Betting the Firm

Asking friends what would kill their firms, I heard; Performance. Succession planning. Politics. There was plenty of overlap in their answers. What stuck out to me the most was how a lot of these fears closely aligned with the revolutions already going on in venture that I've been writing about. The productization and improvement in a venture funds... See more

Technology is changing one of the most powerful forces in shaping society: ambition. What the most ambitious people choose to do with their lives has a profound impact on society, the economy and culture. It’s changing, fast.First, that digital technology is the most recent in a series of ‘technologies of ambition’ that have enabled ambitious peopl... See more

There are some phenomenal products in some of the companies that were overfunded and are haunted by past decisions. The valuations at which these companies raised capital set them on the wrong path - a path that fails to attract and reward critical talent, a path that incentivizes excess expenditure for growth at the expense of structuring a busine... See more

A firm’s brand as a proxy for a person’s reputation was born out of laziness and lack of access to data. No doubt, top talent enjoys working together, but it’s no longer a necessity. You are seeing this in spades right now within venture capital, as individual investors are banding together to support entrepreneurs who would prefer a group of hand-... See more

Product

• Fewer jobs-to-be-done. Focus on just 1-2 jobs-to-be done that are shared by many clients. The more jobs, the harder to productize. You can always expand.


• Scalable access. Find and tap into high-quality talent channels. Mechanical Orchard did this with the Pivotal Labs network (CEO Rob Mee used to run that company). Where’s your leg up?


• Piggyb

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Leveraging your company with talent increases your volatility - either you orchestrate a revolution, or you implode.