Sebastian Gensior

There’s a peculiar optimism embedded in the English language: pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. The phrase is now Silicon Valley gospel—synonymous with grit, frugality, and making something from nothing. Originally, though, it was a joke. A 19th-century absurdity. The physical act of lifting oneself by one’s

In Germany, there is a saying: "Wenn du Visionen hast, geh zum Arzt.” If you have visions, see a doctor. A punchline, yes, but also a worldview—orderly, sober, engineered for reliability. It's a good attitude for bridge-building or train schedules. But it’s a death sentence

In the courtship rituals of modern fundraising, there exists a peculiar form of digital simping: the obsessive fawning over “curated investor lists.” Like suitors armed with a Rolodex of names but no real intimacy, startups fire off pitches to anyone vaguely associated with a term sheet. It’s Tinder for

Dan Davies—veteran analyst, ex-regulator, and professional myth-buster—has written what might be the most depressingly accurate book of 2024: The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions—and How the World Lost Its Mind. It is, to put it politely, a masterclass in how large institutions manufacture stupidity

In drug development, most narratives hinge on averages—median survival times, mean biomarker expression, or standard response rates. Yet, breakthroughs often emerge from outliers, the rare patients who exhibit extraordinary therapeutic benefits. These individuals, known as super-responders, defy conventional expectations, revealing critical insights about a treatment’s potential and underlying

In startups, we talk a lot about vision. Less about volume. But execution—unglamorous, cumulative, occasionally boring—is what actually moves the needle. You don’t build momentum with a big idea. You build it by showing up. So this year, I set a target: 365 posts in 365 days.

There’s a certain kind of book that masquerades as a memoir but is, in fact, a manifesto. Will Guidara’s Unreasonable Hospitality is one of those books. On its surface, it’s about restaurants—about Guidara’s tenure at Eleven Madison Park, about turning a fine-dining establishment into the

In the grand cycle of corporate life, the pharmaceutical industry has mastered the art of layoffs while keeping its bottom line healthy. But where there’s crisis, there’s also opportunity—especially for the burgeoning species of career coaches. Once a niche profession, coaching has become a booming industry, thriving

Founders, let’s address a pervasive issue in biotech: the chronic neglect of financial metrics in pitch decks. Investors aren’t just looking for cutting-edge technology—they’re looking for a business. If your deck is a science lecture without a market strategy, you’re setting yourself up for failure.

Michael Lewis has made a career of peering behind the velvet curtain of capitalism and calmly announcing: “It’s mostly cardboard.” With the eye of a journalist, the wit of a satirist, and the instincts of a trader, he’s unpacked some of the most complex systems in finance, sports,