Rippling and the Return of Ambition

I think that there has been a shift towards this very formulaic driven growth in enterprise software which is very unhealthy. There is a calculation of well here's my CAC, here's my LTV, here's my payback period, I'm ready to sell, let me hire 50 sales reps and let's push this into the market, and three years down the line all the assumptions that ... See more

Because big businesses aren’t built on gimmicks. You can blitz your way through Sand Hill Road and spike up the App Store charts on gimmicks, but you can’t actually use them to replace Gmail, or Salesforce, or Instagram, or Instagram, or Instagram, or Instagram. Even seemingly instant successes can’t become lasting companies without putting in the ... See more

One result of this past tech cycle was a view that companies needed to build hyper complex ponzi schemes of ambition in order to accumulate capital and be valued. This led to a variety of shooting stars that never realized their main goal.

Another view was an insane amount of value ascribed to hyper-narrow features masquerading as companies, leading... See more