Steve Jobs talks smack

Building a $100M business. We <3 network effects. Company growing pains. VIEW IN BROWSER

December 29, 2021

For your eyes and ears

Hi there,     Yesterday, we tried a new newsletter format called “Tweets of the Week.” Today, we’re going to try another new format where we link to articles, podcasts, and videos we think are worth a read, a watch, or a listen.   Let me know what you think.

LINKS OF THE WEEK

Source: YouTube

Content over process. Steve Jobs gives a simple reminder on what makes great products in this YouTube video. Hint: it’s not process.  It will be interesting to see how Apple continues to develop great products especially as it goes after the massive healthcare opportunity. We analyzed where Apple’s strategy and next products in healthcare are likely to be here.

Source: YouTube

Man crush Wednesday. I love Noubar Afeyan, the co-founder of Moderna — a manufacturer of one of the Covid vaccines that’s helped us return to some normalcy. In this YouTube video, Noubar discusses his firm’s model for venture creation. His answer to the most impactful invention of the last 50 years is tremendous, and his view that entrepreneuring can be systematized vs. being serendipitous and random is certainly contrarian.   For those trying to make corporate innovation happen, he and his firm Flagship are worth studying. Candidly, I don’t think more than 1% of big cos have the talent or risk tolerance to pull off what Flagship does, but there may still be elements to learn from. We chronicled the 164 biggest corporate innovation fails of all time here in case you’re looking for lessons on what not to do. In February of this year, we discussed mRNA therapies and how they’re used in vaccine development.

Source: Harvard Business Review

Nail it then scale it. Evolution and Revolution as Organizations Grow appeared in the Harvard Business Review in the summer of 1998. As CB Insights scales from a few folks to 500, I’ve found this essay is one of the most cogent descriptions of the phases of company growth and the challenges of and needs at each phase.   For those of you building or working at a company that is scaling up, I think you’ll likely identify with many or be experiencing many of these phases.   For those that are looking to win over the long term, here’s research into 25 business moats to build an enduring organization.   Of course, many orgs never get to scale. Here’s our research into the top 12 reasons startups fail and here’s a compilation of 390 startup failure post-mortems in case you want to study the failures and avoid those.

Source: Colossus

One of the goats of networks. While 2+ years old, this convo between Bill Gurley of Benchmark and Patrick O’Shaughnessy is one of my favorites, especially the discussion on network effects. Network effects have driven some of the largest outcomes in venture. Here’s how nfx have created some of the most formidable companies.

Source: Christoph Janz

Great essay + fire infographic. This is an essay from 2014 by VC Christoph Janz of Point Nine Capital about how to build a $100M business. It’s simple and clear, hence why it’s so good. I’ve shared it with a ton of friends in Startup Land who are thinking about starting up as it provides a simple, napkin math way to think about pricing, the size of your market, etc.   It’s also nice to read something focused on revenue vs. just fundraising. Fundraising, as you know, is on fire, having thoroughly smashed through the records of 1999-2000.   All the fundraising hysteria is, of course, a double-edged sword.   We’ve dug into the foie gras’ing of startups and how raising more money doesn’t generate better outcomes here.  And we, of course, are tracking all 954 unicorn companies. Some of them have real revenue. Others — not so much.

Alright, that’s quite a lot.     LMK what you think of this format. Love it? Hate it?   No matter what you say, (1) I want your honest opinion and (2) I still love you.   Anand @asanwal   P.S. As we enter our next phase of growth, we’re looking for a senior backend software engineer. Check out the role here.

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