Selfish investing

Common startup advice is to build for yourself. That’s what I did with Product Hunt. And while there’s no right way to start a startup, solving your own problems has many advantages. It’s:

• Easier to empathize with the target audience and know what to build when you’re the customer.
• More convincing to future hires and investors when you can speak firsthand about the problem or opportunity.
• More fun. :)

The same approach can apply to investing in startups.

Every morning I wake up to a flood of startups to potentially back. At Weekend Fund, we avoid imparting too much of our own opinion on what the future will look like, which leads us down many rabbit holes from AI-powered litigation tech to “boring” payroll software.

But I personally get very excited talking to founders that are building products that I want. It leads to rich jam sessions and (I hope) better input from me as the potential customer.

So, here are five startup themes I want to back:

Distributed Living

Despite the pendulum narrative back to in-office work, distributed work is here to stay and will only increase in adoption. I live in multiple cities and prefer that lifestyle. It allows me to see more of my friends, find inspiration in new scenery, and expand my experiences.

But it comes with challenges: Where do I stay? Do I rent my place while I’m gone? Which of my friends are in town? Should I pause my gym memberships while I’m gone? Do I pack four weeks of supplements (lol)? If I had kids, everything becomes dramatically more complicated. An EA (shoutout Athena) can help with logistics but most people don’t have one.

Example: Mozie is a private network to meet up with your friends, focused on sharing future travel dates.

Edge Health

I’m in my mid-30s. Five years ago I realized I was mortal (surprise!) and started to be more proactive with my health. I’ve experimented with peptides, regularly get my bloodwork drawn, and occasionally get IPL/microneedle treatment.

But there’s a dizzying number of potential solutions to explore. Several startups have emerged to treat specific things, such as low testosterone or hair loss, but we really need to be evaluating our health as a whole. I want a continuous and holistic understanding of my health in a closed-loop system that can provide clear guidance. I want agency to educate myself and pursue treatments on the forefront of science.

Example: I get my blood drawn via Function Health. They test over 120 biomarkers to identify potential issues and help optimize my health.

People Investing

At Weekend Fund we invest in companies but much of our decision criteria is based on the founder(s). Venture investing, with all of its flaws, is a beautiful system that enables risk-taking. But it’s limited to a very small number of people (technology founders, typically pursuing audacious $1B+ outcomes) and the economics are limited to the company, which can create a misalignment of incentives. What’s good for the company may not be good for the founder(s).

There’s an opportunity to create a new asset class that aligns people with their long-term goals and capitalist incentives.

Example: Humanism allows you to invest in someone’s future over multiple decades, started by the Liberman brothers who have been dogfooding this model themselves.

New Work

Work used to be limited to traditional 9-to-5, and while some people prefer that lifestyle, many desire more flexibility and diversification (financially and intellectually). In knowledge work, the amount of time invested isn’t always correlated with value creation. This is increasingly true as AI provides significant leverage to those that have good ideas.

But fractional work (i.e. freelancing, contracting) is very inefficient. Some people spend half their time sourcing and selling clients. Hiring is also laborious and drags on productivity.

I’m interested in platforms that are rethinking the talent-matching and economic system of work. It probably doesn’t involve human recruiters, lengthy interview processes, or hourly pay.

Example: Bountycaster is a crypto-native marketplace for jobs. Each bounty has a clearly defined deliverable and reward. In some cases, there’s no approval required to start and complete a task (and get rewarded). Assembly was an attempt at a similar mission over a decade ago.

Weird Consumer

I’ve always been drawn to novel consumer products, especially those that build for emerging behaviors. The more weird and counter-intuitive, the better.

Consumer tech is about to get weird. AI will lead to an explosion of new forms of UGC, shifting human-computer interactions (I expect far more talking than typing in our future), cross-media translation (books can become movies with a click of a button), and a greater understanding of ourselves (check out WF portfolio co, Rosebud).

Example: Friend captured tech’s attention with its reveal last year. The necklace pendant records your conversations 24/7 to deliver feedback and act as a “friend”. I love experiments that question social norms.

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If you’re building something in these spaces, let me know at ryan@weekend.fund. Maybe I can give you money (as an investor and customer). :)