June Update

☯️ The Founder’s Dilemma

Being a founder requires constant calibration between arrogance and humility, optimism and pessimism.

The optimism is necessary to inspire and motivate others, to sell the vision and potential of the startup. The pessimism, on the other hand, is crucial for identifying potential pitfalls and planning for them. Founders also need the arrogance to believe they have something important to say, but the humility to know most people won’t care.

It's a delicate dance between believing in the potential of your idea and being brutally honest about the challenges that lie ahead. You need to be confident enough to launch, humble enough to last. That’s the founder’s dilemma.

🦦 Redefining Productivity: The Role of Rest and Play

In our obsessive quest for productivity, we often overlook the importance of rest and play. Play is not just about relaxation or entertainment, it's also a powerful tool for creativity. It allows us to explore new ideas, experiment with different approaches, and see things from a fresh perspective.

The most productive hour of your day might not look like work at all. It could be a walk in the park, a quiet moment on the couch, or a hot shower. These are the moments when our minds are free to wander, explore, and connect dots in ways that structured thinking can't. Embracing these moments of 'productive laziness' can lead to breakthroughs and innovative ideas.

So, if rest and play can improve your output, how will you incorporate more of it into your routine?

☯️ Building in Public: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Building in public is a popular trend, especially in web3. It's about transparency, community, and learning in the open.

But it's not just about sharing the wins and the progress, it's also about sharing the challenges, the failures, and the uncertainties. The tweet below was eye-opening to me.

Building in public is also not just about granting access permissions to the information, it's also about making your information easy to find and repeating the message frequently.

⭐️ Recommendations

1. 🎬️ Chimp Empire, a nature documentary about the largest group of chimpanzees ever discovered that feels like a . It’s incredible how the filmmakers got so close to the action. Check the making off.

2. 📹 The Joys of an Un-Optimized Life: knowing when it’s good enough is a super power.

☀️ Progress

1. I’m proud of Talent Protocol’s new product strategy for Season 4 and our very minimalist, but laser-focused new website. Doing discovery calls with LATAM builders made me realize that a lot of talent don’t feel seen, and that even a simple call can have a huge impact in their motivation and self-confidence. Having someone to listen to our goals and progress is often enough.

2. Talent Protocol's new partnership with Sam Altman's company! No, not OpenAI. His other company, Worldcoin, that's bringing global proof of personhood to the internet. Here’s also a piece in Portuguese. 🌍

3. Taking a morning off to go to the beach ended up being both restful AND productive: I had time to think, but could still answer to emails and Discord on my phone.

🌨️ Problems

1. In June, my workload was too high to handle efficiently. I had too many 12h work days, no time for deep work and still left too many weekly task incomplete. And although I had the stamina to push through it, I felt super tired at the end of each week. 😓

2. Related to 1, I wasn’t very social this month. In the rare times I wasn’t working, I was still looking at screens. I barely have any photos in my phone this month, which means I didn’t do much besides my basic routine. 📱

3. There’s two things I need to work on as a leader: I can do better at developing the people I lead, and I can show more openness and vulnerability to my team. I’m often perceived as very distant (emotionally and personally) and sometimes even as arrogant (big ego, self-centered). 👐

🙌 Superfriends of the month

1. Juampi (for bringing a lot of energy to Talent Protocol)

2. Luminita (for 1+ year of shared adventures)

3. Almada Guerra (for helping me keep my DJing hobby alive)

4. Rita Pim (for the good energy she always brings)

5. Pedro Pereira (for hosting the team in his house)

6. Francisco Leal (for great co-founder chemistry)

7. Pedro Oliveira (for his thoughtful feedback)

8. Katy Atherholt (for our long-distance, but still strong friendship)

9. Inês Ramos (for coming to visit)

10. Pedro Mota (for a nice lunch and chat)