muhammad

MUHAMMAD

/NOW

MUHAMMAD

ALTALIB

Something about yourself

Last updated: 14/10/2024

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Hi,

Welcome to my page. This is a place I use to dump resources I find interesting, sometimes with my added thoughts or commentary. The goal is to have a good set of first principles that can set the foundation for how I make decisions in my life.

PRESENT

Product Owner at Cur8 Capital

Solving problems using technology. I do this by specialising as a ‘product owner’. This means I do everything in the process of building a digital product except for code. I currently work as a product owner at IslamicFinanceGuru empowering the next 1.6 billion Muslims to reach financial parity.

PREVIOUS

VC Principle at Cur8.VC

Investing in people solving problems using technology.

I do this by specialising as an ‘angel investor’ investing my own money alongside others into people looking to solve new problems (sometimes called a ‘startup’).

I currently work with an amazing team at Cur8.VC, personally being responsible for 100+ early-stage investments with 2 exits (and 2 failures).

Founder at Seedlink Africa

Founder at Seedlink. Bringing Malawi’s 10 million small scale farmers into the formal economy through fair prices and finance. My first ‘proper’ startup. Backed by the University of Cambridge and Barclays. Worked with over 100,000 farmers and was profitable at its peak. Closed down because the business model ended up making us physical commodity traders which is not a tech business (nor is scalable without large amounts of working cash).

FAVOURITES

(in no particular order)

For career and what to do in life read these:

  1. Wait But Why on Picking a Career

  2. Erik Storenberg blogpost on Personal Moats

  3. Erik Storenberg blogpost on Career as a Product

  4. Naval’s Podcast "How to get rich without getting lucky all episodes"

  5. Vinod Khosla on the Art and Science of Recruiting:

  6. Marc Andreeson's Guide to Career Planning parts 1-4

  7. Michael Siebal Letter to College Students

For startups and investing:

  1. Paul Graham's how to get startup ideas

  2. Spearhead Podcast by Naval

  3. Rational VC Micro investor

  4. How to spend you time Y-combinator

  5. Patient, Concentrated Stock Picking by Junto

On independent thinking / how to have good judgement / making decisions in life / general mental models:

  1. Farnam Street’s Mental Models

  2. Nassim Taleb's Incerto Series

  3. Poor Charlie's Almanac

  4. Wikipedia’s page on list of fallacies (teaches you how to tell a sound argument from the appearance of one, e.g. straw man fallacy)

On how to live a good life:

  1. Surely You’re Joking Mr Feynman! (Audiobook) - Richard Feynman

  2. One Blade of Grass - Henry Shukman

  3. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M. Pirsig

  4. Man’s Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl

  5. Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer

  6. War, Tribe, Freedom - Sebastian Junger

  7. The Rational Optimist - Matt Ridley

For how to reach the top of the cupboard when you’re 70:

  1. Longevity...Simplified - Howard Luks

  2. Becoming a Supple Leopard - Kelly Starrett, Glen Cordoza

  3. Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat - Samin Nosrat

  4. Total Immersion Swimming - Terry Laughlin

  5. Everyday CARS

  6. Stronglifts 5×5 - Mehdi

Made on mmm