Dark Side
@amoreynis
Give your pigeon a kick
1. "Imagine a flock of pigeons flying. Suddenly, an invisible hand throws one of the pigeons high into the air. And everyone notices it! And no one pays attention to the rest." These are the words a partner of the a16z fund uses to describe the current situation on the startup market.
2. Any technology can be copied very quickly now. That's why there are a lot of similar pigeon startups flying around the market 😉 Some are lower, some are higher — it doesn't matter at all! Because only those who fly above the threshold of ordinary inattention get a chance to succeed.
3. And most importantly — you can't achieve this by improving the product. Against the background of many analogues, you can only attract attention with attention-grabbing tools 🚀 One example is the American startup Cluely.
4. In March, a startup created a product in 4 days that you can discreetly peek at during online technical interviews. The founders talk about how they used it to pass interviews at Amazon, Facebook, and TikTok. After which they get kicked out of Columbia University, which they also talk about everywhere.
5. In April, the startup is already earning $250,000 a month. Which they also talk about everywhere and raise their first $5.3 million in investments. At the same time, a provocative video is released about how the founder used Cluely to cheat on a romantic date. The video gets more than 20 million views.
6. In May, the startup announces that it is releasing a product “with which you can cheat anywhere,” and not just at interviews. For example, discreetly peek at cheat sheets during conversations with clients, patients, employees, etc. 😉
7. In June, the police break up a startup party held during the Y Combinator AI school. Cluely is already making over $400,000 a month and is raising another $15 million in funding from a16z.
8. What have you done in the last couple of months to attract as much attention as you have? 0 reply
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Development is not an "improvement"
1. Development is not an "improvement". Because after improvement, it's the same thing, but better 😉 And development is a transition to a qualitatively new level. That is, transformation into something else.
2. Roughly speaking, Facebook developed when it was transformed from a dating app first into an illustrated catalog of Harvard students, and then into a social network. After that, Zuckerberg began trying to turn Facebook into a virtual world, but he hasn't succeeded yet.
3. Airbnb developed when it was transformed from a flophouse with inflatable mattresses first into a service for moving guests into a spare room, and then into a business renting out apartments and houses for short terms. And now Brian Chesky wants to turn Airbnb into an app for any experience and impressions related to travel. And even to life in general.
4. It is worth noting separately that "expansion", "scaling", "entering new countries" are still improvements, not development. Because everything remains the same. Only the size changes.
5. And "development" is when you are able to perceive what you have done only as a preparatory stage for something new. And regardless of the stage, size and success - from small unsuccessful startups to large successful companies.
6. And from here a very interesting and promising question immediately follows. What you already have now is a preparatory stage for what? 0 reply
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Anxiety is not a mental illness, but a life compass
1. A very good comparison is “Anxiety arises when your brain is bigger than your balls” 😉 In the sense that your brain understands that you have to do something, but you don’t have the courage to do it. This discrepancy is what causes anxiety.
2. At the same time, you can even fuss, calling it an action. But if you continue to feel a sucking feeling of anxiety, then this is not moving somewhere, but running in place.
3. After all, when you are moving somewhere, you are not worried, but afraid - to run in the wrong direction, fall into a hole on the way, get tripped by a competitor, or something else in this spirit. 1 reply
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Crazy Smart Unicorns
1. I started watching the Thai series "Crazy Unicorn" on Netflix based on the story of the emergence of the first Thai billion-dollar startup. By the way, the series turned out to be pretty good. But that's not the point.
2. The point is that once again it became clear that billion-dollar startups are about three things.
3. First, to see what already exists.
4. Second, to create business processes that allow you to quickly and unlimitedly scale it.
5. Third, to be immediately ready to compete for a place in the sun with two types of players - old ones, from whom you take away business, and new ones who are trying to do the same thing as you.
6. Therefore, the key to success is not to engage in invention, not to strive for uniqueness, to look wider, to hire the best and have balls of steel.
7. And everything else will follow. 0 reply
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