Novice Investor #13 - Networking with Finn Murphy, Happiness and Badminton

Happy February All!

I hope 2022 is off to a great start.

January has been a productive month for me. I kept it alcohol-free, exercised plenty, worked a little bit too much and engrossed myself in the weird and wonderful world of NFTs. There was plenty of learning and growth. Which are key to happiness apparently (see more below).

While the month has been great for learning and growth, it has without a doubt been a bit on the dull side. I am looking forward to a bit more balance in February. The highlight of my month from a social side was getting trashed by a colleague in badminton. If you are not very good at Badminton (I am a sore loser) and fancy an active catch-up, get in touch for a game.

Networking with Finn Murphy, Frontline

Staying true to my 2022 goals, I have kicked off the first Novice Investor video of the year with a guest. Finn Murphy, Partner at Frontline, joined to talk about all things networking.

Finn has been a great friend of mine for the past few years and I have always been impressed by his network. He was kind enough to share his philosophy on networking. In summary:

• Be proactive, get out there and meet people. Conferences are for networking, not content.

• Make friends, work is more fun when you get to hang out with people you like. Don’t waste time building relationships with people you don’t get on with.

• Be patient, don’t expect immediate ROI on a relationship. The power of your network will compound over years.

• Natural network management, the people you like and care about will naturally fit into your life. No calendar reminder or recurring meeting will force a genuine relationship.

I made the rookie mistake of overshooting the 10-minute time limit on the first video. Next time I will be more strict.

My NFT Project

Jumping in the deep end on this project has definitely been a great way to get up the learning curve rapidly. From NFT Twitter to the scary world of Discord, one month on, I have a much better understanding of the space and what it takes to make an NFT project a success.

In short, the community and value are key. While I absolutely love designing and rendering jewellery, the real lever of success will be building a community of NFT collectors who see value in the project. So, January was all about getting everything I need in place such as a website, Discord group, Twitter, Instagram and plenty of great creative assets.

The next two months will be about getting eyes on the project to build a community. During February, I will be in experimental marketing mode testing out Facebook/Instagram ads, NFT influencers and generating some PR. In March, I will double down on what works. All the while, I’ll be creating some very cool jewellery.

If you are interested in seeing the behind the scenes of the project, join the Discord and follow the socials.

Productivity Tech

One perennial nagging task of mine is better online security. My passwords are either weak and stored in my mind or scattered across iCloud Keychain and Google Password Manager on numerous different Gmail accounts. I waste a decent amount of time due to my unorganised password management. More importantly, when I lose a password it triggers my temper and can create a lasting negative mood.

Using a password management tool is a relatively easy win to save time, avoid triggers and increase online security (more and more important if you are holding decentralised assets). I spent January testing out Dashlane, Keeper Security and 1Password. Although none of the options are even close to perfect, I have landed on 1Password as my go-to. The main reasons for this are better cross-device support and a fresher user interface. The initial set-up phase does take a lot of work but it is definitely worth it.

Book Reviews

The Happiness Project - Gretchen Rubin

While the book is long and my ability to relate to the author was limited, I really appreciated Gretchen’s obsession with reading. This obsession manifests in the book with countless great research examples and quotes from varying authors’ thoughts on Happiness. More importantly, I resonated with three impactful learnings from the book.

Firstly, Gretchen followed a technique from Benjamin Franklin, which involves choosing 12 aspects of life to improve over a year (one each month) and scoring yourself on them each day. I like this approach to self-improvement. Coincidentally, I already started scoring my energy and focus levels each day during January. I will now pick a new virtue or skill to track for February.

Secondly, a big Happiness learning I absorbed from the book is that growth is key to happiness. Whether it is career progression, skill improvement or a steady increase in your savings account, an atmosphere of growth is key to feeling happy. It is worth identifying the aspects of your life that are in your power to grow and continue improving them. Reducing focus on stagnating areas could help too.

Lastly, Gretchen and other writers have arrived at similar conclusions when it comes to happiness. Here are two quotes on the subject that resonate.

Gretchen Rubin “One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy. One of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy yourself”

Leo Tolstoy “Nothing can make our life, or the lives of other people, more beautiful than perpetual kindness”

Kennet Partner’s Investment Target

Kennet Partners is a Growth Equity investor with over 20 years of experience partnering with European and US SaaS companies. If you know any companies which fit our criteria, please reach out.

Investment size: $8m - $30m

Maturity: Over $3m in ARR

Growth: > 30%

Type: Bootstrapped and capital-efficient B2B SaaS businesses

Geography: Europe & US