $78m. Most people would regard that as a shrewd business decision on Andreessen Horowitz' part, but I think it actually comes down to money making money.

Andreessen Horowitz has raised a venture fund worth almost $3bn in the last 3 years. So for them to make a $250k investment represents 0,0083% of their total investment fund. Considering that Instagram ended up being a pivot from the business that they actually invested in, I'd argue that the $250k investment was a "calculated" gamble. Sure, you might argue they backed the entrepreneurs behind the original idea, but that too is a calculated risk / gamble at best. (I'd stick to this opinion regardless of whether or for what amount Instagram was eventually acquired.)

Compare that to Y Combinator that invests an average of $18 000 into approximately 120 startups every year. Or Yuri Milner & Ron Conway that puts $150 000 into any Y Combinator startup that wants it (via Start Fund). As of last year, Yuri Milner alone had a net worth in excess of $1bn (Wikipedia), so putting $150 000 into a startup represents small change.

Their respective returns on these investments are however a far cry from small change, making their investment status a goal for most other investors. Myself included.

Yet, these guys have a head start: they have bucketloads of money. Marc Andreessen co-founded Netscape back in the day. Yuri Milner created DST which has become a premier investor in so many awesome tech companies. And Paul Graham has become the leader of the whole startup community with his work with Y Combinator. So they deserve their success & all these new opportunities now.

The one thing all of them have in common now is that they had one big success as an entrepreneur; one big success that propelled their reputation into the higher echelons of our community & gave them the capital (or access to it) to make all of these investments. It only took one big success.

Ultimately I'd probably be able to make quite a bit of money if I had a $5m venture fund and I could invest $250k into 20 hot startups right now. You could too. Provided we're not totally shit at making our picks.

Money makes money. And it only takes one, big success to get there.