The Observer's Notebook: Build an Audience or Die

Happy Thursday.

This week I'm touring a nuclear research facility, finally starting to understand why everyone's obsessed with Notion, and considering the importance of having an audience from as an investment screening tool.

Here are three things on my mind, plus some fascinating reads I think you'll enjoy.

🔖Bookmarks of the Week

1. “Everything is a side quest.” This hyper-vulnerable post from Loom cofounder is making waves in the VC community right now.💭| Vinay Hiremath @Vinay Hiremath (link)

2. 5 research papers on VC if you like academic stuff.🔍| @Venture Chronicle on LinkedIn (link)

3. Here’s another predictions list for 2025 but it’s actually worth reading I promise.🔮| Tomasz Tunguz @Theory Ventures (link)

🔍Three Things On My Mind

1. Touring a nuclear reactor and I’m very excited about it.☢️

As a capstone to the research phase of the “nuclear energy deep dive” kick I’ve been on for the last 60 days, tomorrow I’m touring the Nuclear Engineering & Science Center at Texas A&M University, about 10 minutes down the road.

They’ve got two reactors, a 1 megawatt TRIGA research reactor that began operating in 1961, and a small AGN-201M 5 watt teaching reactor.

Apparently the majority of their 1,700 tour guests each year are middle-schoolers.

But hey, nothing wrong with being a kid again sometimes, right?

2. The hype about Notion is 100% warranted.🗂️

January 2025. The month I discovered Notion. God bless.

I’ve been annoyed for years by all the fanclubbing I see around it. “It’s just a silly knowledge base tool. These people are wack.”

I’ve been using a hodgepodge of other solutions to solve this problem over the years.

But this month I was revisiting some systems and thought to myself “ah, what the heck let’s try it.”

This thing is 10x better than everything else I’ve used before. What have I been doing with my life.

In under an hour I translated a 40-page word doc process manual into a slick dashboard-style interface that feels natural and modern.

Same info. Different wrapping paper. Plus, I can ask the database questions with AI. Plus I get great usage analytics. Plus the UI feels amazing.

Talk about delighting the customer!

P.S. Send me your favorite notion tips and tricks because I’m loving it. Biggest challenge now is stopping myself from going engineer-mode and getting too deep.

3. Innovate Build an audience or die.🎤

Recorded a spicy episode this week with an experienced media VC and economic development guru.

I’ve been chewing on one of the things he said.

It went something like this: “If you don’t have any audience - a material online presence - I’m out. I don’t care how good your product is, you must have a voice in today’s world.”

I (obviously) think it’s important to have a voice. You wouldn’t be reading this if I didn’t.

But is it so important that it should be used as an investment screening tool? What do you think?

Until Next Week👋

Thanks for reading - have a great week.

-Andrew

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About Me

I cultivate flourishing.

I'm also the CEO of PitchFact, where our mission is to cultivate flourishing specifically through efficient and collaborative early-stage diligence. I'm a proud husband, grateful father, and honest friend. My love languages include brisket, bourbon, and a handwritten note.