1/ Had a blast doing an episode of Venture Unlocked w/ @Samirkaji. Samir & I went deep on VC funds.

Topics we covered: the CASH framework for thesis development, portfolio construction strategy, investors I admire (@patrickoshag!), VC moats, & much more.

https://ventureunlocked.substack.com/p/leopolovets008

2/ I'm especially proud of the CASH framework for thesis construction. Please don't ask how long it took me to come up with a good acronym.

In the context of investment theses, CASH stands for:
- Constraining
- Actionable
- Special
- Helps you pick good companies

3/ A thesis is Constraining if it focuses you on a small # of opportunities. "I invest in great startups" is a weak thesis because you still have to evaluate every company. "I invest in serial founders building b2b marketplaces" focuses your attention on <10% of all companies.

4/ A thesis is Actionable if other people can easily determine if it applies to a specific company. "B2B SaaS companies with $100k-$500k in revenue" is actionable; "companies working on interesting ideas" is not because it's subjective and vague.

5/ A thesis is Special if it's unique and memorable. "B2B SaaS" is actionable, but it's such a common thesis that it won't attract much interest. But theses like "frontier tech that addresses huge global problems" and "ex-McKinsey founders" stand out because they're unusual.

6/ A thesis should Help you invest well. "Companies whose names start with 'D'" is a bad thesis because those companies aren't better than average. But if you think "serial founders w/a $50m+ exit" or "immigrant hw founders" are more likely to succeed, then those are good theses.

7/ The CASH framework is designed with startup investing in mind, but I think it applies to other categories of investments, too. If you're thesis doesn't help you find better investments and doesn't constrain the opportunities you look at, then it's not very useful.