🤫 Why founders work behind your back
GM Friends,
Welcome back to Kernal: your tandem bike partner that pedals harder on the uphill when most of your bestie boos gear down to catch their breath.
In this week's news: Disney plus leaves Netflix in the dust, Neumann lands $350m (without referencing community EBITDA in the pitch deck) and everyone keeps visiting Taiwan. Biden inked a $740B deal, Tesla's produced 3M cars, and Selena Gomez should be going for drinks to celebrate hitting $100m valuation on her new startup. Summer's almost over and you still haven't posted your first Kernal idea. #yikes
Enough yapping, let's get cracking 🍳
Today's Line-Up:
- 🤫 Why founders work behind your back
- 📰 Startup ideas juicer than Aunt Dorthy's apple crisp
- ✨ New community feature drop
- 🐦 Tweet of the week
Shoutout of the week goes to our pen pals at Trends.vc. They tweeted some good vibes our way and we're scheming up a way to thank them.
⏰ Finessing the Side Hustle Schedule
You're probably busy figuring out what the Inflation Reduction Act means, so let's cut right to the chase. Last year, more Americans than ever spun up their own businesses.
The hold my beer part? 2022 is projected to set another record. But wait, it gets better.
The biggest curve ball of them all is that the national unemployment rate is at a 50-year low. One early-stage investor (Thomas DelVecchio) even noted that a majority of the funding requests he gets these days are from founders with full 9-5 jobs, which was rarely the case pre-pandemic. Bonkers right?
So here's the math going through in our heads:
- VC funding's drying up, keeping founders at their day jobs
- Remote work is at an all-time high (pending your wifi game is strong)
- People wanna build cool stuff and have autonomy in their creativity
The solution: high performers are working behind their boss' back to juggle both gigs at once. They wanna be a director/svp AND a startup founder. So they keep doing both to fuel the startup rocket before it takes off.
At first glance, we're team founder. Go build that thing you've always dreamed of. You ain't getting any younger. If you're running out of things to do or you complete your job early on Wednesday, go chase some cycles on your side hustle.
But part of our heart breaks for the employers that don't know how to motivate or accelerate staff to keep them aligned with their work.
Where do you stand? What advice would you give to founders juggling both? Tweet us to jump in on the convo.
Startup Ideas of the Week
With Kernal content, we're always trying to amp up our game. Just like Meghan's fashion game, we're always testing out something new.
This week, we're trying out startup ideas with photos to see how it feels. And as Ted Lasso says, if we like it, we may just wear it right out of the store.
TL;DR: If you're sharing startup ideas and want them to be featured in the newsletter, add a photo. Grab one from Unsplash, Twitter or even your camera roll. Have fun with it and make it stand out.
Here's some of our latest startup ideas catching our eyes this week:
Got a startup idea you've been stewing on? Toss it up hot shot.
And you might just be on the front page next week.
✨ New Feature: Kernal Groups
We're beta testing a new feature for groups to gather, share and launch startup ideas. Got a podcast, slack group or iMessage chat with too many ideas? You're the person we're building this for. Think of these as your subreddits for startup ideas.
WDYT of the My First Million group? If you're interested in setting up a Kernal Group for your own brand, community or another group – let us know.
🐦 Meme of the Week:
Overheard in Toronto yesterday morning:
Listen up. T-5 hours until you can close your laptop and hit the beach. Our advice: Turn off the video on your last couple calls and go beat rush hour 🤫
Peace out,
💚 The Kernal crew
P.S. Wanna collab with our Kernal team on content? Drop us a line. We're looking to ramp up our blogs and resources and would love to work with taleneted content folks.
How did you like this week's newsletter?
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