Mainstreet Memories, 2024

The first full year in mainstreet history is now complete.

In 2024, we:

Took the newsletter from a few dozen readers to a few thousand
Made 3 investments and brought on LPs including pro athletes (NHL, WNBA), consultants (MBB), and small business owners
Developed an investment thesis to deploy capital around in 2025
Had fun

Today, we rewind, review, and reminisce -

Memos of the Year

Honorable Mention: New Wings Flow

good to get out, get the pen working

Mainstreet Media Quotes

What is venture about? Venture is about - you really go early and you hit home runs, you have huge multiples. That's what venture is about. If you're just talking about the size of the fund and the venture fees, that defeats the purpose of venture.

Helen Liang, Founder of FoundersX Ventures. | mainstreet media ep.12

A hammer or screwdriver is a beautifully designed utility tool that helps you do one thing well, and then you put it away. Your life is not about hammers, you don't swipe your hammer for five hours so the hammer company can make money

Kaiwei Tang, CEO of Light Phone. | mainstreet media ep. 4

We were the first team to build out this hybrid model between the Rockets and the Vipers, which led to wonderful success… four G-League championships, we got our first one in 2010, three coaches now in the NBA, including Chris Finch who was my coach at RGV, and now he is on the cusp of taking the Timberwolves - knock on wood - to the NBA title. Nick Nurse succeeded him, and as you know, Nick Nurse was an NBA championship coach with the Raptors

Brian Michael Cooper, COO of the AFFL | mainstreet media ep. 6

The thing is, occasionally in the world, the game changes. Bloomberg was really good at getting data from exchanges, they were perfect at that and we could never compete. But now it was about crawling data, getting data from the web, spinning up data models pretty quickly, getting your fingertips on the newest technologies - and there are no specialists on that because it's new technology. So we had a shot.

Greg Ugwi, Founder of WeFranch | mainstreet media ep. 11

The world is so competitive, you really do need to focus on one thing to be great at it. There are obviously exceptions like Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk, who can be the CEO of more than one company and lead it to great success, but for the rest of us mortals, I think focus is really key.

Ben Zises, Founder of SuperAngel.Fund | mainstreet media ep. 3

Let me tell you something bro. No matter how you cut that sandwich - square, diagonal - the bread comes first.

Chase Edmonds, NFL RB | mainstreet media ep. 7