What we need is the YC of talent identification and encouragement. We either need Thiel to step up and 100x his fellowship, or a 100 other billionaires to step up and stop whining about talent.
The reality is that there have been successful ARPA programs all over the spectrum. JCR Licklider “just” spelled out an extraordinary vision, found people who were aligned with it, and gave them resources. Only a few years later, Lawrence Roberts ran the ARPAnet program almost like a CEO: giving different people and groups parts of a broader... See more
I expect that effective altruism will always be an example of what I’ve called “club” communities elsewhere: high retention of existing members, but limited acquisition of new members, like a hobbyist club. EA will continue to grow, but it will never become the dominant narrative because it’s so morally opinionated. I don’t think that’s a problem,... See more
The best example of this alternative product is Indie.VC, run by Bryce Roberts. Over the course of 6 years, Indie invested in 40 companies. It held the two key components of limited fund size and gave equity optionality through redemption clauses or equity buybacks. The results are encouraging, with a 51% IRR and 4.3x TVPI, while 87% of the... See more
Startups often assume their better funded competitors are doing well, which leads to dogmatically chasing/copying #1 if you’re #2+
#2 tries to catch up to #1 by running the same way but faster. It’s often the case #1 is headed in the wrong direction, and now #2+ is too
A lot of advice I gave this batch was some version of noticing that one thing the company was doing was working, and encouraging them to prune everything else and focus on that one thing.
For example, it's reasonable to try 5 different ways to get users, but if one of them works best, you should probably pause the other... See more