I dug this photo out of the archives today.
Back then, that grey fleece vest wasn’t a fashion statement. It was a uniform. In the Valley, if you showed up in a suit, you were a “tourist” or a banker. If you showed up in the vest, you were an operator. It was camouflage. It signaled: “I’m here to build, not to consult.”
I’ve traded the fleece for tailored wool jackets these days—when you deal with French chateaux, you have to dress the part. But let’s be clear: The clothes changed. The Operating System didn’t.
Under the hood, I still run on that same Hacker DNA.
The 1% Club
That big “500” on the wall behind me? That was the stamp of approval. Getting into 500 Startups was statistically harder than getting into Harvard. It was a brutal selection process. Back then, I fought tooth and nail just to get accessto that room.
Today, my business model is inverted. I no longer fight to get into the room. I build the room. My Private Office is the new “closed club,” and I use the same rigorous filters for my deals that 500 used for their founders.
Hacking the Stone
Real Estate – especially here in Europe – is a dinosaur. It loves paper, stamps, and waiting. It moves at the speed of a fax machine.
But that guy in the photo was trained to “Move Fast and Break Things.”
So, while the traditional French agencies are waiting for the notary to return a call, we are running algorithmic checks and structuring deals with the speed of a seed round.
I might have left the Valley, but I took the Acceleration with me.
