Spearhead Naval Podcast Episodes Latest Episodes Rapidly Growing Valuations Shouldn’t Scare You Off 6/29/2020 • 0 min Transcript: http://spearhead.co/rapid Play episode Reading Social Proof Is an Art Form Social Proof Is a Valid Signal Ask About the Metrics They’re Not Showing You It’s Easy to Exaggerate Early Traction Everything Is a Proxy for Traction Early Winners Don’t Always Make It to the Finish Line Invest in the First Credible Mover Monopolies Fall When Platforms Shift A Lot of Great Tech Businesses Are Natural Monopolies Great Companies Expand Their Markets Invest in $0 Billion Companies Invest in Pure Tech Companies Raising Money Without Any Product Is a Red Flag Product Is the Resume of the Team Expanding Fast vs. Dialing in the Model In PayPal’s Early Days, We Lost Money on Every Transaction Get the Operation Working at a Small Scale ‘Tech-Enabled’ Often Means Thin Margins Startups Didn’t Have to be Good at Accounting Until Software Ate the World You Can’t Optimize Profits If There Are No Profits to Optimize Negative Unit Economics Create the Illusion of Success Startups Are Susceptible to ‘Happy Talk’ Mature Your Culture as You Grow Nobody Wants to Give a Founder Tough Love Founder Psychology Is at the Heart of Most Blitzfails Culture Is a Macrocosm of the Founder’s Psychology Micro-Bubbles Are Constantly Building and Bursting ‘High-Burn Startup Meets Macro-Shock’ Is a Recipe for Blitzfail Founders Have to Move Incredibly Fast to Stay Ahead of the Competition Startups Are a Race to Get to Scale Blitzfail: Why Startups Go off the Rails Repeat Founders Don’t Really Want to Start Over From Scratch ‘First-Time Founders’ Often Have Been Tinkering for Quite a While Avoid Teams That Would Sell Early Founders Almost Can’t Be Referenced Your Reputation Is Built by the Companies That Are Doing Poorly Coachability Is Overrated You’re Not Investing in Nice People Invest Only in Technical Teams Invest in the Smartest Scientists in a New Field Don’t Fantasize About What You Would Do If You Were the Founder You’ll Get Less Money in Your Winners You Can Give Every Deal One Fatal Flaw The Best Deals Look Weird Judgment Requires a Willingness to Be Unpopular Are Good Investors Piling in the Round with You? Pivots Mean Your People Judgment Really Matters Judgment Is the Work You Do Before a Deal Arrives Judgment Gives You the Winning Lottery Numbers Spearhead RSS Feed Share: Twitter • Facebook • Embed Copy embed code: