Podcast

As Vinod Khosla says, you want to invest in zero-billion-dollar companies. More

There’s a class of startups that look like tech companies on the surface, but then you scratch them with a fingernail and find there’s little technology underneath. More

One of the biggest red flags for an investor is when a team raises money before building any kind of product.  Business founders or sellers will say, “Hey, if you give me money, I will go and recruit the builders.” But if the team hasn’t built anything, what makes you think raising capital will allow them to do it? This is why having a product as the team’s resume is so important. More

As an investor you want to apply judgment to pick good founders who are attacking large markets with credible products. More

Do you expand fast to beat the competition or take the time to dial in your business model? If you move fast, you risk negative unit economics or some other blitzfail. More

In the early days of PayPal, we lost money on every transaction. The product was free, and we lost about 2.5% of the transaction to fraud and credit card fees. More

If you’re running a tech-enabled startup—a business that combines software and meaningful physical world components—I recommend a few things. More

The problem with this new generation of tech-enabled businesses is that their economics and business models look similar to the companies they’re replacing. More

The unit economics problem has grown in recent years precisely because startups are eating the world. More

Every startup needs to develop the muscle of attributing costs and calculating unit economics. It’s often under-developed because most founders believe profitability is something they can optimize down the road. More