Feldman's Faves: May 24, 2022

GOOD MORNING EVERYONE

I hope you all had a great May 24 weekend – at least yesterday was glorious. I think we all really needed it. The theme this week is fun and games.

HELLO, MOLLY! A MEMOIR – By: Molly Shannon – Molly Shannon is a SNL legend – one of the funniest people to ever be on that show. Her most famous character, Marie Katherine Gallagher, like almost all of her characters come from her very unique childhood experience (yes she did go to Catholic school). Shannon’s life started in tragedy when at four years old she was in a car accident that killed her mother, her baby sister and her cousin. She and her older sister Mary were raised by her dad who was facing many of his own demons – including alcoholism and undeclared homosexuality - and which made her childhood, although one of deep love from her dad, also one of major drama and an unconventional existence (her dad would tell not to study but rather to find a way to cheat so she could do well in school). But through this childhood Shannon learned how to be vulnerable, how to take MAJOR risks (like at 11 years old, sneaking on a plane from Cleveland to New York and succeeding, many shoplifting adventures or pretending when she was starting out in Hollywood that she was a David Mamet prodigy to various agents (which couldn’t be verified)). While Shannon’s career path is fascinating and legendary, the main focus of the book is how the death of her mother and her relationship with her father shaped every aspect of her life. What is so interesting is how as she got older and began to understand her dad’s struggles and spoke to him about them, she learned so much and became an incredibly empathetic and understanding human being. I “read” this book as an Audiobook, which is narrated by Shannon herself and I strongly suggest you go this route if you are interested in this book – she is just lovely and highly entertaining. Here’s a good review from the NYT - https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/10/books/review-hello-molly-shannon-memoir.html

How I Built This with Guy Raz - Strava: Mark Gainey and Michael Horvath – As I have discussed with many of you before, no kid grows up saying, “Gee, one day I hope to become an endurance athlete”. However, as the body starts to break down, we tend to move away from basketball, squash, tennis and hockey towards running, biking and perhaps even CrossFit (who is owned by our client Berkshire Partners so please join….). For many of you that are in this world (like me) but continue to have a competitive streak (but an uncompetitive body…) , there is nothing better than Strava, a phenomenal tool that (in theory) lets you build a “community” of similarly minded “athletes” and communicate with each other, but also allows people to “pick a target” and compete. This PODCAST tells the story of Strava and how two buddies from Harvard (one of whom worked at our client TA Associates) came up with this awesome product. Here is an excerpt from the PODCAST itself: “Mark Gainey and Michael Horvath were two friends from college with a good idea and bad timing: in 1995, they set out to create a digital community where athletes could chart their progress and actively compete with one another. But it was just too early: software engineers said it couldn't be built, and investors didn't want to take the risk. So the two founders wound up launching an entirely unrelated business, one that was so perfectly timed that it led to a successful IPO a few years later. Still, Michael and Mark couldn't shake their original idea, and in 2008, they launched a website where cyclists could map and monitor their rides, and compete with riders across the country. The prototype was clunky—Mark jokes that "we wanted to make it as hard to use as possible"—but the timing was perfect, and Strava was born. Today, it’s a mobile app used by 100 million athletes in nearly 200 countries around the world”: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?i=1000558402553

Thank you for your ongoing engagement and participation.

And remember to stay safe, stay healthy and to docket daily.

Jon