BC STARTUP
Saved by @Alex1Powell

Only two types of startups exist: technology-led and culture-led

(a short thread on this mental model)

🔥 It's also the 7th chapter of my book https://t.co/iLfMb0xhnD

 1/ There are two ways an entrepreneur can fail:

a) launch a product that nobody desires;

b) launch a product that people desire but with no significant advantage over established competitors (hence give no strong reason for a customer to switch away).
2/ These two failure modes have their analogous success modes:

a) culture-led startup success where a new desire is discovered and fulfilled;

b) technology-led startup success where new technology is used to fulfill an existing desire.
3/ Let’s explore culture-led startups first.

They are the ones in which the entrepreneur is able to observe a pattern of new derivative desires that didn’t exist before.

Such trends are very hard to spot because initially they can be mistaken either as fads or insignificant.
4/ However, an entrepreneur who has good observation skills is able to connect the dots from diverse sources to grow his conviction about a cultural shift just when the market is ripe.

https://t.co/CdVsr53s4g
5/ This is why keeping an eye on early signs of growth in VC funding activity, new product launches, new regulations, and new careers/jobs is a great way to get a sense of which cultural trends are imminent.
6/ New cultural trends create new markets by creating new derivative desires that didn’t exist before.

The simplest example of this is banking or finance startups in developing nations.

Let's see how.
7/ Founders of these startups understand that as an economy grows, the population tends to consume more and therefore the desire for consumer finance products will naturally emerge.
8/ Notice that this is a bet on the future desires of consumers, but it is an informed bet because that’s how the story has played in other nations.

https://t.co/jYAqgzb8iW
9/ Another example of culture-led startups is the ever-growing number of startups around the idea of sharing and renting economy because the success of Uber and Airbnb has softened consumers into trusting strangers.
10/ This cultural change led to hundreds of other successful startups that are enabling, among many other services, sharing dog walking (Rover, DogBnB) and car parking (JustPark, ParkAmigo).
11/ Such companies are not using new technology.

Rather, they’re using existing technology and shifts in culture to offer a cheaper and more convenient solution to age-old desires of dog walking and parking.

https://t.co/VmfWoNBBm5
12/ Established competitors are usually focused on their existing market, which often is built to serve well-established desires.

Hence, a culture-led startup often has a wide “blue-ocean” of newly emerging derivative desires to fulfill.
13/ Now let's talk about technology-led startups

These startups require innovative technology for substantially improving upon solutions offered by existing players.

Such superior technology can either be developed in-house or be borrowed from an adjacent industry.
14/ The reason technology-led startups succeed is because new technology can help make a new product that’s cheaper, better, or faster than existing products.

And customers love making progress on those dimensions.

https://t.co/9wXsV2SQGE
15/ Christopher Clayton called this process “disruption” and suggested that the reason entrenched competitors ignore startups with innovative technology because initially, technology-led startups do not have a fully built solution for the entire market.

https://t.co/C1fEgXJSul
16/ New technology often looks like a gimmick in the early days and by the time established players realize the full potential, it’s already too late and a startup has gotten the escape velocity it needs.
17/ A classic example of a technology-led startup is Google.

Their key innovation was PageRank, using which they offered demonstrably better search results and beat other established players at that time (Yahoo and AltaVista).
18/ The culture-tech spectrum of startups is a continuum.

In reality, no successful startup is either only culture-led or only technology-led.

Usually, there’s a mix of both elements in successful startups.
19/ For example, Uber realized that people increasingly have internet and GPS-enabled phones and that people have developed a comfort with transacting online (a cultural trend).
20/ They combined this insight with technology innovations to produce a significantly better way to fulfill two pre-existing desires: faster taxi access to consumers and faster customer access to taxi-drivers.
21/ 🧠

Remember: best startup ideas capitalize on both emerging cultural trends and emerging technology.
22/ That's it!

Read the full chapter here: https://t.co/iLfMb0xhnD
23/ I'm posting ~1 new mental model for entrepreneurs every week.

Here's the entire list of 60+ mental models that I'll cover in a year or so: https://t.co/EJGAAJmPIU

Make sure you sign up for email updates on the book page.
24/ Revisit the previous mental model here:

https://t.co/MVdtmznppO
25/ If you've reached this far in the thread, a question for you.

👇 👇

What are some examples of culture-led and tech-led startups that come to your mind?

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Difference between wealth and money.

(a short 🧵 thread)

1/ As the oxygen crisis during 2nd covid wave in India has reiterated,

wealth = *stuff* we want
money = *numbers* in our bank

2/ Being wealthy is a matter of priorities, while being rich is a matter of luck and hard work.

3/ Our happiness and well being depends on the wealth we have, not the money.

One can have all the money in the world and still be miserable.

However if one has sufficient wealth, happiness is guaranteed (partly because that’s how wealth is defined).

4/ Here’s how to be wealthy without spending a dime:

- Exercise regularly
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@paraschopra
1/ Here are my notes from @robertwrighter's book - Nonzero: the logic of human destiny. I enjoyed the book very much.

The basic premise of the book is that history has a direction which favors co-operation and non-zero sum games, and that causes an increase in complexity.


2/ Starting from the first replicating molecule which co-operated with an outer layer to form first proto-cell, evolutionary and cultural history is full of examples where two entities come together to survive and progress a lot more than they would have done individually.

3/ This co-operative entity fares much better than two individual entities because of specialization. If two entities are in the same boat - that they win together or lose together - then trust is implicit.

4/ In a non-zero sum game, trust causes entities to focus on what they do best.

