Welcome to Highly Regulated!

Welcome to Highly Regulated!

Now...what the heck is this whole newsletter thing that you've signed up for?

First, off thank you everyone soooooo much for being along on this ride with me!!! I am beyond humbled that over 5,000 folks have already signed up for this newsletter. I don’t take this honor lightly and I promise I will do my best to help y’all as much as possible. It’s a wild ride out here so having other folks to commiserate with in the space is beyond helpful. I know that regulations and compliance as a theme sucks balls but if I can find some parts of it even a tiny bit exciting so can you.

Why am I writing a newsletter? I’m usually very critical of people who write newsletters. I think a lot of people use newsletters as a part of their own learning journey. Which…is problematic in certain areas…like regulations and compliance, which happens to be my forte. If you’re operating or functioning in any space that is highly regulated people will look to you for the expertise they lack and if you don’t actually know what the fuck you’re talking about it can be disastrous for your readers. If I can teach everyone something in each issue of this newsletter in a semi-humorous way I will be happy. (And hopefully so will my subscribers…)

Before I got into tech, I was all in on the legal world with a lot of that time focused on the regulatory space: I spent time at some of the best law schools and got a few degrees in law and economics while I was there, I clerked for an amazing judge who taught me everything I know about writing and law, I was the youngest partner at my law firm’s history, worked at Johns Hopkins University and other leading medical organizations on IP and lobbying, and I was a part of the team that handled the first-ever litigation surrounding cryptocurrency. I’ve only been in tech for a few years, and having had a professional career outside of tech gives me a unique perspective on what’s going on—especially as areas like crypto and AI are getting more interest from regulators. I also consult for many Fortune 500 companies on product development and launches so I also get to see a macro that most people in tech will never have access to.

Annnnnnd as some of you may know, I am also one of the General Partners at Vol. 1 Ventures, a pre-seed fund for operators in regulated spaces. This newsletter is also part of a larger media initiative for us at the fund.  More details on that soon as well as we continue to build out that part of the fund.

Basically, with all that in mind, and in the spirit of helping people stay safe, I’ve decided to create a newsletter about the inner workings of different regulated spaces and their oversight.

What should you expect? I’ll be publishing a newsletter each Thursday, and while the newsletter is called Highly Regulated, I’ll be covering other topics too - and have a snazzy lil' advice column to answer all the questions y'all send me. And as is the tradition in our house each newsletter will come complete with a playlist for your enjoyment. (Viola! Here’s this week’s playlist for y’all.)

I’ve done a lot of different stuff in my career—lobbying for crypto and women’s health companies, M&A transactions, running a company—and I want to touch on those topics and a bunch more. So, while most of the time we’ll be talking about regulation and compliance, we’ll also be talking about why you should shut down your company, why Americans don’t trust crypto, GAAP accounting as a moat, and a bunch more. All these things will be of interest to you if you’re also touching the regulatory space. (And whether we like it or not most of us have to deal with regulations.)

Why “Highly Regulated” as a name? Little known fact about me - I love Dan LeBetard (the sports writer/media personality for those of you who may not have grown up with ESPN as a babysitter.) Like, reaaaallllly LOVE his work. I watched every, single episode of his show “Highly Questionable” and absolutely idolize him and his Papi. This was the first show where I saw someone talk about the things they were passionate about in a way that allowed for moments of both humor and seriousness. We are all multi-faceted creatures and when we allow for those facets to shine I think we can all really grow. When I told my partner Ian that I was thinking about doing a newsletter, he texted me a few weeks later that he had a name for me: Highly Regulated. You can expect more than one throwback in each newsletter to Dan and Papi since I will remain forever indebted to them for their name and format.

What’s in it for you? This is the golden question. Well besides my amazing written words, I will be offering first come, first serve 1:1 office hours for subscribers each week. I’ll also be offering my subscribers the ability to join Vol. 1 Ventures’ exclusive community of founders, operators, and funders so that you can continue the discussion with one another and talk about me behind my back. There will also be some other cool stuff that I’m working on for everyone…but more on that in the coming weeks.

And so…

If you’re interested in doing an interview with me, you have a suggestion of someone you’d like for me to talk to, you have a suggested topic for me to cover, or you’re interested in sponsoring the newsletter – shoot me an email ([email protected]), and let's chat. 

I hope y’all are as excited as I am and I look forward to sharing more with you soon!!!

Until next week...

Stevie