Antonio García Martínez
@antonio
One sign of a generation-defining company is possessing a real 'mafia' that produces an entire generation of builders in the space, many of whom may well go on to equal or even overshadow the original company (e.g. the PayPal mafia). https://t.co/6UJvD6TLDp
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Antonio García Martínez
@antonio
The inverse is also true: if there's no mafia, the company probably isn't that industry-defining, at least in its second-order effects. I once got into very big trouble with Facebook OGs by citing that there wasn't really a 'Facebook mafia' in the Valley (that's changed a bit).
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Mac Budkowski ᵏ
@macbudkowski
I once heard Thiel in a podcast say that PayPal created the mafia because it was so hard to pull off that everyone had to get to the top of their game. Facebook, Microsoft, and Google had insane PMFs almost from Day 1, which is why, despite their amazing successes, their alumni aren't so tenacious. I think the payout size might also have played a role. All these companies are 1,000X (!) bigger than PayPal was when it was being sold.
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Antonio García Martínez
@antonio
If you read 'The Founders' it's clear the sale to Ebay was anti-climactic, and probably not a big win financially. Everyone at FB got too rich too quickly to do anything afterwards.
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Mac Budkowski ᵏ
@macbudkowski
Plus when you learn that "oh it's so easy to get so rich quick" and then you start something new yourself, it's easy to get discouraged. And you have a lot to lose as you might stop thinking that you are so smart and start considering that maybe you just got on the right ship.
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