Full-Time Curious with Alexandre #2
First week of work
Hey everyone 👋
I hope you’re doing well since last week, and welcome to new subscribers ! First I would like to thank you for subscribing to this newsletter experiment 😊
I am still experimenting with the newsletter, sharing various pieces of content around tech, VC, music, photography, books, and more..., with some personal news on top of it 🙂
This week in Madrid
I was so excited to start work this week! I have joined the team at Monday to work on Front-end development and Growth and help Venture Capital investors connect talent to their portfolio companies. I felt so welcome in the team I am so grateful for that. Everyone in the team is so nice and always wants to help 🙏 Lots of new stuff this week, to discover and to learn so it was awesome! !
I worked from Google Startups Campus and I loved it. The coworking space/cafe is really beautiful and perfect to work from. I am probably going to try working from another coworking space but will definitely come back. This week was also about people because I met several people during the week.
📺 Videos of the Week
Natalie Sportelli: Content Superpowers and the People Behind Brands - The Media Mindset by JAKK Media
Nathalie Sportelli is someone I learn a lot from on the topic of content and branding. I have known her on Twitter since I read her post about content creators last October and have been following her work at the VC firm Lerer Hippeau since. In this video, she sat with The Media Mindset hosts to chat about content and the people making content for brands. Her advice and her examples of great companies having strong content strategy (including Casper) make it super interesting to watch.
She also shares a great technique she uses to know more about someone based on his/her favorite movie. I would love to try this at an event or party in the future.
Angèle : Balance ton quoi
This part is about a French song but English subtitles are available ☝️
Angèle is a singer from Belgium who in less than 2 years became a singer almost everyone knows. Her track “Balance ton quoi” refers to the movements #MeToo and #BalanceTonPorc from last year and is a powerful anthem for feminism in my opinion.
Her song is all about consent, sexism, harassment and everything around women rights. I love that she uses her fame to make an impact with this song, Go Angèle 🙏
You can by the way buy the uniforms featured in this clip on the Meuf Paris website. The profits will be given to 2 violence against women charities.
Retro Tech : Game Boy with Marques Brownlee aka MKBHD
I am such a big fan of MKBHD since I think 2013 and love his content and the quality of his work. This new series he is starting seems to be perfect for his work and challenging at the same time because it’s retro and not new dope tech. My first and only gaming console was a Nintendo DS Lite so I never had a GameBoy during my childhood. This episode made me discover several things I didn’t know about Game Boy. One of my favourite parts was the discovery of chiptune music. This video is a cool way to discover what it was like to have a Game Boy at the time, told by various experts. I can’t wait to watch the next episodes!
Girls Just Wanna Have Funds! by VivaTech & The Family
I just wrote about women rights and the following video is about gender equality. Sadly, like in many fields, gender equality is still not there in tech. Raising money as a woman founder is really hard. That’s why The Family and Vivatech organised a talk with
Elsa Hermal, Co-Founder at Epicery
Pia d’Iribarne,Partner at Stride.VC
Cyril Bertrand, Managing Partner XAnge
This first part was about raising funds as a female founder. What advice Elsa Hermal, had for female founders. The second part was on the VC side with the point of view of 2 French investors. How they experience that inequality in their investments and what can be done to improve that. The talk was moderated by Erika Batista, Director at The Family.
To give some perspective, “investments for female entrepreneurs in Europe decreased from 14% in 2016 to 11% in 2018”
Other cool videos to watch:
Let’s Go Dubai by Beautiful Destinations
Is The American Dream Still Relevant? by The Minimalists
📖 Reading of the Week
Zoom IPO | S-1 Breakdown by Alex Clayton, Software investor at Spark Capital
This is IPO (Initial Public Offering) season right now and this week it’s all about Zoom entree to NASDAQ. Unlike most tech unicorns (companies valued at over a $1B), Zoom is a profitable company so that’s why there is a lot going on online about their IPO.
Alex Clayton, Software investor at Spark Capital analysed Zoom S-1, and gave some information about what the IPO of Zoom means to the company and tech market.
👉 To read more about Zoom IPO, Zoom as a product and its CEO Eric Yuan, now a billionaire after being rejected 8 times from visa, you should read Alex Konrad’s article on Forbes.
Working to Sound vs Silence
Working with or without music is a great question, if you are in a job or a college student for example. This post is about a study made by researchers that shows that you should probably not work with music if you need creativity in your job. There are different opinions on that so the writer suggested trying other kind of music.
My teammate Alex shared this article with the Monday team and I really liked it because I am used to work with music most of the time. This piece made me reflect on the moments I should probably work in complete silence.
Does This Product Spark Joy?
After Marie Kondo’s success with her Netflix series following her book, we have seen people Marie Kondo-ing their entire physical life, and more, including their Twitter followings. New York Times decided to implement the Marie Kondo method to their entire product line to see which features were “sparkling joy”. It’s an interesting read, especially if you already read the book or watch the show because you can totally apply that to your company.
Other interesting links to read:
How a Former Vine Comedian and His Frat Brother Created the Ultimate Birthday Wish
Many IPOs right now following Lyft IPO 📈 In addition to Zoom IPO, there was also Pinterest IPO happening this week. Jeff Jordan, Managing Partner at A16z(which I talked about last week) shares one of his first investments as a VC, Pinterest.
🎧 Soundtracks of the Week
Dennis Lloyd - Never Go Back [Robin Schulz Remix]
I shared with you last week Dennis Lloyd’s EP last week and this week, I share a remix of one of this songs by the DJ Robin Schultz, which gives us the right summer vibes we need.
Bon Entendeur : "le Comédien", Rochefort, April 2019
Bon Entendeur are onto such an interesting format since their creation. Mixing an interview of a French-speaking personalities with various music genres works perfectly and I have been a fan since I discovered them. The latest mixtape celebrates the famous French actor Jean Rochefort (RIP).
Two Lanes - Common Ground
Two Lanes is one of my favorite groups of 2019 and their latest track before the launch of their EP doesn’t disappoint. If you have to follow one group this year, it should be these 2 German brothers.
Other cool tracks to listen to:
Lorde - Tennis Court [Flume Remix] 5 years ago at Coachella 2014, Flume played this track for the first time and the crowd went crazy
Kuaga X Let Me Feel X Starlight X Freeze Time (Pierce Fulton X Nicky Romero X Vicetone X Don Diablo) I keep listening to this mashup over and over since the songs in it and the mashup are so good 🔥
📸 Photos of the Week
I am still in the process of organising my photos so this week I will again share one of my favorite Instagram account.
French Champagne
French Champagne is an American artist creating arts based on cartoon characters like Picsou or Bart Simpson. I just love his work since it brings back so much childhood memories. Check out his Instagram account to see all the beautiful pieces he creates.
👥 People Met
I met 2 groups of people this week. First, I met my colleagues from Monday, remotely because the team is distributed around various countries including the USA, Germany, Spain or South Africa for example. Meeting each day a new colleague from around the world is such a cool experience and I can’t wait to work more with my new teammates, they are super talented, nice and excited to work on great products 💪
Second, I met 5 French students last night who, like me, moved to Madrid for a 3-month internship. We had a great night at an Irish pub, knowing each other more.
🙏 Thank You
Thank you so much for reading the 2nd issue of Full Time Curious, it means a lot 😊
See you next week for another issue of this experiment. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to contact me on Twitter @mrcalexandre, I am always here to help!
Best,
Alexandre Mouriec
Twitter: @mrcalexandre | Instagram: @mrc_alexandre