Last week I had coffee with a friend who works at Arc’teryx — you know, the brand that makes the pricey (but beautiful) jackets your skiing buddy loves.

He was a long-time reader of my old newsletter and asked me why I’d stopped writing.

We got to chatting, over a couple cortados in Vancouver, about work, life etc. One thing led to another, and by the end of it, we had such a good convo that I told him if he didn’t see a fresh newsletter from me in the next month, I’d buy him a huge bag of coffee.

It was a deal 🤝

And now I’m back at the keyboard after a 12-month hiatus.

For those who care, I stopped b/c I had some family stuff come up. The kinda family stuff that makes writing online seem trivial.

It’s a longer story, but my 29-year-old brother and father-in-law passed away 3 months apart. One from a car crash. And one from cancer. And there was a lot of processing to do and a lot of family dynamics to navigate. So I put this newsletter idea on the shelf.

But now I’m back. With a ChemX coffee and charged laptop in front of my face, hungry to get writing again. And it’s for 1 main reason.

For my job at LOI, I interviewed Sam Parr and Wes Kao in front of a couple hundred founders and they both said writing online was the highest-value decision they made in their 20s.

It wasn’t going to a fancy-name school.

It wasn’t working out every day.

It was simply: writing online.

So, it’s something I’ve added to my 2024 list to prioritize.

Each week, I’m going to write about frameworks I’m learning about, noodling on, or noticing from the entrepreneurs in my circle.

I may sprinkle in some memes or marketing concepts along the way. But the heart of this newsletter will be about how founders create, validate, scale, and execute on big ideas.

(As I believe every human has something to learn from that)

So let’s get to our big 3 for the week:

1) I believe content collaborations (blogs, podcasts, social media posts etc) are the best way to get to know people who don’t live in your city. Why? Because they create a low-stakes way for you to team up on an idea that your network can associate you with. For example, I interviewed Wes Kao (who cofounded a startup with Seth Godin) and we got to team up on the Google doc of questions, some marketing prep and a fun 1 hour together. Now I’m giving her restaurant reccos for Toronto via text and she’s down for a double date when I’m in Toronto this June with my wife. it’s wild. But it’s the new world. It’s low friction, low stakes, high reward. That’s why content collabs are powerful.

2) The next virtual startup event I’m working on is with 4 absolute legends and I’m scared shitless but excited. It’s called the Battle Royale Demo Day. If you’re into startup stuff, would love to see you there. We’ll have 4 VCs on a panel to pick apart 4 pitches from Series A founders. Should be a blast.

3) I’m hosting a fireside chat with the founder of Google Analytics/Voice, Wes Chan April 19th in Vancouver. He’s been the early investor of over a dozen unicorns including Canva, Ring, Flexport and more. If you wanna join, just hit reply and I’ll send you the event link.

If you read this far into my ugly first draft of getting back at the keyboard, hit reply and LMK what you think.

Feedback is my love language.

Executing on ideas is my second.

Which is why I’m gonna sleep 11/10 tonight knowing that I got this baby back out into the world.

Talk soon,

Joel (aka the Vancouver guy who drinks too many cortados)