Business Building
sari and
Business Building
My favorite part of this practice is the last question is “What are we doing wrong?”, followed by a prod similar to “No, really. Something is broken. What is the most broken thing you’ve seen?”
Bugs get filed in substantially real time where appropriate.
Patrick McKenziex.comcustomer obsession in startups
“At both Viaweb and YC, every minute I spent thinking about competitors was, in retrospect, a minute wasted... It's exceptionally rare for startups to be killed by competitors — so rare that you can almost discount the possibility... Inexperienced founders usually give competitors more credit than they deserve. Whether you succeed depends far more
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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
Another view was an insane amount of value ascribed to hyper-narrow features masquerading as companies, leading... See more
Michael Dempsey • On Scope Creep & ZIRP Lessons
expand the product, not the mission
Birkenstock IPO’d today at a ~$8B valuation.
Its CEO Oliver Reichert did a massive turnaround in the past decade: sales 5x’d from $125m in 2012 to $1.3B in 2022.
The wildest part: he has zero background in footwear or fashion.
Prior to taking over the top job... See more
Not every startup lends itself to such an intense customer focus: some new ventures are supply-led, not demand-inspired. Consumers could have never asked for an iPod until they actually saw one first.