Best of 2020: learnings, books, podcasts, and more

3 min readJan 5, 2021

2020 started like any other year but quickly morphed into something new and unexpected. Working from home became a reality, and I was forced to buy an actual desk. Little to no commuting and no business travel was hard — not because I was trying to get miles, but because it is such an integral part of the venture capital business. Here’s what I’ve learned and books/podcasts/etc. that I would recommend.

Learnings

Building companies under a venture creation model is hard but incredibly fun
You can be super-efficient when you work from home, but make sure you book pauses on your calendar to avoid back-to-back Zoom calls
I miss the serendipity of meeting people in conferences and networking events more than I thought
Coffee-break Zoom calls can help drive team engagement and spirit
I often walked around my living room while on calls. This made me realize walking meetings should be more frequent, especially when the weather is nice (Danes will understand!)
I worked with a Novo Seeds EiR trying to build a newco and learned a tremendous amount about resilience, strategy, and “big-picture” thinking
I learned about negotiation and what it takes to reach compromise between parties
Found an amazing Twitter account — VCBrags (VCs congratulating themselves). Check it out for yourselves 😂

Books that made me think

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein: I felt truly at home reading this captivating book. As someone who jumped from field to field, worked at intersections of fields and has a broad set of interests, I always saw those as potential disadvantages. David makes a case for generalists and against over-specialization, in a world where problems are complex and require you to wear different hats.

The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells: A portrait of what would happen to planet earth if we do nothing about climate change. Not a pretty picture, but a great eye-opener to the challenges we face.

The Great American Drug Deal by Peter Kolchinsky: The view of RA Capital’s founder on drug pricing in the United States and a proposed model to foster and reward innovation while allowing patients to access affordable generics. It’s a controversial topic that Peter navigates with reason, diligence, and solutions at a time the debate is most alive.

Biotech Podcasts you should listen to

Luke Timmerman’s The Long Run takes the prize imho. Consistently good podcasts interviewing biotech leaders, both telling their own story as well as their company’s. Two episodes worth listening to:

Rosana Kapeller’s interview on drugging the repeatome. Rosana was the CSO of Nimbus Therapeutics and is currently the CEO of ROME Therapeutics.
Peter Kolchinsky’s interview on drug pricing in the U.S. Peter is the Managing Partner of RA Capital. If you don’t want to read his book, the podcast is a good alternative.