Good morning, friends!

As we near the end of 2024, I was reminiscing on its beginning.

On Jan. 1, I was almost six weeks postpartum. I was just beginning to train for my half marathon (hah! Remember that?). I was also in a cloud of sleeplessness, newborn chaos, and learning to juggle two kids and my work. It honestly all feels like a hazy dream.

The only proof of its existence is a daily journal I kept throughout this dream-like period. This journal had a single prompt each day: “What did you do today to take care of yourself?” I used it to jot down things each day that I found helpful for my mental and physical well-being.

Looking back now, there’s a lot of “take a walk” or “take a nap,” but there’s one from Jan. 4 that I want to share with you as we head into 2025.

“I learned something interesting during my yoga practice today. The instructor said that how you get into the pose matters just as much as the pose itself. She encouraged us to do it with intention.

“In other words, how you do anything is how you do everything. If you quickly jerk your leg into the pose, then it probably says something about how you live your life.

“Here’s the image that came to mind: Let’s say I’m on my way to getting something out of the refrigerator, but I stub my toe. I get annoyed, and then my annoyance manifests into slamming the refrigerator door. It goes: event —> pain —> act of frustration. Then, that frustration snowballs and reverberates throughout the rest of my day.

“I may not have control over the event or the pain, but I do have control over the action that comes right after. That’s where intentionality lives.

“The slamming of the refrigerator door is the equivalent of jerking your leg into the pose. So what if instead of slamming the door, I could be intentional about doing it extra slowly, so I can stop the cycle of negativity before it begins?”

“Remember, how you move informs how you feel.”

— Polina

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IMMIGRATION & PATRIOTISM: I recently sat down with Sagnik Basu to share my journey of moving from Bulgaria, taking risk as an entrepreneur, and what it takes to build a company in this country. Watch the full interview here.

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PROFILES.

— The CEO who destroyed $150 billion of value [**HIGHLY RECOMMEND**]
— Elon Musk’s boss
— The Taylor Swift for toddlers
— The disgraced billionaire who built a network of egg donors
— The influencers fighting over the rights to ‘a vibe’
— The private equity firm producing superior returns

PEOPLE TO KNOW.

The CEO who destroyed $150 billion of value: Pat Gelsinger dedicated three decades to Intel, rising through the ranks to become its first chief technology officer in 2000. After leaving in 2009, he returned as CEO in 2021. His strategy to revitalize Intel went against the industry's evolution over recent decades. The chip business had split into two distinct paths—companies either specialized in designing chips (like Nvidia) or manufacturing them (like TSMC). Few companies still did both, with Intel being one of them. When Gelsinger took the helm as CEO, Nvidia and Intel had comparable market values. The contrast today is stark: Nvidia has gained $3 trillion to become the world's most valuable company, while Intel has lost $150 billion and fallen out of the top 10 chip companies. With Gelsinger's rescue strategy failing, the board's confidence has eroded. The question remains: How will this iconic American company survive? (Wall Street Journal; alternate link)

“Smart, very aggressive and somewhat arrogant. He’ll fit right in.”

Elon Musk’s boss: As Tesla’s chair, Robyn Denholm oversees one of the world’s most impactful companies and its larger-than-life CEO. But what does it mean to ‘manage’ Elon Musk? This is the story of how an accountant rose to the top. (Forbes)

“It sounds in hindsight that everything was perfectly planned, and I just executed the plan. That’s not the case.”

The Taylor Swift for toddlers: Rachel Griffin-Accurso, better known as “Ms. Rachel,” is a YouTube sensation among the toddler crowd. With her iconic bluejean overalls, pink shirt, and matching headbands, she has been described as the “Taylor Swift for toddlers” and “the Beyoncé for kids.” Ms. Rachel is the star of a mega-viral YouTube channel created with her husband (known to viewers as “Mr. Aron”) who makes educational musical videos for the baby and toddler set, complete with bursts of animation and Broadway-worthy show tunes. Now, toy companies and publishers all want a piece of the action. (The New York Times; alternate link) (For more, check out my Profile Dossier on Ms. Rachel here)

The disgraced billionaire who built a network of egg donors: At his peak, Greg Lindberg controlled several insurance companies and had a net worth of more than $1 billion. Over the past several years, he’s been twice convicted in federal court of bribery and is facing as many as 30 years in prison. None of his legal troubles, however, seemed to put much of a dent in what he called “the baby project.” He has at least 12 kids. He’s the sole parent caring for eight of them, who live with him near Tampa. The rest are either living with his ex-wife or another woman who’s a business associate-slash-fiancée. Six or more were born through a network of egg donors and surrogates that encompassed at least 25 women, a network that Lindberg seems to have built largely through manipulation and deceit. This is a wild story. (Bloomberg; alternate link)

“The system is ripe for abuse, because there’s no oversight. I’ve seen it happen very frequently—there’s a bait and switch.”

The influencers fighting over the rights to ‘a vibe:’ One Amazon influencer makes a living posting content from her beige home. But after she noticed another account hawking the same minimal aesthetic, a rivalry spiraled into a first-of-its-kind lawsuit. Can the legal system protect the vibe of a creator? And what if that vibe is basic? (The Verge)

“Once I got [the cease and desist], I was just so upset. I was crying, I was shocked.”

COMPANIES TO WATCH.

The private equity firm producing superior returns: Private equity firm Lead Edge has used its network of investors as its secret sauce since Mitchell Green, 43, founded it in 2009 and separated himself as the firm’s “superconnector.” The growth equity firm invests between $25 million and $300 million at a time in a portfolio of software and internet-focused businesses, and most of its $5 billion in assets comes from more than 700 individual investors. Here’s how it managed to attract LPs like Steve Cohen, Adam Foroughi and David Blitzer and C-suite executives at dozens of major businesses like Dell, Target, eBay or Bank of America. (Forbes; alternate link)

“If you do what you say you’re going to do, you generate a lot of trust with people, and they introduce you to their friends.”

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