I work for an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in startups and creators, and given that my tenure in the VC business is largely tied to my ability to find sick people to invest in, I'm using my "about" page as a bat signal for just those people. Please hit "see more" to keep reading.

I'm interested, broadly speaking, in meeting with three types of people:

1) Moderately unhinged founders who are hell-bent on building something big and cool and want to use our money to do it.

2) Moderately unhinged founders who are hell-bent on building something big that the rest of the world finds lame, but, for some reason, they are obsessed with, and wants to use our money to do it.

3) Influential creators who have realized that they'd rather use their platforms to build their own businesses instead of living on brand deals forever. (I used to run ads on my blog, not the highest leverage way to monetize an audience! That's why I'm a VC now).

If this describes you, hit me up. Of course, in the name of transparency, I should probably tell you a bit about myself so you'll know if you even want to meet with me in the first place. (Business, like love, is a two-way street, after all).

A few things about me: I've been blogging on Substack since 2021, writing about everything from personal finance to travel shenanigans when I was 24, and 65,000 people subscribe to my blog now. I even landed a book deal with Penguin from that blog. The topic is life advice for 20-somethings, basically. It comes out in 2026.

I wrote most of that book in a 2-week period (50,000 words in 14 days while locked in a hotel room in the CitizenM in the Bowery). I'm pretty happy with it; the best thing I've ever written. If you're reading this, you should subscribe to my blog. And read my book.

Other prior experiences include working for Robinhood's media startup Sherwood News, managing a newsletter for finance meme page Litquidity, working in corporate finance for UPS, and spending a year living out of a backpack abroad and blogging about the whole thing (never staying in a hostel again, but it was fun).

Anyway now I work for Slow Ventures and want to give money to those of you who are building killer businesses. So, if that's you, let's chat? Shoot me a note at jack@slow.co.

(Also, Linkedin added a "write with AI" button to the about section. There's no way I'd ever write my bio with AI. I have too much hubris).

Jack Raines

Many people have asked me, "Jack, how is a venture capital associate supposed to have differentiated sourcing in 2026 when everyone is using the same AI tracking tools?"

My answer? Find My Friends.

Any time I meet someone who I assign a >1% chance of starting a company (I have a robust mental model trained on the hundreds of pitches I've seen over the last year), I say, "Hahaha, you know what would be funny? If we added each other on Find My Friends so if we're in the same neighborhood, we can grab beers."

But actually, this allows me to track which of these serendipitous contacts are the most "locked in," and, importantly, who seems to be pitching VCs. See, I have overlaid my Find My Friends interface with popular nightlife neighborhoods in NYC and SF, every VC office location in both San Francisco and New York, and the coffee shops most-regularly populated by VCs near Jackson Square.

Any contact that averages more than 3 evenings out in a popular nightlife area (west village, marina district, etc) per month is assigned a red flag (not locked in!), and anyone who appears in the vicinity of VC offices or the South Park Blue Bottle more than 4x in one week receives an automated text from my AI co-pilot that says, "What's up ____, hope all is well! Coffee soon?"

Haters call it an "invasion of privacy." Me? I say I'm just monitoring the situation.

Forward Deployed Personality Hire @ Slow Ventures

Air France = fantastic flight + lounge experience. Easily the best national airline amongst the developing economies.

Similar to Thiel investing in Tolkien names, I'd love to see a trend of companies named after Star Wars references, but using the stupidest names possible.

"Yeah, we're raising $20m to democratize access to energy with my new venture, Jar-Jar Binks."

New blog to kick off 2026: Brief ski trip recap + I'm pretty convinced that self-driving will be so pervasive in 20 years that my kids won't have to drive. What comes next?

Open article: Happy 2026, Let's Get This Bread by youngmoney.co

From 2016 to 2020, I was in your shoes, working a high-paying tech job. The work was demanding, and I felt the pressure and burnout. I was making great money, but I also felt stuck.

So in 2020, I decided to walk away. But, before I did, I had a hunch.

I realized the traditional financial services industry was completely ignoring high-income tech professionals like us. 

