All episodes of Spearhead

Spearhead

Episodes

Rapidly Growing Valuations Shouldn’t Scare You Off

Humans are bad at understanding exponential growth

Published 06/29/20

Spearhead

Published 06/29/20

Reading Social Proof Is an Art Form

The ultimate social proof is a credible VC increasing their ownership

Published 06/26/20

Social Proof Is a Valid Signal

If every investor brings new information to the table

Published 06/22/20

Ask About the Metrics They’re Not Showing You

One weird trick to get the truth about metrics

Published 06/17/20

It’s Easy to Exaggerate Early Traction

Put yourself in the customer’s shoes instead of fixating on traction

Published 06/16/20

Everything Is a Proxy for Traction

The holy grail is explosive growth, stickiness and an ability to monetize

Published 06/12/20

Early Winners Don’t Always Make It to the Finish Line

Competitors can catch up while the market’s still small

Published 06/10/20

Invest in the First Credible Mover

Pick the right founder at the right time

Published 06/08/20

Monopolies Fall When Platforms Shift

The tech industry is too dynamic for companies that fail to innovate

Published 06/05/20

A Lot of Great Tech Businesses Are Natural Monopolies

Silicon Valley’s dirty secret

Published 06/03/20

Great Companies Expand Their Markets

Seed investors can’t wait for obviously large markets

Published 06/02/20

Invest in $0 Billion Companies

If you can’t make at least a 100x return, you’re not seed investing

Published 05/29/20

Invest in Pure Tech Companies

Ask: What portion of every dollar invested goes to technology development?

Published 05/27/20

Raising Money Without Any Product Is a Red Flag

If a team hasn’t built anything, what makes you think money will help?

Published 05/25/20

Product Is the Resume of the Team

At the seed stage the product tells you what the team is capable of

Published 05/22/20

Growth Investors May Force You to Expand Quickly

If you don't take their money, the competition will

Published 05/19/20

In PayPal’s Early Days, We Lost Money on Every Transaction

The dot-com crash forced us to charge a fee

Published 05/15/20

Prioritize Your Zero-to-One Problems

Know your unit costs, focus on pricing and get the operation to work at a small scale

Published 05/13/20

‘Tech-Enabled’ Often Means Thin Margins

The economics of tech-enabled businesses look like the businesses they're replacing

Published 05/11/20

Startups Didn’t Have to be Good at Accounting Until Software Ate the World

Pure software businesses never had to be cost-conscious

Published 05/08/20

Startups Get Caught Looking for a Scalable Model When They’re Already at Scale

Startups need to raise their financial bar with each round

Published 05/06/20

Negative Unit Economics Create the Illusion of Success

This leads to a brutal restructuring at massive scale

Published 05/04/20

Startups Are Susceptible to ‘Happy Talk’

The burden of proof should be the same for good and bad news

Published 05/01/20

Culture Should Mature as You Grow

What works at the early stage won’t at scale

Published 04/30/20