2025 was a truly incredible year of growth.  As I wrote at the end of 2024 in last year’s letter, I had closed out that amazing year in Kerala, India in a very spiritual place and set my 2025 intentionality to be focused on the inner journey.  I certainly made that intention a reality, reading 55 books on consciousness, AI, quantum physics, and spirituality.  I also decided to write two books in 2025.  The first is The Lattice, my positive science-fiction novella covering the years 2030-2085 to process what I had learned about our reality.  I finished writing it on September 7th, just 1012 days since the launch of ChatGPT, and self-published it on Amazon shortly after.  My second was more ambitious and is titled Love Conquers Fear: Humanity, AI, and the Age of Abundance for All.  It’s a manifesto for humanity to make it to Abundance in this exponential of exponential curves that we all find ourselves in. I ’m working with a publisher, the Do More Good movement, for Love Conquers Fear, which is finished, in editing, and will be released in the first half of this year.  JD Messinger is the Executive Director of Do More Good and also the author of 11 Days in May, one of my favorite spiritual books (I loved it so much I listened to it on Audible twice in 2025.)  It feels good to work with a publisher that really gets me. I’m also working with my long-time editor, David Judson, who partnered with me on my first book, The Entrepreneur’s Essentials. He’s an amazing friend and a true intellectual thought partner.

I also decided to launch a podcast, Love Conquers Fear, to explore with friends, including JD Messinger, how humanity will make it to Abundance.  I launched it on September 24, the second day of Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year).  As of today, 29 episodes of Love Conquers Fear have been released.  To mark the beginning of 2026, I decided to read The Lattice as an audio and video book on the podcast as a gift to all of my subscribers.  I’m fully booked to record new episodes through the end of February, and I’ve already recorded 36 episodes as of today.  The podcast line-up coming throughout 2026 is incredible.  I’ve been learning a lot and it has enhanced the Love Conquers Fear book as well.  It is going to take the best of humanity for us to make it to Abundance together.

I get asked a lot about book recommendations, and I cover so many in each episode of the podcast. These are detailed in the show notes on YouTube or on the LoveConquersFear.org website. Episode 1 also distills many books as I discuss my beliefs on our reality and how love needs to conquer fear for us to make it to the Age of Abundance for All. Jacob Salamon, one of my best friends who used to work with me at Bazaarvoice, is the COO of Love Conquers Fear and has been serving as my podcast producer, social media manager, and much more! I’m very thankful for him showing up to help after becoming a fan of the podcast and mission.

The many letters of support I’ve received for both The Lattice and the Love Conquers Fear podcast have been very encouraging ever since their launch.  If you feel behind in diving into the podcast with 29 episodes out, don’t worry.  The goal is to get to a body of episodes for each listener’s interests, and it isn’t intended to be a podcast where you feel like you have to listen to all of the episodes (although some do).  I’m intentionally having a very wide-range of guests to explore how we make it to Abundance, from entrepreneurs, investors, scientists, and spiritual teachers.  You’ll find it to be very unique, bringing science and spirituality together as opposed to the dogmatic separation between the two that you usually find in the world (a key challenge for humanity to overcome as we endeavor for love to conquer fear).

For 2025, my theme was the inner journey.  For 2026, my theme is embodiment.  I want to really cement what I’ve learned into the way I live my life, from practicing meditation to living a more loving life towards all.  I spent a lot of 2025 allowing love to conquer my own fear and will be continuing that work throughout 2026.  I’ll practice this by going to meditation retreats (I’m at one as I write this - my first in-person) and revisiting the best of the books I’ve read, from “The Seat of the Soul” by Gary Zukav to “Awareness” by Anthony de Mello.

As for family trips, it was a very full year.  We just returned from Park City, where we closed out the year on a ski trip after rerouting from Telluride, where everything is shut down due to a ski patrol strike.  We took one of Rachel’s best friends, Alison, and our niece, Naomi, with us - it was their first time ever skiing and we enjoyed helping them learn (they did great!) We went to Maui on Spring Break with our youngest daughter, Yuzu, and also an early summer trip with her to Japan, one of our favorite destinations (it was our third trip to Japan.)  Right before Park City, we spent 11 days on a trip to Bhutan for a family Backroads trip with both Yuzu and Rachel.  It was an amazing time and such a spiritual and historic experience.  Bhutan only has a population of around 700,000, is deeply Buddhist, and is known as one of the most communal and happiest countries in the world.  As our Backgrounds guide, Kevin, said (with his 20 years of experience with Backroads, traveling the world), Bhutan is a place that is about what it was as well as what it is today.  The 400-year old Buddhist temples are still used every bit as much as they were.

