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RT @genomicsdoc: One of the biggest challenges I see with very smart academics wanting to translate their research into companies; in many cases, there is a very poorly developed idea of the product.
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RT @genomicsdoc: One of the biggest challenges I see with very smart academics wanting to translate their research into companies; in many cases, there is a very poorly developed idea of the product.
Marc Andreessen: Many of the most successful companies started “product first”
“There are products that become companies, and then there are companies that come up with a product. One of the interesting things over the years is that many of the most successful technology franchises were products first, way before they ever became companies.”
In this talk, Marc gives a few examples:
• His team at the University of Illinois worked on the research project that became Netscape for three years before it became a company
• Bill Gates and Paul Allen were deep into PCs before there was a software business
• Jobs and Wozniak built the first Apple computer as hobbyists
• Mark Zuckerberg was running Facebook out of his dorm room before he ever thought of starting a company
• Twitter was a side project at the failed podcasting app Odeo
Marc believes that this “product becomes a company” template is successful because “it’s a demonstration that the product has to exist. The market needs the product so badly that somebody actually built it and deployed it and you can actually see evidence that people want it before there was an economic motivation to do so.”
He contrasts this with the failure cases he often sees when entrepreneurs try to figure out the idea after starting a company.
“It’s very easy in that process to fool yourself into believing that there’s a market because you want to find something and you have a very strong motivation to come up with an answer. It’s hard to go through that process for three months and then say, ‘you know what, we can’t come up with any good ideas.’”
There are of course there exceptions. Marc gives Hewlett Packard as an example. But that’s more the exception than the rule. As Marc explains:
“The moral of the story is it has to be a really good idea. That often will be an idea that is preexisting at the time you decide to start a company. And if it isn’t, be really careful because you’re walking on sharp rocks at that point with a high risk of falling off the cliff into the ocean.”
Video source: @ECorner (2010) tweet
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Quiver Quantitative
Marjorie Taylor Greene sits on the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence.
Around half of Palantir's revenue appears to come from counterterrorism and intelligence-related contracts with the US government.
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Marjorie Taylor Greene sits on the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence.
Around half of Palantir's revenue appears to come from counterterrorism and intelligence-related contracts with the US government.
BREAKING: Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene just disclosed a purchase of Palantir stock, $PLTR.
We have now seen four members of Congress file $PLTR purchases in the last week.
Greene sits on the House Homeland Security Committee. https://t.co/TmYFbM3zvp tweet
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Dimitry Nakhla | Babylon Capital®
Dev Kantesaria of VFCM was asked WHY he purchased shares of $ASML and NOT $TSM
Here’s what he said 🎙️ (full podcast below):
“We generally like to buy into very dominant businesses where industry dynamics are stable.
$ASML is a monopoly.
It makes machines about the size of a school bus. Arguably, they're 10 to 15 years ahead of anybody else in making these machines.
These machines make the leading edge chips that go into the servers that are needed to power AI. And so there's a vast need for new $ASML machines, their newest generation machines.
$TSM is, one of the major customers of $ASML, very capital intensive.
But $TSM's advantage today comes from really scale. And that is not an advantage that we prefer.
We would much rather have that advantage in the form of industry dynamics that have been stable for many decades or a technology advantage in the case of $ASML, which really makes it the only ... All of the growth in AI, we wanted a predictable way to participate in AI.
We could have bought $NVDA, we could have bought $MSFT, $GOOG, or even $TSM, but we wanted the most predictable way to participate in AI.
And we felt that was $ASML, because at the end of the day, the chip demand that will be needed to power the service for AI, all of that has to flow through $ASML.”
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https://t.co/9WHGO8hATy
The conversation is notable for its insightful commentary and thoughtful questioning, making it a worthwhile listen.
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Dev Kantesaria of VFCM was asked WHY he purchased shares of $ASML and NOT $TSM
Here’s what he said 🎙️ (full podcast below):
“We generally like to buy into very dominant businesses where industry dynamics are stable.
$ASML is a monopoly.
It makes machines about the size of a school bus. Arguably, they're 10 to 15 years ahead of anybody else in making these machines.
These machines make the leading edge chips that go into the servers that are needed to power AI. And so there's a vast need for new $ASML machines, their newest generation machines.
$TSM is, one of the major customers of $ASML, very capital intensive.
But $TSM's advantage today comes from really scale. And that is not an advantage that we prefer.
We would much rather have that advantage in the form of industry dynamics that have been stable for many decades or a technology advantage in the case of $ASML, which really makes it the only ... All of the growth in AI, we wanted a predictable way to participate in AI.
We could have bought $NVDA, we could have bought $MSFT, $GOOG, or even $TSM, but we wanted the most predictable way to participate in AI.
