Delivered January 10, 2025 @ 5:00pm ET

Happy Friday everyone and Happy Holidays! My name is Gerry Hays, and I’m the Founder of Doriot.

I’m actively in the venture game as a Founder/CEO, investor, researcher, inventor, author, game designer, and professor. I’ve built companies and developed a global venture portfolio entirely from the great state of Indiana, all while teaching over 6,000 undergraduates and MBAs at Indiana University, as well as in Croatia, Hong Kong, Slovenia, and Singapore.

I’m devoting the rest of my career to breaking open the gates of venture capital and expanding opportunity beyond an elite few. The future doesn’t shape itself — we need more entrepreneurs and investors willing to step up and create the world we want to live in. This won’t happen through endless complaints or empty rhetoric. It happens with bold action and strategic capital.

A critical part of this mission is training the mind to both imagine and tolerate calculated risks — the two essential ingredients for innovation. Without mastering this mental game, the foundation of venture collapses. That’s why, in this newsletter, I place such a strong emphasis on developing the mindset required to succeed in this space.

If you’re enjoying this newsletter and think others in your network would too, I’d be grateful if you forwarded it along and encourage them to subscribe. And, with 10 referred subscribers, I’ll autograph a copy of my first book, the First-time Founder’s Equity Bible and ship it to you!

It’s 2025!

Okay, it might be a little late to blow the New Year’s party kazoo since I took a few weeks off to recharge, but I’m super excited to see what 2025 brings! With so many things happening on multiple fronts and so much change coming at once, it can feel overwhelming. So, I thought I’d explore the one hack that can help you overcome just about anything life throws your way. Enjoy!

The Hack of 2025: Transforming Pride into Courage

Angela Anaïs Nin once said, “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” 

In the final edition of 2024, I discussed the concepts of weak vs. strong attractors. One of the strong attractors is Courage. One of the weak attractors is Pride. Today, let’s explore how courage and pride intersect — and diverge — and why the ultimate “hack” of 2025 is to let go of pride and embrace courage.

But what does it truly mean to be courageous? Is it really a hack? Not exactly. Courage is a skill — a muscle — to be nurtured like anything else.

Defining Courage and Pride

According to Merriam-Webster, Courage is the “mental or moral strength to face danger, fear, or difficulty.” Pride, on the other hand, is defined as “reasonable self-esteem” or “confidence and satisfaction in oneself.”

While both might seem positive on the surface, they pull us in opposite directions.

Pride tells us to play it safe. Stick to what’s predictable, what’s reliable. Pride says, “You’ve got a reputation to uphold. What would people think if you failed? Better to stay in your lane.” Pride shrinks your world, keeping you from taking risks, launching new ideas, or saying the words that truly matter. Prideful people measure themselves against others.

Courage, however, is the gateway to progress, innovation, and growth. Without courage, life becomes smaller and smaller as we age. But with courage, life expands. It’s not about always winning; it’s about listening to the pull of your heart and soul — those moments when every fiber of your being begs you to take the leap. Courageous people lift each other up.

You are already courageous!

The good news? Everyone has demonstrated courage at some point. Think back to a time you took a risk — stepping outside your comfort zone, starting a new job, traveling to an unfamiliar place, or being absolutely transparent with someone. Those moments required courage, and the rewards were often growth, clarity, or accomplishment.

Each courageous act builds on the last, creating a cycle of discovery and expansion. It’s a pathway to self-empowerment as we grant ourselves the agency to act, try new things, learn from experiences, and sharpen the skills to improve our lives. Saying yes to something new in the face of uncertainty is, at its core, the essence of growth and achievement. As General George S. Patton famously said: “Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.”

We often fail to credit ourselves for the courage we show daily. So start by recognizing the courage in others. Compliment someone for their bravery. Acknowledging others’ courage not only encourages them but also reinforces the value of courage in your own life. This is why entrepreneurs share such a powerful bond. It takes immense courage to launch a company and put yourself in a position where the world can sit back, watch, and critique your every move. And this why the Man in the Arena is such a power quote by Teddy Roosevelt.

Remember: courage isn’t the absence of fear — it’s moving forward in spite of it. And as you choose courage over pride, your world will expand in ways you never imagined.

Good luck!

Will Trump Democratize Private Markets or Court Disaster?

The 2024 election is being regarded as the cycle where the cryptocurrency industry imposed its will on American politics. We now have the most crypto-friendly Congress in history and a crypto-friendly President.

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Paul Atkins, known for his pro-crypto stance, as Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). With this move, the cryptocurrency industry — led by companies like Coinbase — is seeking a regulatory structure tailored to its unique needs. Such a framework would allow the industry to grow and innovate without the looming threat of SEC prosecution.

But the critical question remains: how will the SEC proceed in creating this new regulatory structure? It's a question no one can — or is willing to — answer definitively. However, the future of this structure will likely hinge on one pivotal issue: the new definition of an Accredited Investor.

