February: An Absolutely Wild Month

Hello friends!

I am so excited to publish this newsletter. It has been far too long–but for good reason. February was an absolutely WILD month. So much has changed, and I am so jazzed about what is in store for the rest of this year. I don’t want to delay my big news for too long, so let’s jump right into things!

Startup Musings: Web3 is the future of work. And I’m jumping in headfirst.

Last month I started dabbling in the world of web3–joining DAO discords, learning about projects and players in the space, and generally being a curious person–and my mind has changed a lot.

Up until a few weeks ago, I had muted “web3” on Twitter. It felt dumb. It felt unimportant.

Well, I’ve officially changed my stance on things and joined the web3 movement:

Here’s why: Web3 is the future that I want to help build.

Now, I’m no web3 expert, but here’s what I’m observing. In web3, builders seem to have the power. They have optionality around where to spend their time and energy. And they can be paid across a variety of projects. Splitting their time in a way that works for them.

So many of the incredibly smart web3 builders are fulfilling roles across multiple companies, DAOs, projects, or communities. They have skills and they have the freedom to put those skills to work where they see fit. There is more flexibility than the traditional 9-5 W-2 employment scenario. It’s a world where builders can build their own destiny. It’s exciting.

Now, that I’m starting to view web3 through this lens, it becomes significantly more exciting. We’re not just selling NFTs and joining discords, but we’re also empowering a generation of builders to take control of their value.

I’m joining Barracuda because I think that web3 has a ton of potential, but that the barrier to entry is too high for it to be truly impactful. If web3 is inaccessible to the average person, it will fail to achieve its mission IMO. I believe that DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations) will play a key role in the future of how we work, but that running a DAO (and joining one!) is currently far too difficult. At Barracuda, we intend to change that.

Anyway, enough about that. I’m incredibly excited to get started with the Barracuda team, and to jump headfirst into the web3 ecosystem. If you’re working in web3, I want to chat with you. If you’re curious about web3, I want to chat with you. You know where to find me. (hint: reply to this email.)

Building In Public: Fountain Soda Ventures

I last published an email 4 weeks ago, on Jan 30, 2022. I noted the following to all of you:

“It's becoming clear to me that the only way to achieve anything meaningful is through consistent effort. Doing the little things that move the needle 1% every day is key to getting where you want to go. In February, my focus will be on being more consistent in my efforts. #NODAYZOFF.”

Well, things haven’t gone exactly that way… However, we’ve made some HUGE progress. While I don’t want to spend too long getting into the nitty gritty in this issue, here’s what I will say:

I ACTUALLY STARTED DOING FREELANCE WORK! It just kind of fell into my lap and so now I have completed some side projects, gained a ton of experience, and really started to figure out my niche and where I can really help businesses.

I also recently started doing work for a new client and I’m anticipating that it will occupy the majority of my freelance time this month, which is exciting. Hoping to have some meaningful revenue to show for myself after this month!

On a separate note, I recently wrapped up Season 1 of the Startup Soda podcast.

I’ve also already recorded one episode for season two and am looking forward to getting those out the door soon. This first episode is an absolute banger, so keep your ears open for that. Visit Startup Soda’s Anchor page below to find links to the show on all your favorite podcast apps:

Wild Card: I Ran My First Half-Marathon

Okay, I don’t want this to be a “Nate brags about everything” newsletter, but this is something that I’ve been working toward for a few months now. It’s actually a pretty huge accomplishment for me. 13.1 miles is BY FAR the longest distance I’ve ever ran. In fact, in training for this, my longest run was only 6 miles. The race was tough, but I’m proud of myself for finishing under my goal time (2.5 hours) and for resisting the urge to stop and walk until mile 12 (after which my foot promptly cramped and added a few minutes to my time…).

I don’t want to get preachy, but if you’ve ever thought that you want to do something like this, please do it. You will be so proud of yourself. Make sure you train and prepare because if you don’t it will suck (more). But do it. Find a coach or an accountability partner and just go for it. It will be huge for your confidence and self-esteem. I’m already trying to decide what my next race will be–probably another half in April before shifting my focus to triathlons in the summer months.

Anyway, one last bit of housekeeping:

I want to tell all of you beautiful people something important: Please don't feel bad about unsubscribing from this newsletter.

No hard feelings, seriously. I 100% acknowledge that you likely subscribed to something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. This newsletter has transformed a lot over the last year and a half. It used to be just about legal stuff. (TBH, I think that version of the newsletter was the most valuable version…). Then it used to be about startups broadly. Now, it’s honestly more about me. I’m building myself in public. And this is an outlet for me to do that.

I wouldn’t blame you AT ALL for unsubscribing. Please do so if this isn’t your cup of tea. It’s totally fine. If you do stick around, shoot me a line sometime. I really appreciate your reading and would love to hear what you think.

All the best,

Your soda-drinking friend Nate.