It has been a big year of hiking trips with friends.  Debra and I went with Adrian and Shannon to the Swiss and Italian Alps on a Backroads trip in July.  They are two new friends that we made in 2024 on our Backroads trip to the Camino (“The Way”).  Debra also went to Maui with Liz, another friend she made from a Backroads trip in 2024.  And then Liz and Debra were then motivated to go to the Dolomites together on a Backroads trip.  

Debra also made it on another Backroads trip to the Basque Country in Spain.  And right now she’s on our way to Patagonia to start out 2026 strong with two Backroads trips!  Yes, I guess it is very obvious that we love Backroads!  Debra’s been on 22 trips to date, and they even published a profile of her on their website.

Debra continued her love for tennis, playing on two teams.  We went to the US Open with Amy and Josh Baer in 2025 and loved that experience together. Jonathan Greenblatt (CEO of the ADL and a Henry Crown Fellow alongside me and Josh) and his wife joined us.

Debra also continues her intensive study of Spanish (two years in) and is always looking for people to practice with. It is fun for me to see her progress and is a great mental exercise.

I also had a number of friend trips, including visiting Ethan Holland (who was on episode 4 of Love Conquers Fear) and his family in Delmarva and Morgan Linton (who was on episode 10) and his wife and BoldMetrics co-founder, Daina, in Incline Village.  I enjoyed visiting our old stomping grounds in the Bay Area for TED AI and recording episode 20 with Mike Maples, Jr. (and having dinner with him and Julie Maples after, who has believed in me since I was 26-years old) and also episode 21 with Jeremiah Owyang (we are proud investors in his Blitzscaling fund, focused on AI).  And I really enjoyed stayed with Bong Suh and his family while out there - Bong was my first Board member back when I was 26-years old and the founder of Coremetrics, the first company I raised VC capital for. Those original mentors are so important in your life!

I also had an incredible trip in the Grand Canyon, thanks for my friend Arjun Gupta. We went with the Grand Canyon Expeditions, where we covered all 277 miles rafting down the river. Arjun put together a fantastic group of 27 people, who became new friends. There is nothing like the deep presence of being together for eight days with no electricity, no flushing toilets, and in one of the most beautiful places you can imagine in the world - amazing things will happen and they certainly did.

2025 marked a big year for data.world, as ServiceNow announced they were acquiring it on May 7 and then completed the acquisition on July 7.  I decided not to go to ServiceNow, even though I have great respect for their culture and company, as I decided to focus on my soul-calling with Love Conquers Fear.  I love seeing my former colleagues do so well at ServiceNow and continue to see new announcements about their accomplishments and new positions there.  data.world was consistently rated one of the best places to work in Austin and deserved a home that both had the global reach for our important product and soulful culture.

For Rachel, it is amazing to think she is already halfway through her junior year at Tulane University!  She continues her challenging pace as a triple major in Business, Psychology, and Creative Writing.  She is considering going to law school after but doesn’t have any set plans yet.  She spent June in Italy on a special Tulane program, and is in a leadership role in her sorority, ADPi, as VP of Panhellic Relations.  Right now she is back at Tulane helping with rush. And she continues to write beautifully for the Hullabaloo, Tulane’s newspaper.

For Yuzu, she’s really embraced robotics at Westlake High School in her sophomore year and especially loves her video game design class.  She’s made many new friends and has gotten into making beautiful digital art and baking.  She loved Japan, Bhutan, and Maui with us in 2025.

All in all, 2025 was a really big year of personal growth for all of us.  I’m looking forward to continuing with Love Conquers Fear, which is also guiding our investments at Hurt Family Investments.  We deeply ask ourselves about each individual company and VC fund investment we consider investing in, “Is this durable in the age of AI? Will this help humanity get to Abundance for All?”  The podcast is a real joy and I look forward to the book being in the world and making an impact.  This is the most fateful time for humanity and it is hard to believe we are just over three years since the launch of ChatGPT on November 30, 2022. What will the next three years bring in this exponential of exponential curves as humanity prioritizes the creation of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) with more money, time, and energy than we’ve ever seen before?