The Lynchpin: Accredited Investor Definition

The definition of an Accredited Investor is the linchpin for so much more than just crypto. One small change could completely reshape the venture landscape, shifting it from being gated to one that is fully decentralized and democratized.

A Quick History

The SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) is described as a federal agency responsible for overseeing the securities industry. A security is an investment contract where an individual provides capital with the expectation of profit based on the efforts of others, such as a founder or CEO.

One of the main objectives of the SEC is to protect investors — full stop. In public markets, this is achieved through mandatory disclosure. Companies trading on the NYSE, for example, must routinely disclose all material information, and corporate officers are prohibited from trading on non-public information to ensure market transparency and fairness.

Private capital markets, however, operate under a different framework. Here, the SEC does not require full disclosure because the securities are often unregistered. Instead, the SEC regulates access to private markets through the Accredited Investor Rule, which is designed to limit participation to individuals presumed to have the financial sophistication to bear higher risks. In other words, only Accredited Investors can typically participate in these markets.

Under current regulations, an Accredited Investor is defined as:

• An individual earning more than $200,000 annually (or $300,000 jointly with a spouse) in the last two years with the expectation of meeting this income threshold in the current year, or

• An individual with a net worth exceeding $1 million, excluding their primary residence.

This threshold restricts private market access to roughly 5-10% of the U.S. population.

Additionally, unregistered securities face significant restrictions in secondary markets under rules SEC rules which impose conditions on their resale. These restrictions aim to prevent widespread trading that could circumvent the registration process and undermine investor protections.

For decades, entrepreneurs have turned to Regulation D as the go-to framework for raising private capital from Accredited Investors. Regulation D offers exemptions from SEC registration while imposing specific safeguards to protect investors, such as restricting general solicitation and requiring issuers to verify the Accredited status of participants. When companies are ready to transition to public markets and make their shares available for trading, they typically file an Initial Public Offering (IPO) to register their securities with the SEC.

Outgoing SEC Chair Gary Gensler has consistently emphasized that Regulation D is the proper regulatory pathway for many cryptocurrencies, which he argues meet the legal definition of securities. However, the cryptocurrency industry has resisted Regulation D’s restrictions, particularly the limitations on public trading of tokens, who can participate, and the need for disclosures.

The cryptocurrency industry wants the ability to raise capital by issuing tokens to any purchaser that can then trade instantly on exchanges like Coinbase. However, this would require a fundamental overhaul of the existing securities framework.

The Trump Administration’s Choices

The Trump administration faces two potential paths forward:

1. Classify All Cryptocurrencies as Commodities
   This approach would classify all cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, as commodities rather than securities, effectively placing them outside the SEC’s jurisdiction. While this would bypass SEC oversight, it would likely undermine investor protections — a fundamental SEC responsibility — and mark a significant departure from established regulatory precedent, including what is or isn’t a security.

2. Overhaul Regulation D
   This approach would involve allowing unregistered securities to be traded more freely and revisiting the Accredited Investor criteria. One option could be to eliminate the Accredited Investor designation altogether, instead capping private capital investments at 10% of an individual’s net worth — a move that would abandon nearly a century of regulatory precedent. Alternatively, it could introduce an education-based qualification pathway, such as an exam, to broaden participation while maintaining investor protections. (For context, Doriot has applied to the SEC on two separate occasions to have its programs approved to serve this purpose.)

Whatever path is chosen, one thing is certain: the new regime is poised to drive unprecedented democratization and decentralization in private capital markets. This shift could fundamentally reshape the venture ecosystem, redefining how capital flows to innovative projects.

Our stance is clear — this is the right direction. However, opening the floodgates to the high-risk private markets without implementing some form of educational qualification borders on recklessness. Think about it: more than 300,000 “FINRA Licensed” financial advisors exist to guide millions through the public markets. In the private capital markets, there’s no equivalent. No regulated advisory infrastructure. No safety net.

If we’re serious about creating a sustainable and equitable system, we need more than access; we need accountability. A robust framework that ensures participants understand the risks is not just responsible — it’s essential. There’s a lot of work ahead, but anything less would undermine the very principles of democratization we aim to achieve.

A New Deal Analysis Dropping Next Week: Jupiter on Wefunder.

Jupiter is on a mission to make it ridiculously easy to get your meals on the table. For the 80M shoppers who use recipes from publishers to build grocery shopping lists, Jupiter is turning digital recipe inspiration into grocery action. 

Backed by Y Combinator, Khosla Ventures, and NFX - the investors behind Instacart, Impossible Foods and DoorDash - Jupiter is connecting consumers, food publishers, and grocery brands like never before, helping food publishers unlock the $250B online opportunity in the $830B grocery market.

Have a great 2025 Everyone!

Sincerely, -gerry ([email protected])