Building 0-1
Just because a company is B2B doesn’t mean it can’t have the taste and style of a B2C company. People who work in companies are still people, and delightful experiences should be for everyone.
Sarah Drinkwater • How I invest at Common Magic (or, rather, things I believe to be true)
The hard part about figuring out what customers want is figuring out that you need to figure it out
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 central thesis is that all products are asking things of their customers: to do things in a certain way, to think of themselves in a certain way — and usually that means changing what one does or how one does it; it often means changing how one thinks of oneself.
AI is like water.
Or more specifically, generative AI applications are like water. We've looked at hundreds of AI companies, and much like bottled water, many of them are the exact same under the hood.
This is just the reality: there will be 100 teams trying to do what you are doing, in the same way you are doing it. True tech differentiation in AI... See more
Or more specifically, generative AI applications are like water. We've looked at hundreds of AI companies, and much like bottled water, many of them are the exact same under the hood.
This is just the reality: there will be 100 teams trying to do what you are doing, in the same way you are doing it. True tech differentiation in AI... See more
AI is Like Water
One of our theories is to seek out opportunities where there’s a major change. Major dislocation in the way things are. Wherever there’s turmoil, there's indecision. And wherever there’s indecision, there’s opportunity. So we look for the confusion when the big companies are confused. When the other venture groups are confused. That’s the time to s... See more
Rex Woodbury • Seed Investing: The State of the Union
The future is self-employed
New businesses formed in the US 🚀
2019: 3.5 million
2020: 4.4 million
2021: 5.4 million
2022: 5.1 million
Only about 1/3rd of the applications filed in 2021 are for businesses deemed likely to hire employees
Majority are self employed
Source:… 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