They were focused on serving retirees who already had big portfolios, overlooking a huge number of people in our generation who wanted and needed planning now, not in 20+ years.

So in 2020, I decided to walk away from my job. I helped launch Coastal Capital Advisors with a single mission: to help tech employees build financial plans that simplify their money, reduce stress, and become work-optional.

Since then, I've had the privilege of helping tech professionals achieve incredible results, including:
- Planning for equity compensation to make the most of their company stock.
- Creating a clear savings and investment plan for their future.
- Developing a tax strategy to maximize their wealth over a lifetime.

I didn't figure this out overnight. It took countless hours of research, practice, and hands-on experience helping dozens of tech professionals navigate their complex financial lives. 

Now, I transfer all of that hard-earned knowledge to you so you can win with your money and build a secure financial future.

____________________________

Here's exactly how I can help you. ⤵️

📃Free Resources (check out my featured section)

1) Daily posts
2) Free newsletter: Get a 5-minute email on the 2x / month with practical financial tips for tech professionals
3) Free guide: The Financial Planning for Procore Employees Whitepaper

📃Work With Me 1:1

See my featured section to schedule an intro call

____________________________

I've helped 125+ families simplify their money, build a plan for their stock and savings, and minimize taxes

I want to help YOU use your money to build the life you actually want

Ready?

Either shoot me a DM or book a time in my featured section

Joe Marshall

I don't want to be Forbes 30 under 30
I don't want to build a Fortune 500 company
I don't want to be a billionaire. 

I do want to create an awesome life for 
a) our clients
b) me and my family

That's enough

I exist so tech professionals don’t have to stress about money. I plan for them. I Founder @Coastal Capital Advisors I Girl Dad

My best investments last year:

1) Collin Strachan LI course. The ROI been simply nuts. Too high to calculate. Couple small tweaks turned our LI game from a faucet to a firehose

2) Limitless Advisor Coaching. 1 year MBA in running an advisory firm. Found out that we were doing a lot of the big things right, but had a bunch of room for improvement in our processes, mindset, etc. Gave us a great playbook for this year and beyond

3) Recurring contributions to a brokerage account. Every month, money automatically goes from our bank to our brokerage account. I try to increase the amount every year. I don't miss the money leaving, and having done this for 10+ years now, the growth is incredible

4) Family photos. This will not show up on our net worth statement, but doing family photos every year has been so worth it (even if I fought it initially)

---

I'm sure there's more, but these are the 4 that came to mind today. 

What about you?

Finance Director at DoorDash, 44
$320K salary + $150K RSUs this year / $4.3M total investments

Before

- $2.1M of their investments were  in just three individual companies (current and former jobs)
- Nearly everything else was still tech related
- The only consistent saving was 401k contributions and ESPP
- RSUs and ESPP were never sold, so they are piling up and only increases concentration.
- Tax bills were always a surprise 

Like a lot of people I talk with, they objectively realized they were doing well. But they wanted to be good stewards of their money and they realized they had been operating on autopilot for too long.

After

- Legacy stock: created a custom selling plan. Sold tax free and low gain lots first. Set time and price based rules for the rest so decisions were not emotional
- Backdoor Roth: added $40K per year of tax free retirement savings
- Tax planning: RSU taxes are now set aside as they vest, not guessed at next April
- RSU plan: sell at vest every time. Proceeds are split intentionally. Half goes to a brokerage account. The rest is divided between taxes and near term goals
- Existing investments: reduced single stock and tech exposure and reallocated into a broader mix of US and international stocks so their entire plan is not tied to one sector or one company

Results
- Savings rate increased from about 9% to over 25% without cutting spending
- Portfolio went from tech heavy and stock specific to more balanced across asset classes and sectors
- RSUs stopped being a source of anxiety and started funding real goals
Tax season is now boring, which is exactly how they want it

Takeaway
We didn't do anything fancy. This isn't something a tik tok finance guru is going to sell a course on.

We put structure around the money and income that was already there, and most importantly, made it simple. Life is busy enough as it is. Once the systems are in place, there's a lot of mental space freed up, and we simply execute against the plan. 

