Some Updates from Derek

Hey everyone,

I'm starting something I probably should have done years ago—a monthly check-in with the people I actually want to stay in touch with.

Here's why: I think I'm pretty good at keeping up with people, but I know I can be better. Life gets busy, months slip by, and even the relationships I care about most don't always get the attention they deserve. So I'm taking real action and building infrastructure around it—basically, a monthly update about what's actually going on in my life, what I'm working on, and how we might be able to help each other.

There's a reason I'm sending this on Thanksgiving—I'm genuinely thankful and grateful for all of you.

This isn't a "newsletter" in the LinkedIn thought-leader sense. It's more like the update I'd give you if we grabbed coffee—just scaled so I can actually stay consistent. Some months will be longer, some shorter, but it'll always be real.

As most of you know, I got engaged to Nasim last December. Things are great—we're very happy and excited to get married next year and start the next chapter together.

Going through this exercise, I'm realizing how many great friendships have faded because I didn't put in the effort to keep in touch. Even though I think I'm decent at this stuff, it's sad when you can't just pick up where you left off.

Perfect example: I caught up with my buddy James from high school Monday night when I was home in DC for Thanksgiving. It all started because I reached out on his birthday last week with a simple "Hey, sorry we haven't been in better touch, but I hope you and the family are crushing it." That turned into "Are you home for Thanksgiving?" and boom—we met up. James is an incredible human, and hanging out was amazing. But honestly? I wish we'd stayed in better touch all along.

This is actually why I'm building real infrastructure around fixing this—making sure the relationships that matter don't slip away. More on that below.

On the Podding side (our video production company), things are stabilizing. We've built a solid team, we're doing good work with great clients, and we'll keep scaling this year. I started the company because I wanted to learn video production—thought it was an important skill. Mission accomplished there. The big learning: videos are modular, and once you understand that, you can build systems around creating them consistently.

I'm also really excited to tease something: we're producing a podcast for two incredibly impressive investment professionals in New York. One of them basically invented venture capital. First episode shoots in January. Can't say more yet, but I'm pumped about this.

On the other side, I've been building something called Cadence—basically a Chief Relationship Officer service that helps successful people systematically invest in their most important relationships. I think I've been pretty good at maintaining relationships, but it's something I've always wanted to level up on. This feels like the perfect founder-project fit for me—I'm genuinely mission-driven about it in a way I haven't felt about other work. It's gaining real traction with fund managers, investor relations folks, and family offices, and honestly it's eating up more of my attention than the video production side.

Big shout out to the handful of amazing friends who have entrusted me with handling this for them and becoming my first pilots. I'm excited and can't wait to bring more value into your lives. More on this as it develops.

The hardest part right now? The mental load of building two things at once. I'm fortunate to have an amazing team, but the constant context-switching is real.

On the video production side, there's also a lot of uncertainty around what generative AI is going to do to the industry. I think we're somewhat protected because everything we do revolves around personalities—CEOs and executives who actually have to be on camera—but it's definitely something I'm watching. We're leaning into AI to make us more effective, but let's be real: it's going to shake up the whole industry.

I'm always happy to be a sounding board if you're going through something hard—work stuff, personal stuff, whatever. I like being an idea partner.

At this point in my life (read: I'm getting old), I have a pretty good community around me. So if you're hiring, looking for advisors, or potentially seeking investors, I probably know someone.

As I mentioned, Cadence is getting traction with fund managers, IR teams, and family offices. I'm fortunate to already have built some great relationships in these spaces, but I'd love to keep learning from people doing interesting work here. If you know folks thinking about systematic relationship management or LP relations, I'd be grateful for intros.

Challah at me if you're around any of these places.. let's grab coffee or a meal. =)

That's it for month one. If anything here sparks a thought or you just want to catch up, hit reply. Otherwise, see you in your inbox next month.

Thanks for being someone I want to stay connected with.

– Derek