Washington State is commonly associated with tech giants Microsoft and Amazon. I guess what you didn’t know is that Washington happens to be the second largest producer of wine in the USA (after California of course), and in my marginally humble opinion, is also among the best value regions in the world. Washington is great for cycling as well, and combining both is one of my favorite summer activities: wine tasting bike tours! With over 1000 wineries producing 80 varieties of wine, there are plenty of opportunities to pedal for miles between tastes of excellent vino.

Hi Reader, I’m Will Poole, Co-founder of Capria, now on career #3.

I was first a software developer turned serial entrepreneur. Serial because I had 2 failures of the first 4 startups, but the 4th was a big win - we were pioneers in ecommerce and sold to Microsoft in 1996. Career #2 was running various businesses within the then-most-profitable-ever software company, culminating with its most profitable product, the Windows desktop OS. Career #3 is early stage and early growth investing across the Global South.

In the past three decades of working with startups big and small, investing in and mentoring early stage founders is the passion I’m focused on for the foreseeable future. A few bits of advice I’ve provided to founders in the past two years include:

• How ‘only the decisive will survive’
• Why every founder should define and revisit “Acquisitions through growth” of their product.

The funding winter will test the resilience and grit of founders. Many of today’s IPOd tech companies were born during downturns. Founders who navigated tough times creatively have built some of the world’s best companies. One of the strategies for high growth is ‘acquisitions’. Take 11 minutes to read my most recent article “The Dilemma of Every Startup Founder: Acquire, Be Acquired, or What Else?”