On Founder Taste

Taste is the bone-deep feeling that you’ve made something good. It is a sense, inexplicable and ephemeral. But it’s also a tangible skill that’s increasingly essential. Taste is how a business differentiates itself when attention is scarce and choice is abundant. Knowing what to make is just as important as the ability to make it.

There’s an even b... See more

Taste is eating software. Taste is the new weapon.

Whether in design, branding, or user experience, taste now defines how a product is perceived and felt as well as how it is adopted, i.e. distributed (whether it’s software or hardware or both). Technology has become deeply intertwined with culture. People now engage with technology as part of their... See more

Elan: Something that you’ve written about is this idea that there’s two kinds of startups: one that's solving a functional problem, and one that's manifesting a creative vision. What's your take on the distinction between the two?

Sari: People want to go on a journey. They want to understand what your vision is, not just what problem you’re solving... See more

While taste is often focused on a single thing, it is often formed through the integration of diverse, and wide-ranging inputs. Steve Jobs has said, “I think part of what made the Macintosh great was that the people working on it were musicians and poets and artists and zoologists and historians who also happened to be the best computer scientists ... See more

In my experience most of the companies are run by highly creative, idealistic people. Many of them started off with products that were optimized for the needs of the users and community and almost all of them ended up optimized for the needs of the company.