About Me

‍Hi, I’m Daniel Scrivner.

I’ve been writing at DanielScrivner.com about investing, decision making, and continuous improvement since 2004. I’m an award-winning brand and product designer that's worked for Apple, Square, Nike, and Disney. I started angel investing more than a decade ago and have invested in more than 100+ startups including Notion, Public.com, and Filecoin.

I've interviewed the world's most iconic founders and investors including Luke Gromen, Scott Belsky, Gokul Rajaram, Brian Scudamore, and more for Outlier Academy. I’m also known for my popular Friday 5 Newsletter, which is sent out each week to more than 25,000 subscribers. Click here to learn more and sign up.

You can find me elsewhere on Twitter and LinkedIn.

How My Work Will Benefit You

I'm an advocate for useful ideas. The central questions I explore through my work is, “How can we learn the best of what others have mastered? And how can we become the best possible version of ourselves?” In other words, I want to find great ideas and explain them in a way that is easy to use and apply in daily life.

My writing focuses on topics like…

How to make good choices and avoid bad ones
How to accomplish more in less time
How to master the art of investing
How to build defining and durable companies
How to achieve meaningful results without overwhelming yourself

Most of all, I write about how to put these ideas into practice in daily life.

Most of the concepts I write about aren’t my own. They are ideas I discover and build upon after many hours of reading and research. I look for insights from all fields: design, biology, economics, history, mathematics, physics, nature, philosophy, and more. I consider it my job to find the best ideas and explain them in ways that are actionable and easy-to-understand.

Humankind progresses by adding to our shared body of knowledge. We all benefit from the insights of our ancestors. I like the idea of leaving a great “intellectual inheritance,” and I’m trying to add a little bit of knowledge to the pile by creating this website and sharing my work.

I don't claim to have all the answers and I still have a lot to learn, but I'm happy to share what I've discovered so far. My work isn’t the only way to think about life, but it’s how I think about it. Hopefully, you’ll find it useful as well.

You can start by reading my articles or book summaries.

Here are a few notable things about me…

Investor in more than 100 companies. Founder of Ligature: The Design VC.

Early investor in Doordash, Notion, Public.com, Good Eggs, and Anduril.
Focus on Pre-Seed through Series A investments.
Add value through hands-on help with everything "design."

Creator of danielscrivner.com and the popular Friday 5 newsletter.

Over 50 articles published.
More than 150 audio and video interviews.
More than 1 million visitors per year to danielscrivner.com.

Founder and host of the global hit podcast Outlier Academy.

Interview outlier founders, investors, and thinkers.
Guests include Oscar winners, iconic founders, and NYT bestselling authors.
Top 1% of podcasts globally by downloads.

Award-winning brand and product designer for global brands.

Apple
Square
Nike

Founder of the global conservation and wildlife fund Wildside.

Each year, I give 5% of all profits to our charity partner, Wildside.
Wildside's mission is to fund the most impactful and daring conservation, preservation, rewilding, and connection with nature focused projects.
To date, we’ve given away more than $150,000 in grants.