Building 0-1

There is no heaven for newthings. There is no Hall of Fame. There is only memory and change. Nothing (the opposite of newthing) and no one are immune.

The goal of newthing is to live as long as possible while staying true. The longer it does this, the stronger and more itself it will become.

You and your ragtag team of engineers likely won’t be able to create something that is competitive with any big incumbent product. However, you can build features, seed content, and brand it in a way that is so obnoxiously relevant for a particular group of people that their… Show more

Q: Is it better to target a small market or a large one? In the clip below, Peter Thiel (billionaire venture capitalist and co-founder of PayPal and Palantir) describes his framework for evaluating markets: “It’s always a big mistake going after a giant market on day 1. That’s… Show more

The downside of lead generation businesses is that they can be a race to the bottom if they're in a crowded and competitive market. The barriers to entry are essentially aggregating supply (i.e. buyers of leads or businesses willing to pay for new customers) so there is little in the way of defensibility. The other downside is that they are very tr... See more

A genuine interest in something is a very powerful motivator — for some people, the most powerful motivator of all. [3] Which is why it's what Jessica and I look for in founders.

Non consensus approaches to picking businesses

hypothesis: 1. work feels bad (unmotivating, boring, hard) when we lack of focus 2. focus is upstream of energy, flow, fulfillment, progress, feedback loops what's upstream of focus? attention (presence) paired w/ agency (when our abilities and beliefs match our context) Show more

A reproducible testing process is more valuable than any one idea. Innovate here first. All things equal, a team with more shots at bat will win against a team with an audacious vision.