For example, eukaryotic cells - the ones animals and plants have - emerged when two proto-cells merged, and one took the role of energy generator (mitochondria), the other specialized in protection.

5/ Some scientists believe that even nucleus in a cell is a result of an early cell merging with another cell.

So M&A is not a recent phenomena, entities have been merging because of common interests ever since life started.
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Paras Chopra
@paraschopra
Here’s me trying to make sense of the unprecedented 2020 bull rally of stock markets.

(A thread)

1/ The simple answer to why stock markets are up is always that there’s more demand for stocks than supply.

So the real question is: why is there more demand for stocks?

2/ Actually, what’s happening is what should happen.

Central banks across the world, especially the fed in the US, are providing cheap liquidity across the board to institutions.

With interest rates falling to 0% and below, bonds are no longer attractive.

3/ The central banks are injecting this extra liquidity to stimulate economic activity.

They’ve made risk-free investments such as bonds so unattractive that the only place for money to go is towards relatively risky investments which are stocks.

4/ More than anything else, what central banks want is inflation.

They want things to become pricey so wages grow, profits grow and people’s perception of recession goes away because you’re getting more money than last year.
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Paras Chopra
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Sugar was once promoted in newspaper ads as a healthy snack that helps save calories and prevents obesity.

Oh, how the tables turn.
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You can find a lot about a company's undisclosed strategy by simply looking at what positions it is hiring for.
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1/ Pro Tip: Best way to find a job at a startup…

Hint: it doesn’t start with a job board…

a thread

2/ Go to @crunchbase and set up a filter for the following:

1. Amount raised: $5M - $10M
2. Announced on: today - 3 days ago
3. Headquarters location: your preference
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It should look something like this.


3/ When a company raises money… they are going to use the capital to build out their team.

It isn’t rocket science!

4/ When successful venture firms with track records like, @Accel, @Greycroftvc, @Sequoia, @a16z sink money into a startup. Their chance of success increases astronomically.

5/ Filtering for recent fundraising allows you to get a pulse for when a company is going to add positions to their job board (if they haven’t already)
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I just gave a talk to the W2021 YC batch. It's my favorite startup audience to talk to. Here are some of the highlights:

Finding product market fit is the critical thing to do in a startup.

Everything else: demo day, what investors you get, how much you raise, what press covers you -- it is all window dressing.

Many founders don’t want to talk to their customers because it makes them vulnerable, because it's hard work, because it's scary. Creating a tight feedback loop with customers is the one thing that will help you discover PMF.

If a customer isn't one of your cofounders, try to create a customer panel that allows as tight of a loop as possible. Call them daily. Put them in your Slack.

My Twitch cofounder Emmett Shear has a great analogy on PMF here: it's like rolling a boulder downhill.
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People who want to switch on growth for their startups or marketing professionals ask me what to read to get their thinking up. Here's a thread of some books and blogs I read

When you read these, it's important to focus on the principles and not the exact strategy. Copying and pasting what someone else has done is not a guarantee that it'll work

Books:

1. Nir Eyal - Hooked: How to build habit-forming products.

Nir writes about the psychology of human behaviour with digital and physical products and shares real-life examples of how you can engage, nudge and encourage your customers to keep using your product

2. Ryan Holiday - Growth Hacker Marketing: A Primer on the Future of PR, Marketing, and Advertising

Ryan writes how boring simple advertising is and what growth hackers need to do/take advantage of to be truly unique and to switch things up

3. Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares - Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers.

Gabriel and Justin focus on channels you can lever to acquire and retain customers. This book is a guide if you have no clue how to approach customer acquisition. It's an inexhaustive list tbh
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Bruce
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@ngwata_
Excerpts from the Africa Tech Startups Funding Report 2020. 🧵

In 2020, a total of 397 African tech startups raised a record $701million in funding, with bulk (89%) of these funds going to startups in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa & Egypt.


The tech startups that stood out in 2020 by funding received were:
°Egypt's Vezeeta - $40,000,000
°Nigeria's Flutterwave - $35,000,000
°South Africa's Skynamo - $30,000,000
°Kenya's Twiga Foods - $29,400,000
°Kenya's Komaza - $28,000,000


The top investors in African tech startups in 2020.


Kenya 🇰🇪

59 Kenyan startups raised a record total of $191,381,000 in funding in 2020.

Twenty two (37%) of Kenya’s funded startups raised a $1 million or more.
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Joe Speiser \u26a1\ufe0f
Joe Speiser ⚡️...
@jspeiser
I've launched over 10 startups in the past 10 years.

Here's how to get your startup off the ground in 15 days

It will be intense, but doable.

Let me show you exactly how 🧵

We will cover:

Part 1. How to Launch an awesome website (10 Hours)
Part 2. How to build your MVP (5 Hours x 7 Days)
Part 3. How to get your first 100 customers (5 Hours x 7 Days)

Part 4. How to manage and organize your operation (5 Hours)

Total Time - 80 Hours

Part 1. How to Launch an awesome website in 10 Hours

1. https://t.co/qzi3JRPWzg
- Buy a domain in 5 minutes
- Get a professional emails like [email protected]

Time - 15 minutes

2. https://t.co/EsAldktfff

- Get logo inspiration from https://t.co/Mpedds2OzF
- Design Slick Brand Logos on Figma

Time - 45 minutes

3. https://t.co/nWr3RlzSNf

- Pick a matching template from their 500+ template gallery (it's like having someone do the work for you)

- edit the headline, the features, and add stock photos from the internet

- Keep it simple

Time - 2 hours
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I made a website because this shouldn’t

Wired first reported on how bad Keystone was 11 years ago when they put it into Google Earth (they seem to put it in all their popular

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