Better saving, fewer surprises, and now their plan doesn't solely depend on tech stocks always going up.

Truth is, I write on LinkedIn because I hope some of your will hire our firm.

I'm not here to sell a course or push a product. I’m here to connect with people who see the value in thoughtful, professional financial advice.

Yes, we charge a fee. It's not the cheapest. And our clients find it worthwhile.

Some people say you should do it all yourself. And that can work.

But many people prefer to delegate their finances to someone who:

- understands the full picture, not just the numbers
- offers steady, trusted advice when life happens
- handles the heavy lifting so they can focus their energy elsewhere

One client summed it up this way:

"You're the filter between me and all the noise."

---

Sure, you can manage your own finances. But if you'd rather spend your time and energy elsewhere, we're here to help.

2025 movie recap: I watched 139 movies in 2025, including 39 new releases.

Here’s my favorite 10 movies from 2025, in no particular order (except for Sinners, which was my absolute favorite).

Favorite - Sinners
Black Bag
Superman
F1
The Ballad of Wallis Island
Train Dreams
The Phoenician Scheme
One Battle After Another
Eddington
Freakier Friday (this movie is by far the weakest in this list, and I don't care. So entertaining, especially as someone who watched the 2004 movie way too many times as a kid). 

Honorable Mentions - Companion, Warfare, Friendship, The Running Man, Roofman, Wake Up Dead Man
---

A couple observations:

- Last year I was hopeful that 2025 was great. I don't know if I'd say it was great movie year (in hindsight, 2024 looks even better), but I had a great time at the movies.

- Didn't see as many movies as I'd like last year, both in theaters and in general. I don't necessarily have a movie "goal," but the fall was a little busier both professionally and personally so movie watching took a back seat.

- Saw 3 movies at the IMAX in Irvine, which is just nuts. 2 of the movies were great (Sinners and F1). Tron: Ares was not.

- Letterboxd is still fantastic

- Still behind on a couple big 2025 releases - most notably Avatar: Fire and Ash, Blue Moon, and It Was Just An Accident (and probably several others)

---

What did you see?

What did I miss?

Lately, I’ve been reviewing portfolios for tech employees who are "Triple Dipping."

- Their paycheck comes from Tech.
- Their RSUs are in Tech.
- Their "diversified" portfolio is 90% Tech.

There’s no question that this has worked extremely well over the past 15+ years.

The big question I have is, what if the next 15 years don’t look like the last 15?

If I were a part of a startup that was about to IPO, here’s how I’d plan for a 7 figure payday:

1) Taxes

To put it simply, if there's a big payday, there's going to be big taxes.

Before I make any big life decisions, I want to have an idea of
a) what the taxes are
b) how I'm going to pay them

I don't want to make big life decisions, then realize in 6-12 months that I messed up and owe the IRS 6 figures.

2) Sell

For me, I'd sell the majority and put the money into two buckets

Bucket 1 - set aside cash for big goals

For us, that would look like

- House down payment (Santa Barbara ain't cheap!)
- Definitely a nice trip 
- New surfboard (or 2, or 3)

Bucket 2 - Diversify

I don't want too much in any one stock. Sure, this hypothetical company could be the next Nvidia, but chances are it isn't.

And with a big payday, I know that investing in a diversified portfolio for the long term will lead to lots of options down the road.

3) Figure out how much I want to hold

Notice that I said sell most, not all!

I want to hold some - even if it isn't the textbook answer, I'd like to have some in case the company does take off.

But not so much that my family's entire financial future is riding on this one company.

Of course I will want to consider what I stand to earn in the future, through RSUs and ESPP (if applicable)

---

This is how I would plan for me and my family personally.

Obviously, everyone’s situation and goals are different.

The biggest thing is connecting the IPO to your life - not your coworkers or the media’s or your company executives.

Visiting my family in Boise this week - this morning we went tubing. Not a ton of snow but still so fun to take Cosy.

She was so sad when it was time to leave. She kept saying "again" over and over.

taplio

The Battle

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