Uncommon Stock: Exit Strategy

The third installment in the startup thriller trilogy

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The third installment in the startup thriller trilogy

1 follower

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Thanks for doing the AMA @eliotpeper! Love the startup thriller idea you've built. How much of your writing gets based on real life interactions you have with entrepreneurs? Feel free to name names :)

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11yr ago

Neon Fever Dream

Maker

@kunalslab The Uncommon Series is fictional so I get to make everything up :). The characters, plot, etc. are all imaginary. That said, the story and setting are definitely informed by the work I’ve done and the friends I've made in the startup world. I worked at my first startup in college. The company was developed a waste-to-energy system using plasma arc gasification technology. After that, I cofounded a consultancy with a few friends and we advised clean tech companies on international market entry (our clients ranged from energy storage startups all the way to one of the top 10 global solar firms). Then @ghorowitt recruited me to be an entrepreneur-in-residence at T2 Venture Capital where I sourced/vetted deals, accelerated our portfolio companies past growth milestones, and helped advise foreign governments on innovation policy. Now I work as an independent strategist, helping entrepreneurs and investors build new technology companies. @bfeld at Foundry Group has been an enormous supporter of The Uncommon Series since I drafted the first few chapters. He’s inspired and refined the story enormously and many of the lessons I’ve learned from him and his writing have made their way into the books. I’ve also learned a ton from @mattblumberg at Return Path, @bobholmen at Miramar Venture Partners, George Eiskamp at @GroundMetrics, Ken Davenport at @MissionEdgeSD, @daniellemorrill at Mattermark, @davidcohen at Techstars, @dgmandell at Pivot Desk, @micah, @craiglauer, and so many others who have been extraordinarily generous with their time and mentorship.

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11yr ago

Product Hunt

Thanks for being here @eliotpeper :) Do you have any advise for aspiring authors? Can you recommend any specific resources?

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11yr ago

Neon Fever Dream

Maker

@lejlahunts Write. A lot. It’s funny how many aspiring writers don’t actually spend much time writing. Write. Write Write. It’s the only way you’re going to hit your 10,000 hours and really hone your craft. The rule of thumb is that you start getting good after your first 10 novels. When I started writing Uncommon Stock: Version 1.0, I committed to writing 1 million words over the following ten years. Exit Strategy brings the running total to 194,402. Read. Challenge yourself. Read books that make you think. Read books that make you feel. Read the best books you can get your hands on. Always be reading. As you dive into the writing/production/publishing process, here are a few select resources that I've found particularly helpful: http://www.amazon.com/On-Writing... http://www.amazon.com/Bird-Some-... http://unconventionalguides.com/... http://sethgodin.typepad.com/set... http://www.hughhowey.com/the-wor... http://sethgodin.typepad.com/set... https://moz.com/blog/why-good-un... http://fourhourworkweek.com/2014... http://www.amazon.com/APE-Author... https://reedsy.com/ http://www.thefrontispiece.com/ There’s never been a better time to be a writer!

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11yr ago

Product Hunt

Hey Eliot, so great to have you join us today! It can be extremely hard for new authors to get their books out there and start to generate excitement and an audience for their book. I'm curious about how you started and how you initially got the word out about your books? Thanks!

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11yr ago

Neon Fever Dream

Maker

@ems_hodge Write a book you love. Hopefully, others like you will also fall for your story. Fans who truly love your writing will champion your work. I don’t buy books because of banner ads or billboards. I read books because people I trust recommend them. Word of mouth is the way good books find new readers. That turns promotion on its head. It’s not about shouting as loud as you can to try to reach new people. It’s about delighting people that are already enamored with your books and stoking their enthusiasm even more. That’s why we went way beyond what traditional publishers would ever think of to surprise fans of The Uncommon Series. Here are a few crazy examples that are totally outside the bounds of what people would normally categorize as “promotion”: We created a real landing page for the fictional startup in the book: https://fgpress.leadpages.net/mo... We created a Twitter account for Mara Winkel, the protagonist: https://twitter.com/MaraWinkel Mara was profiled in an interview for Tech.co: http://tech.co/interview-elusive... Mara also penned a controversial oped about the real technical vulnerabilities in our financial institutions: https://tech.co/data-breach-trus... Brad Feld led a Foundry Group investment into their startup on April Fool’s Day: http://www.foundrygroup.com/blog... We broke the first book up into ten parts and released it serially on Medium, the first time this was ever done with a novel: https://medium.com/fg-press-auth...

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11yr ago

What role do you see "asking for advice" play in entrepreneurship? What techniques have you seen entrepreneurs use to get the right advice from the right people?

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11yr ago

Neon Fever Dream

Maker

@dfmorse23 Entrepreneurship is a learning process and good advice can sometimes help you learn faster. That said, the first thing I tell entrepreneurs asking me for advice is, “You probably shouldn’t listen to me.” We all have our own personal experiences in business and life. It’s completely anecdotal and you need to remember that advice you get from a mentor might be true for them but not for your situation (it's certainly not statistically significant). That’s why entrepreneurs often receive directly conflicting pieces of advice from different trusted sources. Building businesses is a craft that you learn by doing. The best advice helps you expand your thinking. It challenges you with new approaches to familiar problems and pushes back when you haven’t thought something through. If there’s someone you want to solicit specific advice from, make sure to respect their time and make your “ask” concise and clear. People are busy. If they don’t immediately grasp what you’re asking them for, they’ll probably ignore cold outreach.

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11yr ago

TRDATA

Hi @eliotpeper! Following on the plot of your story, how do you see the future of technologies for financial markets? What are the best trends yet to catch?

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11yr ago

Neon Fever Dream

Maker

@ekaterinaklink The future is notoriously hard to predict but there are a few trends that continue to fascinate me: 1. An ever more connected financial system is creating an escalating set of vulnerabilities that bad guys are taking advantage of. See my answer to @jacqvon about research. 2. Banks and financial institutions are using vast swaths of outdated enterprise technology that all needs to be rebuilt from the bottom up. 3. The internet in general and cryptocurrencies in particular may become real substitutes for national currencies, presenting associated challenges in fiscal and monetary policy as well as governance. 4. Machine learning, deep learning, and other algorithmic approaches (like the tech in the books) will hopefully continue to improve their ability to help us tease signal from noise in vast financial datasets.

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11yr ago

Podcast Production Dashboard

Hey Eliot! Was there a specific event or inspiration for wanting to make the tech/startup scene that you've been part of the setting for a thriller?

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11yr ago

Neon Fever Dream

Maker

@lexkon The startup world is packed with high-power personalities, fortunes won and lost, determination, friendship, betrayal, world-changing technology, and high stakes bets. I've always been a voracious reader and I thought it would be such a perfect setting for an adventure story. There's a lot of good business advice books out there (and a lot of crappy ones). But fiction offers something else: a special window into the minds and hearts of protagonists as we experience life alongside them. I couldn't find much startup fiction to read, so I decided to try my hand at writing it. I didn't make an outline or join a writers group. I just sat down, opened up Microsoft Word, and started typing. Nine months later, the rough draft of Uncommon Stock: Version 1.0 was ready for the merciless red ink of editorial. Incidentally, I've seen shit go down in the real startup world that makes most thriller stories pale in comparison.

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11yr ago

The Mission

@Eliotpeper and anyone interested in more Q&A's... here's a link to our interview on Uncommon Stock, writing, and lessons learned: https://medium.com/life-learning...

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11yr ago

Neon Fever Dream

Maker

@chadgrills thanks for sharing! I really enjoyed the interview.

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11yr ago

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