And we felt that was $ASML, because at the end of the day, the chip demand that will be needed to power the service for AI, all of that has to flow through $ASML.”
___
https://t.co/9WHGO8hATy
The conversation is notable for its insightful commentary and thoughtful questioning, making it a worthwhile listen.
tweet
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Quiver Quantitative
We have now seen four members of Congress file purchases of Palantir stock, $PLTR, in the last week.
Two of them sit on the House Committee on Homeland Security.
One of them sits on the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence.
One of them sits on the House Committee on Armed Services.
One of them is an ex oficio member of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Military and Foreign Affairs.
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We have now seen four members of Congress file purchases of Palantir stock, $PLTR, in the last week.
Two of them sit on the House Committee on Homeland Security.
One of them sits on the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence.
One of them sits on the House Committee on Armed Services.
One of them is an ex oficio member of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Military and Foreign Affairs.
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App Economy Insights
📊 Last Week in Visuals:
$KO $CSCO $MCD $SHOP $AMAT $SONY $PANW $APP $MCO $MAR $ABNB $COIN $TTD $ADYEY $HOOD $HUBS $RDDT $KHC $GPN $TWLO $DKNG $QSR $Z $CYBR $ROKU $PAYC $CFLT
Check out the latest earnings 👇
https://t.co/MsrGUKXIX9 https://t.co/MufZqn7SL1
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📊 Last Week in Visuals:
$KO $CSCO $MCD $SHOP $AMAT $SONY $PANW $APP $MCO $MAR $ABNB $COIN $TTD $ADYEY $HOOD $HUBS $RDDT $KHC $GPN $TWLO $DKNG $QSR $Z $CYBR $ROKU $PAYC $CFLT
Check out the latest earnings 👇
https://t.co/MsrGUKXIX9 https://t.co/MufZqn7SL1
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Stock Analysis Compilation
Appleseed on Cameco Corporation $CCJ US
Thesis: Cameco Corporation is a leading uranium supplier with strong reserves, and Sprott Physical Uranium Trust provides direct exposure to uranium price changes without equity risk.
(Extract from their Q4 letter) https://t.co/jW5WBWGayN
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Appleseed on Cameco Corporation $CCJ US
Thesis: Cameco Corporation is a leading uranium supplier with strong reserves, and Sprott Physical Uranium Trust provides direct exposure to uranium price changes without equity risk.
(Extract from their Q4 letter) https://t.co/jW5WBWGayN
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Finding Compounders
A must read
An Honest Reflection after Two years since the Funds Inception
From Peninsula Capital https://t.co/9q4f1AcNdb
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A must read
An Honest Reflection after Two years since the Funds Inception
From Peninsula Capital https://t.co/9q4f1AcNdb
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Startup Archive
Instacart founder Apoorva Mehta on doing things that don’t scale
“Y Combinator encourages startups to do things that don’t scale. I find that this is one of the biggest competitive advantages that a startup has over a larger company… The idea is that once your product has demand, you can figure out how to scale your product.”
Apoorva explains how in the early days of Instacart customers could place orders even if there weren’t shoppers online to fulfill those orders.
“Of course, this meant that I would drop everything I was doing and fulfill the order myself.”
They also ran into the issue that Trader Joe’s didn’t have an API or website with catalog of the items in the store. So the team literally went to their local Trader Joe’s, bought one of every single item, took it back to their office, photographed every single item, and manually entered it in the Instacart catalog.
“Using the same unscalable techniques, we added Whole Foods, Costco and many other stores, and we realized we had the best product in the market.”
Having the best product on the market allowed Instacart to quickly expand to 10 cities and maintain 10% week over week growth for 20 weeks. This traction would allow Instacart to raise more money, hire more people, and then make everything scalable.
Video source: @ycombinator (2014)
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Instacart founder Apoorva Mehta on doing things that don’t scale
“Y Combinator encourages startups to do things that don’t scale. I find that this is one of the biggest competitive advantages that a startup has over a larger company… The idea is that once your product has demand, you can figure out how to scale your product.”
Apoorva explains how in the early days of Instacart customers could place orders even if there weren’t shoppers online to fulfill those orders.
“Of course, this meant that I would drop everything I was doing and fulfill the order myself.”
They also ran into the issue that Trader Joe’s didn’t have an API or website with catalog of the items in the store. So the team literally went to their local Trader Joe’s, bought one of every single item, took it back to their office, photographed every single item, and manually entered it in the Instacart catalog.
“Using the same unscalable techniques, we added Whole Foods, Costco and many other stores, and we realized we had the best product in the market.”
Having the best product on the market allowed Instacart to quickly expand to 10 cities and maintain 10% week over week growth for 20 weeks. This traction would allow Instacart to raise more money, hire more people, and then make everything scalable.
Video source: @ycombinator (2014)
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