How to Fund Growth

Most organizations' financial structures are designed for predictability rather than explosive growth. To change that, we must: Invest Constructively in Passion Specifically: 1. Align Incentives Learn what people deeply want. Articulate how they can pursue that by contributing to the organization's mission 2. Unleash Talent Learn where people are the happiest and most productive. Build support systems that allow them to maximize... Continue Reading →

TBC 4: The Process for Products

One of the key insights about entrepreneurship in the last decade is that a startup is not just a small version of a established business. Rather, a startup is an organization formed to search for a business model, rather than execute one. In particular, this implies that startups should be designed to maximize learning by exploiting surprises. This is the exact opposite of a traditional business, which attempts to increase predictability by avoiding surprises. To get the optimal structure, we need to be clear on: Which things we need to learn (the problem) How we are going to learn them (the process) Who will own the learning (the people) What will prove we have learned the right lessons (the product)

Can Startup Thinking Solve the Innovator’s Dilemma?

When I discussed theories about how and whether Apple has solved the Innovator's Dilemma, I neglected to mention my favorite theory: Institutionalizing Startup Thinking (IST) Apple has solved the Innovator's Dilemma by institutionalizing startup thinking. This is characterized brilliantly by an Andreessen Horowitz post on Why We Prefer Founding CEOs: The technology business is fundamentally the innovation... Continue Reading →

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