Hey, Justin here, and welcome to Just Go Grind, a newsletter sharing the lessons, tactics, and stories of world-class founders!

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It’s wild to me that Just Go Grind has been my full-time job since May of 2023 after quitting the job I very much loved at VITALIZE Venture Capital. I’m very grateful to all of you for supporting me by reading this newsletter.

Just Go Grind has been evolving every year since I launched it as a career blog back in January of 2018 - blog, podcast, newsletter - I love creating media and have been doing so for more than a decade.

I wrote a Just Go Grind 2023 review at the end of last year and it’s time to run it back.

This year, in addition to founder deep dives, I published guest posts and interviews with some amazing founders and investors:

• Bill Kerr of Athyna

• Gale Wilkinson of VITALIZE Venture Capital

• The Three Co-Founders of Mine

• Will Stringer of Chisos Capital

• Robin P. Zander of Zander Media

• Christopher Gray of Scholly

• Scot Chisholm of Classy

• Yacine Sibous of Parker

Let’s take a look back at the year of founder deep dives.

The 10 Most Popular Founder Deep Dives

The most popular deep dives on Just Go Grind based on views:

1. Peggy Cherng’s Path to Billions. Peggy’s story of co-founding Panda Express and building it into a multi-billion dollar empire with 2,400 locations is phenomenal.

2. The Ruthless Determination of Larry Ellison. I read the book The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison: *God Doesn't Think He's Larry Ellison for this edition and loved it. It covers the first 20 years of Larry building Oracle and it doesn’t disappoint.

3. Fred Luddy’s Remarkable Comeback. Fred lost $35 million overnight and less than a year later, just before his 50th birthday, started a company that would one day be worth more than $200+ billion.

4. The Enduring Ambition of Michael Bloomberg. Michael Bloomberg started his eponymous financial data company in 1981, a company that in 2022 did more than $12 billion in revenue and one that he still owns 88% of today. How he got there? Quite the story.

5. The Boundless Imagination of Walt Disney. Easily one of my favorite founders to cover this year. This deep dive took me the longest to research and write, 3 weeks, during which I read two books about him, 1,000+ pages in all.

6. Daniel Ek’s Grand Ambition. At the time I published the piece on Daniel Ek, Spotify’s co-founder, the company had a market cap of around $38 billion. Today? More than $92 billion. This is the incredible story of how he built the company.

7. The Creative Force of Shonda Rhimes. Shonda is a world-builder. A powerhouse. A titan of industry who burst onto the scene in 2005 and has been a mainstay ever since. This is the story of how she did it.

8. The Quiet Ambition of Denise Coates. You probably don’t know who Denise Coates is. I didn’t until recently. That’s intentional. She’s one of the most under-the-radar billionaire founders. Bet365, the British online gambling company she founded in 2000, made her the fourth richest self-made woman in the world.

   But how’d she build it? That’s what I wanted to find out.

9. Issy Sharp of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. Issy brings us one of the best lines from a founder I’ve ever heard, “Excellence is often just a capacity for taking pains.” It perfectly describes how he build Four Seasons into a juggernaut.

10. The Mission-Driven Ambition of Carolyn Childers. A lot of people have built communities. Few have built one worth a billion dollars. Carloyn Childers has. This is the story of how she did it.

Events in 2024

This was a big year for events and building community for me.

I decided to get out from behind this keyboard and screen way more to connect founders, operators, and investors in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

I hosted dozens of events in 2024 - coffee meetups, hikes, basketball games, comedy shows, mixers, a co-working day, a beach day, and even a founder retreat. Not to mention Pitch and Run, which I love, and I occasionally take the lead on.

I’m estimating I had close to 1,000 attendees in 2024.

It was a lot of fun and I’m glad I took the plunge.

Not only was I able to bring together so many amazing people, but I was able to work with some incredible event sponsors - Jeff Swearingen, Avenue Z, Pilot, Cake Equity, Parker, Womack Financial, Womack Capital Partners, Dorwart Law, and Omaha Phoenix Capital.

Want to sponsor an event of mine in 2025? Reply to this email and I’ll send more info.

Thank You and Happy Holidays!

Everything I do is made possible because of you, my reader, and I couldn’t be more grateful for all of the support.

Big things coming in 2025!

I hope you have a wonderful holiday season!

Lastly, if you’re finding this newsletter valuable, please share it with a friend and consider becoming a paid subscriber if you’re not already. You can also now gift subscriptions to others so they get full access!

Best,

Justin