A $3,600 keyboard and a $66 million dollar investment

Hello friend,

Here's what I'm thinking about…

We just bought a majority stake in Serato, the leading DJ software company.

If you've ever been to a club, festival, or wedding reception in the last couple decades, you've likely danced to music played using Serato. It's the gold standard for DJs, from the unknowns in their dorm room to huge artists like Diplo.

If you're scratching your head wondering why Serato sounds so familiar, here's a few places you might recognize it from:

"You ain't got no fuckin' Yeezy in your Serato?" –Kanye West, "Dark Fantasy"

"Serato spinning while I'm dropping these verses" –Kendrick Lamar, "ELEMENT."

"Run through Serato like a marathon" –Jay Z, "Holy Grail"

I used to be a (very bad) DJ in my twenties (my DJ name was DJFKFC) so this is a particularly exciting acquisition for me.

Fortunately for Tiny and our investors, this is far from a nostalgic vanity purchase.

The business is remarkable:

• A 25 year track record of consistent growth, bootstrapped in New Zealand
• 35% compound annual growth rate on recurring revenue over the last five years
• Over 2 million users worldwide
• Impressive profitability with 34% EBITDA margins
• Deep integration with the best DJ hardware manufacturers

For those of you that are Tiny shareholders:

• The acquisition boosts Tiny's ARR by about 68% to between $64-66 million
• Increases our Adjusted EBITDA by approximately 45%

Serato is exactly the kind of business we love: a category-defining brand with a deeply passionate user base and long runway ahead. The founders and team in Auckland have built something truly special over 25 years, and I'm thrilled they chose us as their long-term home.

A warm welcome to AJ, Steve, Young, and the entire Serato team. We couldn't be more excited to have you join the Tiny family and we're looking forward to helping you take it to the next level.

PS: As part of this announcement, Tiny's Q4 results were also just announced. You can check out the results and all the details on the acquisition in the full press release here.

Like most of you, I read Jonathan Haidt's depressing book, The Anxious Generation, about how we are rotting the brains of the next generation by inundating them with glowing screens.

But I also occasionally listen to terrifying true crime about children being abducted (most recently this one about Michael Dunahee in my hometown - absolute nightmare fuel) and while I realize that my children are statistically more likely to have a jet engine fall on them from the sky than get abducted by a stranger, I sometimes get a bit anxious letting my kids roam free.

I've been resisting getting my eldest son a device, but I recently broke and bought him a Garmin Bounce. I figured abating my anxiety and letting him roam free was better than the opposite.

It's a neat little device. It's basically a super dumbed down smart watch that has a no-configuration-required cellular connection. They can only text or voice message you and anyone else you specify, and they can't install apps or do anything too distracting.

I've started sending my boys out on expeditions around the neighborhood and it's nice to be able to see their location or text them when I want them to head home.

They're about $220 on Amazon. A small price to pay for independent kids who play outside.

Last week, I recorded a fun episode with my friend Greg Isenberg on his Startup Ideas podcast.

We talk about:

• Why distribution is the new moat
• How to monetize niche communities with AI
• The case for buying media companies
• Whether data is still a true moat in the LLM era
• Why there should be a "Bank of Vibe Coders"

Listen here:

YouTube / Spotify / Apple Podcasts

I'm writing this newsletter on a keyboard that costs more than a MacBook Pro and an iPad Pro combined.

Yes, you read that correctly. A keyboard.

It was meticulously built in California by Norbauer & Co. — my old friend Ryan Norbauer's accidental little luxury keyboard empire.

The story of how this $3,600 object ended up on my desk runs through a chance L-train encounter in Chicago, an Enzo-Ferrari-of-keyboards passion project, and the visionary-integrator pattern I've used to fire myself out of every business I've ever started…

Read the full essay →

Do you like when the government sends you money?

Do you have a technology company that does research and development?

I'm astounded by how many entrepreneurs I meet who don't know about the Canadian government's SR&ED program.

Essentially, if you spend $100,000 on a Canadian salary for someone working on R&D, they'll give you 35% back as cash or a tax refund.

It was a huge help to us in the early days, but it's kind of confusing to navigate.

A few years ago, we bought a SRED consultancy called Entax who can help you.

You should hire them, they are amazing. Tell them I sent you.

I loved this recent fireside chat with venture capitalist Bill Gurley at The McCombs School of Business.

I've always been a fan of his, but since he retired he's been even more interesting and unfiltered than usual.

My favorite line:

"Good judgement comes from experience, which comes from bad judgement"

Watch the talk here

PS: If you haven't checked it out, I also highly recommend his bi-weekly podcast with Brad Gerstner, B2GPod.

Random Stuff:

• Chris and I are very flattered to be named the 2025 Entrepreneurs of The Year by the University of Victoria business school. They're doing a big event for it, so if you're in Victoria, we'd love to see you there on June 10th. Tickets here.

• If you live in Victoria, Cafe Malabar, my favorite Indian restaurant, just opened a new location. It's mind bogglingly good and you should go eat there.

• I have a very annoying problem: I primarily work from cafes, and many cafe owners do their best to foil people like me and have removed power plugs. I am happy to report that I've outsmarted them thanks to my Anker Power Bank. It's basically a portable battery that I keep in my backpack and it gives me an extra 2 hours or so of battery life.

• Another backpack upgrade: my friend Matt Mullenweg told me about these amazing Baseus Retractable USB-C cables. My backpack used to be a rats nest of charging cables, but now I just have a few of these little circular USB pucks. When you're done, you just give them a tug and they automatically retract. Very slick!

That's all for now…

-Andrew