Move fast and break things… that is the traditional (albeit slightly cliche) Facebook/Silicon Valley slogan we’ve heard for years. And for a time, it was incredibly effective. Just look at Big Tech’s domination of the S&P 500. Without question, wildly ambitious founders and wild rides have defined the last two decades of startups, innovation and...
“The battle between every startup and incumbent comes down to whether the startup gets distribution before the incumbent gets innovation.” — Alex Rampell, a16z The only question, will you win that race? And for Fortune 500 companies with everything on the line, that’s a costly question indeed. Yet so often, incumbents fail to innovate and fall hard. Worse...
There’s no such thing as a free lunch, at least not in the cutthroat world of venture capital. VCs (and most angel investors) are in the business of making money work, big time ROIs. And if you take outside funding, you’re obligated to deliver. But still, free money… it’s so tempting, especially if a VC-backed...
“There’s nothing new under the sun.” We’ve all heard it… but what then is creativity, what is inspiration? Is it the artist or entrepreneur creating something completely unique, or combining previously separate things in new and innovative ways? Does it matter? Whoever said creativity was the key to success? The starving artist is a trope for...
When was the last time you donated money to charity? If you are like the average person, it has been a while. There is good news though, it isn’t entirely your fault. Charities are an outdated and ineffective model in today’s world, and not for the reasons you may think. It isn’t the bureaucracy, it...
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That’s how the old mantra goes. And when it comes to human nature, that’s exactly how we work. We avoid change and go with the flow. If it hasn’t killed us yet (from an evolutionary sense), we’re probably on the right path. And that’s why the WeWork saga...
The Ultimate Guide to Startup Fundraising Part 3: The Killer Startup Pitch Deck VCs Can’t Ignore! Welcome back to Part 3 of our Ultimate Guide to Startup Fundraising. If you missed the previous posts, I highly recommend you read through those first before continuing. The Ultimate Guide to Startup Fundraising Part 1: Understanding Investors 101:...
Facebook, Linkedin, Zynga… they all had it easy. They all grew on the backs of existing services, spamming users with mass invites and notifications until a loyal following was suckered into using the product. And thanks to the inherent network effects, for every new user, the product was incrementally better for you as well… and...
VCs Need to Stop Funding Nonsense We all only have so much time in this world — whether you live to 50, 80 or 153 (like I’m shooting for) — our time is limited, and so too is our impact. And like life expectancy, our impact is directly proportional to our beliefs. Said another way:
Profits accrue to people on top. That’s the way most markets work, especially those with strong network effects (for more on 5 types of network effects and how to hack them, see this post). As an angel investor, my job is to spot startups and trends looking to disrupt incumbents and create massive new markets...