So the two parts:

1. Put what you want into the world, over and over, for a long time.


2. Be a person other people want to do things well for.

Put differently, the long-term product and economic impacts of having everything operating on the same plane outweighs the short-term impact of replacing hardware.

First time founders think about product. Second time founders think about distribution. Exceptional founders think about both, and how they work together.

Meter is building an internet utility by pursuing the Vertical Integrator strategy:

1. Integrate multiple cutting-edge-but-proven technologies.


2. Develop significant in-house capabilities across their stack.


3. Modularize commoditized components while controlling overall system integration.


4. Compete directly with incumbents.


5. Offer integrated products that are be

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Crucially, because Meter is vertically integrated, customers can spend 3-4x as much with Meter as they would with legacy vendors . There are a number of reasons for this:

• Meter sells customers more parts of the stack than a traditional vendor would, so they keep more of the value.


• It can increase margins by cutting out layers up and down the stack.


• Cu

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Painful software plus good distribution and high switching costs is a hard combination to kill.

There’s something quite deep about the notion of using time horizons as a competitive advantage , in that you’re simply willing to wait longer than other people and you have an organization that is thusly oriented.

my entire investment thesis is that startups have the opportunity to overtake sclerotic incumbents with vertically integrated offerings that are better, cheaper, faster and higher-margin.

They’re driven by working together. If they were going to work alone, it would be a lot less interesting. They want to solve very hard problems, whether technical, business design, or empire design. They care a lot about progress and the speed of innovation. They care a lot about power law people; they want to attract those people, partner with th

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