I met Woz briefly at a Coffee Shop in NYC, many years ago. I was pitching investors for funding and had no idea what I was doing.
He gave me some quick feedback that made a world of difference in SF (years later, when I tried raising angel money): get closer to people first. You don’t have to be their friends - just show up to where they show up (bars, meetups, library - anything), then tell them what you’re doing, and they’ll write you checks without you asking.
This is still the key reason why raising money in the Bay Area is so much easier than anywhere else.
I didn’t get any check from him that night, but he came across as such a human person - like someone you know for years - even to a complete stranger trying to go straight for his wallet.
Tech would be amazing if we had 1000x more Wozes around.
The problem is that the bulk of investment money these days comes through professional finance people (not the stereotypical “engineer who made a lot of money and now wants to help others”), who prioritize others who think like them, creating this self-fulfilling spiral of value extraction above all else. It’s the kind of thing you always see in “late stage” industries (eg aviation in the 1980s vs 1970s). It’s not irreversible though (eg there’s a small resurgence in hardware innovation happening right now, with companies like Framework, being funded by “idealist” investors, Pebble coming back, etc).
I think lots of people expected AI to be that too (the new “world of opportunity” that would come with a new “platform”), although so far it seems to be shaping up as FAANG players fighting for control (which is a bit disappointing from a user’s perspective)
He gave me some quick feedback that made a world of difference in SF (years later, when I tried raising angel money): get closer to people first. You don’t have to be their friends - just show up to where they show up (bars, meetups, library - anything), then tell them what you’re doing, and they’ll write you checks without you asking.
This is still the key reason why raising money in the Bay Area is so much easier than anywhere else.
I didn’t get any check from him that night, but he came across as such a human person - like someone you know for years - even to a complete stranger trying to go straight for his wallet.
Tech would be amazing if we had 1000x more Wozes around.