Delian Asparouhov

Delian Asparouhov is a Principal at Founders Fund. The fund’s portfolio includes notable positions in SpaceX, Palantir, Stripe, Facebook, Airbnb, Affirm, Spotify, Figma, Postmates, Oscar, The Athletic, and Eight Sleep.

Before joining Founders Fund, he was a principal at Khosla Ventures, head of growth at Teespring, and founder of a healthcare company called Nightingale.

On the first hour of his day.

I’m usually up around 8 AM most days. My girlfriend starts work a bit earlier than me, so she’s basically my alarm clock.

Shortly after I wake up, I take my dog out for a 30-minute walk. I live in the northwest tip of San Francisco, so I’m a 20-minute walk from the Presidio. Living this close to the park has been a blessing, especially during quarantine.

It’s drastically improved my quality of life. 

I leave my apartment around 8:45 and reach the Founders Fund office around 9. I live 3 blocks from the office so walking is a great way to start the day.

On the walk to the office, I’ll typically throw on a podcast or audiobook to get my mind going. Once I’m at my desk, I dive into email triage and Twitter.

On his daily content diet.

I’d say about 80% of my information comes from Twitter. 

In the morning, I’ll run through my feed quickly and start exploring articles that grab my attention.

I’m constantly trying to discover fresh perspectives and novel ideas.

In terms of long-form books, there are three categories that I gravitate towards.

The first is nonfiction: the types of books that everyone in the Valley and Twitter tend to rave about. The second is sci-fi: my all-time favorite is probably Liu Cixin’s Three-Body Problem trilogy. The third is historical non-fiction: books focused on WW1 or WW2 that lend a novel perspective on life in the 1930s and 1940s are particularly fascinating to me.

On structuring flow state.

There are definitely some fixed variables that help me fall into flow.

I prefer a big, quiet room that’s isolated and well-lit.

Writing in cafes is also something that I enjoy, but given the current environment, I find myself heading into the office to write. Luckily it’s a beautiful place that directly enhances my clarity of thought and ability to write well.

To get into a consistent flow state, you really do have to train yourself and be pretty disciplined. I watch my girlfriend, who’s a writer, regularly get into the flow.

That inspires me on a daily basis.

One of my goals right now is to produce long-form content across multiple mediums on a consistent cadence.

To do so, I’m really focused on refining my ability to get into flow.

On evaluating startup talent.

Experience and growth trajectory are two key variables. 

If someone has had a decade’s worth of tech experience, it’s important to question what got them there.

For me, there are three questions that I always consider.

First, have they only been in one particular kind of role? Second, have they proactively jumped around, tried different things, and grown in those professions? Third, have they pushed themselves out of their comfort zone? 

When evaluating new hires, it’s critical that you understand not only why somebody was in a particular role, but what they hoped to get out of it and how they grew in the process.

I love jamming to people who jumped career paths previously unknown to them — and then absolutely dominated that new field over time.

On his evening routine.

Most days, I’ll start to wind down around 9 PM after dinner with my girlfriend.

At that point, I do my best to shut down screen time as much as possible.

When I’ll dive into a book, I’ll pull out my kindle or a physical copy and avoid my phone in the process. As you probably can tell on Twitter, I’m an investor in Eight Sleep and a huge advocate for optimized sleep.

On that front, not only was there little innovation across the sleep health market, but there’s also a huge growth opportunity for temperature-controlled sleep.