Page 16 - Alumni Horae: Vol. 94, No. 3 Spring 2014

that simplify the various aspects of his existence.
“My proprietary access to deals and startups originally
came from having fans and readers on the executive
teams,” he says. “It was the content that opened the
doors. It was totally unexpected and hugely impactful
on my life path.”
We take an Uber – another company in which Tim was
an early advisor (now available in 70 cities around the
world, the Uber app connects
pedestrians with drivers
at the tap of a button) – to
downtown San Francisco and
Mint Plaza beside the Old
United States Mint, which
originally opened in 1854 to
serve the Gold Rush. Today,
the renovated outdoor space
is a meeting point for entre-
preneurs and investors to
discuss business over aspar-
agus pizza served out of a
wood-fired pizza truck.
Kevin Gibbon joins us at
the counter of Blue Bottle
Coffee, a Bay Area-based
coffee chain in which Tim is
also an investor. He’s here to
check in with Tim, who’s an
investor in and adviser to his
startup, Shyp.com, about its
public launch of a day earlier.
Kevin moved to San Francisco two years ago from
Vancouver, where he headed another startup.
“Tim’s been invaluable in advising companies at our
stage of development,” Kevin says. “His understanding
of market strategy is critical, and his knowledge of the
marketplace and his personal network help us synergize
with other startups in similar positions.”
Using predictive modeling, Shyp is an app that stream-
lines packaging and shipping both for the consumer and
the shipping company. Where many will stand in slow-
moving lines at the Post Office and grow frustrated with
the pace of service and unoccupied windows, entrepre-
neurs like Tim and Kevin identify opportunity.
Tim follows up with Kevin on the company’s numbers
over the past 24 hours, asking questions that will give
him the details to offer a more specific sense of just
how the market is responding to Shyp’s product. They’re
in a very delicate phase right now, and the future of the
company could break one way or another depending on
how the next few months play out.
Tim sits square to Kevin, his chin supported with an
Once again,
Tim is
simplifying
the process
by reducing
the friction
points.
I t’s been a busy week in the life of Tim Ferriss ’95. Basis
Science, a clothing company he’s invested in that
specializes in wearable technology, announced the
day before that it has been sold to Intel. That same
day, another company he’s advising, Shyp, made its
product public, after months of private beta testing.
And this morning, he’s using AngelList, an online portal
to connect investors, startups, and talent, to potentially
close a round of fundraising for yet another startup he’s
embraced, a food-delivery app called SpoonRocket.
For the moment anyway, he’s Tim Ferriss-the-angel-
investor, as opposed to Tim
Ferriss-the-best-selling-
author or Tim-Ferriss-the-
television-star. These roles
change many times over the
course of a typical day, often
suddenly.
I watch him type away on
a MacBook Pro at the kitchen
table in his recently renovated
house. The open living area
looks out onto a green space
that feels like anything but
the center of helter-skelter
San Francisco. Above the
entrance hallway hangs a
sign that reads “SIMPLICITY,”
which Tim says he acquired
from a shopkeeper outside of
Truckee, near Lake Tahoe, in
exchange for a signed copy of
one of his books.
As part of the recent move,
Tim has curated his stuff – “unloaded a lot of dross” –
and there’s plenty more still in boxes sitting in the
garage, waiting for Tim to decide its fate. This obser-
vation, along with the open and uncluttered state of
the house, reinforce the sign in the hallway: trend
toward simplifying above all else.
This theme rests not just at the center of how Tim
leads his life, but also lies at the very core of the book
on which he made his name. Originally published in
2007, The 4-Hour Workweek has sold over a million
copies in more than 35 languages worldwide, and
spent more than four years on The New York Times
best seller list.
Along with his two ensuing bestsellers, The 4-Hour
Body and The 4-Hour Chef, the book’s success put
Tim on the path to investing in early-stage startups
because many of his adopters are tech executives and
entrepreneurs who identify with Tim’s innovative
approach and emphasis on simplifying process. Even
today, Tim prefers to invest in companies that create
products to reduce friction points in his life, products
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