How to Build Curation Businesses

Focus too much on utility (get too big), and you kill the signal. Focus too much on signal itself without bolting on utility, then it becomes like Harvard — people know it has no purpose other than the signal and that itself weakens the signal. It becomes a bubble.

Utility pulls you in the direction of expanding size. The more people there are, the more total opportunities there can be. Filter pulls you in the direction of less. The more people there are, the less likely the quality of the average person.

Indeed, the genius of the YC credential that it's tied to their winners, not their median outcomes. It's less that you'll be impressed with the average company — it's more so that "1 in X startups will be the next Airbnb."

When it comes to class size, the tradeoff is "signal" vs "utility". Signal itself has utility, but there are diminishing returns to it. You want to increase utility as much as possible without sacrificing signal. In other words, admit enough people to provide the value, but not enough to kill the signal.

Give someone their start or otherwise be an inflection point. Believe in them before others do and they'll be immensely grateful. If you create the turning point in their career or personal growth, they’ll remember you forever.

On Deck has been building the accelerator for X infrastructure over the last two years.

Which is why once you get curation businesses off the ground, they are very difficult to disrupt, because everyone has incentive to keep the whole charade going.

Unlike with consumer products, a curation business’s brand can be a durable moat.

Indeed, if you’re building a curation business, the main (if not only) moat you have is brand. Your biggest specific vulnerability is alumni NPS — if it’s strong, the business is unbeatable; if it’s weak, the entire edifice is at risk.

Curation businesses attract the best people in the world to apply for them. Their alumni then go on to be immensely successful, which improves the flywheel and further attracts the best people at an even bigger scale. Because the feedback loop is often so long between their acceptance and their success, it’s often very hard to build a competing bra... See more