Good morning friends! I hope everyone has had a good but restful week. I am continuing to learn more and more about myself, VC, and writing. So, thank you for sticking along with me. Let’s continue on this journey.

Fishing in Venture 🎣

This week, I wanted to take a different route with our Fishing in Venture section. I’ve been doing a lot of self reflection on how I operate my life. I have sensed a lot of busyness (not to be confused with hard work) and wanted to get to the root of it. Don’t worry - this all applies to all of us. So, I want to talk about operating our lives in a state of rest.  In the whirlwind of modern life, it's easy to get so swept up in the endless pursuit of productivity and achievement. We juggle countless responsibilities, striving to meet deadlines, achieve goals, and climb the proverbial ladder of success. But amidst the chaos, there's a powerful yet often overlooked concept: living from a state of rest.

Living from a state of rest doesn't mean idleness or complacency. Instead, it's about approaching life with contentment, and having confidence that you are in control. It's about finding rest not just in the absence of activity, but in the midst of it. I’ve identified a few practices and begun to reflect how to apply them into my approach to rest.

• Being Present - I can catch myself in conversations with others and even as I’m writing this with a bombardment of thoughts. I tend to think about anything that is “shiny” in front of me. Ultimately, being present takes work and can be scary to fully focus on what’s at hand. By anchoring ourselves in the present, we can let go of worries about the future or regrets about the past, finding rest in the here and now.

• Prioritization - Establishing priorities and aligning our actions with our values is really hard. It takes a lot of self reflection & discovery (which is hard for me!). It’s a journey to release the need to constantly chase after external validation or societal expectations, and instead, focusing on what brings us genuine fulfillment and joy.

• Gratitude - Gratitude is a powerful shield to stress and anxiety, helping us shift our focus from what's lacking to what we have. By cultivating a mindset of gratitude, we can find rest in the abundance of blessings that surround us each day, no matter how small.

• Boundaries - Living from a state of rest requires setting healthy boundaries and honoring our need for rest and rejuvenation. It means saying no to activities or commitments that drain our energy and yes to those that nourish our souls and contribute to our well-being. Although those boundaries can vary drastically with different personalities. I personally find rest in playing basketball on Saturday mornings with friends then spending time at a coffee shop after with a book.

So, as you navigate the ups and downs of life, I encourage you to cultivate a restful mindset, embracing each moment with presence and gratitude. A lot of my thoughts in this segment have been unearthed as I go through Erwin McManus’s new book Mind Shift. I highly recommend reading it if you want to start to change your mindset to release the limitations we subconsciously put on ourselves.

Fish of the Week 🐟

This week I get to share Lynn Luong’s story from The 2.0 Collective. They are creating a new way for the everyday professional to proactively move through their careers by enabling them with the decision making data they need to be successful. Lynn birthed the idea for The 2.0 Collective in the height of the pandemic, when people everywhere were forced to reconsider new ways of living and moving through their careers like the ever changing tide.

After moving from New York to Charlotte she took to LinkedIn, sliding in DMs, asking to grab coffee with the ecosystem players of the city. She wanted to find out how she could be successful in her new role after being brought to Charlotte. As a proactive ambitious professional, she found herself reacting to the changes being made in her life (a struggle we all face all the time). She knew there had to be a better way of getting the information she needed to keep her career's momentum going. How could we take the gate kept secrets reserved for C-Suites and get it down to the professionals who deserved it? Boom. The 2.0 Collective was born. A platform that combines project management style coaching and Machine Learning tech to show you the exact in-time resources you need to ensure you are attracting and maximizing the right opportunities for professionals. All the things you need to keep your career momentum going no matter what hits you. 

They focused on building the technology in a way that would bring people the clarity that they needed in their careers (and personal lives along the way!). Instead of just providing an LLM training program like ChatGPT, they invested in Career Strategists. Sometimes the only way to get true clarity is to get out of your head and talk to someone else, and our friends aren’t always in the same season we are in. The 2.0 Collective wants to bridge the gap with career clarity and ultimately help you find a groove within the world. 

The 2.0 Collective are currently taking on new members and launching short accelerator series for those looking for clarity in their careers. Their strong team is currently looking for the right funding partners, new members (we're launching new products), and community partners. In the next year, they would love to reach more deserving professionals and help them reach the 2.0 version of themselves, whatever that may look like both in and outside of work. With this data anonymized, they seek to transform the way that organizations think about leading people.

I recently had the opportunity to speak to some of the members on their platform and felt refreshed with how engaging, real, and fun they were. If you’re looking for a career change, a good group of friends, or just a place to belong, hit up Lynn. Would love to connect you with her and the team at 2.0 Collective.

Ebbs & Flows 🌊

Recently I was conducting some due diligence on a startup and saw two things; a non-provisional patent application and a provisional patent. I glanced over it thinking it was a typo or insignificant — but it wasn’t. I decided to spend some time really digging into the difference. Let’s talk about it.

Provisional Patent

A provisional patent application is a legal document filed in the USPTO, that allows the inventor to claim a "priority date" for their invention but does not lead directly to a patent without further action. The priority date is crucial in patent law because it establishes the inventor's claim to the invention as of the filing date, which can be important if there are competing claims for the same invention.

Characteristics:

• It is less expensive to file than a non-provisional patent application.

• It requires less detail, meaning there are no formal patent claims required.

• It is not examined by the USPTO for patentability.

• Provides the inventor 12 months from the filing date to file a corresponding non-provisional patent application.

• Offers a way to establish an early effective filing date.

• Allows the term "Patent Pending" to be applied to the invention.

Non-Provisional Patent

A non-provisional patent application, sometimes referred to as a regular patent application (RPA), is what is filed to initiate the examination process for a patent on an invention. Unlike the provisional application, it can lead directly to a patent being granted by the USPTO.

Characteristics:

• It requires a full patent claim set, detailed descriptions, drawings (if necessary), an oath or declaration, and the appropriate fees.

• It is examined by a patent examiner at the USPTO, who will determine whether the invention is new, non-obvious, and useful (among other criteria) for a patent to be granted.

• It can claim the benefit of an earlier provisional application filing date if filed within 12 months of the provisional application.

• The process is more complex and costly than filing a provisional patent application but is necessary to obtain patent protection.

So, how do you decide which patent is right for your idea? Or as an investor, which one is better? A provisional patent application is a cost-effective way to secure a filing date and gain time to refine the invention or seek funding, while a non-provisional patent application is the comprehensive application reviewed by the USPTO to decide if a patent should be granted. Founders often use provisional applications as a first step in protecting their invention while preparing for the more detailed and costly non-provisional application process. As investors, it’s better to invest in a startup that has patents issued or that are in the non-provisional stage.

Thank you for your support!

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