I hope you're having a good start to the year.

And if you're not, that's ok, just hit "restart."

One of the best moves I've made over the years is giving myself some leeway at the beginning of the year to test out new habits/routines to ensure they fit.

There's nothing worse than trying to be perfect and failing and then allowing that to derail your progress. Or sticking to new habits/goals that you realize you actually don't want.

It's ok to use the first couple weeks of January (or the entire month) to refine your plans, routines and actions. It's certainly much better to do this than to quit by week 3 or 4 because your plans were too aggressive or just "wrong."

Cut yourself some slack and have fun with it. Remember, life is just a game.

The more you realize this, the more successful you're likely to be.

✅ Today's Checklist:

• 13 bold predictions for 2025
• How to know if you have a strong brand
• The perfect morning smoothie

 

Skiing over the holidays in Chamonix, France.

If you don't take risks under your own name, and put yourself out there with the chance to fail…are you even living?

I don't believe so.

Thus, these are a handful of my bold predictions for 2025…giving me ample opportunity to look stupid 12 months down the road. Here they are:

1. 💤 "Waking-up without an alarm" will become the new cold plunge as people recognize that the simplest way to prevent against neuro-degeneration & brain disease is increasing your REM sleep (the highest percentage of which occurs in the hour or two before your body naturally wakes-up).

2. 🧠 The s*xiest personal trait will be seen as unadulterated authenticity - in a world of sameness, those who stand-out by being 100% themselves will not only produce the most interesting work & ideas, but will also be seen as the most courageous & attractive.

3. 🌟 As a result of the "Age of Authenticity" comparing yourself to others will become less cool than ever - like having halitosis at a cocktail party. Enlightened individuals will become more ok with being whoever the f**k they are (excepting any harm to others), leading to a rise in contentment, innovation and beautiful art for those who recognize this.

4. 📊 The M&A & IPO market will be the strongest it's been since 2021 - the reduction in interest rates will not be as strong as anticipated but their softening will still yield a favorable environment (or excuse) for larger growth-hungry enterprises to acquire the innovation they desire which startups are much better suited to create.

5. 💰 The more active M&A & IPO markets will lead to a bump in LP liquidity causing VC fundraising to increase by double digit percentages after a tight past few years. This will be a fortunate occurrence as 2025 will be one of the best VC vintages (especially in consumer) of the past 25 years.

6. 🍎 A 20%+ increase in non-diabetic individuals tracking their blood sugar levels through either quarterly blood tests (basic) or continuous glucose monitors aka CGMs (advanced) as a result of our increased understanding that one's metabolic health is one of the best predictors of future disease and mental decline. Note: 96 million Americans are pre-diabetic and 80% of them don't know it.

7. 🗣️ The top audience-building hacks will move away from convincing people of your aptitude through statements such as "Hey these are all of my accomplishments & experiences you can trust me" to more honest and relatable content such as "Hey these are all of the stupid things I've done and continue to do and these are the horrible things that have happened to me but even a blind squirrel like me finds a nut sometimes and this is how I've found mine in hopes that you will too."

8. 🚀 This will be the best year ever to start a business (until next year, which will be even better). While the macro AI race will continue to be dominated by global behemoths, the output of this race will be lower barriers of entry to build the company and solve the problem(s) you want to and are uniquely positioned to solve. New ARR creation per employee will hit record highs.

9. 🤖 Investment & innovation in AI will continue to explode as will the counter-balance of being (or becoming) human. As AI makes our lives better by automating drudgery and removing many of the tasks previously only-humans could do…it will push us to explore the depths of what it means to be human, leading to a notable uptick in demand for:

• In-person experiences (experiential travel, social fitness, dinner parties, masterminds, events, coffee meetings)
• Office leases (this will not get back to pre-pandemic levels but people will realize more and more that part of the purpose of work is to prevent loneliness and for this to materialize IRL collaboration is a requirement)
• AI-enablement services (because humans still need to guide the AI)
• Art-classes and anything that inspires humans to become more of themselves (and create what only they can create)
• Versatility and the well-rounded life (we are recognizing that hyper-specialization is best reserved for AI and are also entering the "Age of the Generalist" where balance and aptitude across all key areas of life is meaningfully more respected & preferred over dominance & greatness in one)

10. 🥩 Ingredients that will have ridiculously strong years in 2025 & beyond:

• Beef tallow
• Nicotine
• Ketones
• Organ meats
• A2 dairy
• Fiber (and/or ingredients that help maintain blood sugar levels)
• Artificial-free (not an ingredient but you know what I mean)
• Stem cells ;)

11. 🌱 There will be a 3-5x increase in Venture Capital firms that announce programs and initiatives associated with founder health due to either (i) recognition that it's ultra important to the success of their investments or (ii) it's required for them to get into the right deals with the right founders in the first place

12. 🌀 There will be a continued flow of investment and as a result meaningful growth & innovation in the following areas (sub-themes I'm ultra-bullish on):

• Frontier longevity therapies
• Personalized wellness
• Post-GLP1
• Fertility
• Fan economy
• Humanization of pet
• Professional networks
• Solutions-as-a-Service
• Bridging the digital-physical gap
• Aging population care + quality of life
• AI co-pilots & agents across virtually all workstreams

13. 🌊 Founderland on October 9th in Malibu, CA will wow.

Why let borders block your growth?

Deel turns the entire world into your talent pool—no legal nightmares, no tax meltdowns, just seamless hiring in 150+ countries.

Contracts, compliance, payroll? Handled.

You focus on building the empire, Deel handles the boring stuff.

👉 Scale Smarter. Hire with Deel.

 

There are few differentiators more powerful than having a strong brand.

So how do you know if you have one?

Your business has:

• Lower CAC (Cost of Acquiring Customers), and
• Higher repeat purchase rates

— Than your competition (and industry averages).

If you don't have these metrics, you do not (yet) have a strong brand.

• 2-3 cups of Califia unsweetened almond milk (not-pictured)
• 1.5 scoops of Momentous vanilla whey protein powder (~30g)
• 1 scoop of Momentous creatine monohydrate (5g)
• ¼ cup A2 organic whole milk yogurt (A2 dairy contains only the A2 beta-casein protein making it easier to digest)
• One scoop ~5g of organic ground flaxseed (plant-based Omega 3s)
• One scoop ~5g of organic psyllium husk (fiber to lower cholesterol - has worked remarkably well for me, like a natural statin especially when combined with red yeast rice)
• One giant spoonful of almond butter (flavor, protein, quality fat blend)
• 10 organic blueberries and 5 organic raspberries (antioxidants, flavor and some low-glycemic carbohydrates)

🤝 Let's Connect: Here's my LinkedIn and Twitter/X for more tips & content on how founders can achieve better performance, accumulate more wealth & experience greater freedom.

💬 Reminder: If you want to join us in Los Angeles for founder workouts, please let me know by replying to this email with "Sign me up for FounderIV workouts" and I'll put you on the list.

↩️ Feedback: Have any recommendations for what you'd like to see in this newsletter to help you improve your performance, freedom and/or wealth? Let me know by replying directly to this email. I'd love to hear from you.

That's it for this week. See you next Thursday.

Let's roll,

SPK 🎙️