Mental models
The principles I keep coming back to. None of them is the whole truth. Each one links to the essays, people and lines it came from.
On investing
Founder × market
A market's size on paper matters, but the founder times the market often matters more. Iconic founders pull spending and demand into existence that wasn't there before.
Absorb the era's "why now"
The best businesses of any era fully utilize that era's "why now." They've able to lean into things that are *newly* possible, riding multiple overlapping tailwinds that allow for explosive growth in a compressed period of time.
Technical yet commercial
In enterprise software, the great companies come from stellar product combined with stellar go-to-market. The best founders are learn-it-alls, not know-it-alls, and they become students of selling.
Reflexivity
Price shapes perception, which shapes price. Markets can swing too far because of these runaway loops. Often the best thing you can bring is a clear mind.
History rhymes, and some things are brand new
Some laws of enterprise software hold across product cycles. Others are genuinely new. The skill is knowing which is which.
On building
Incentives drive outcomes
If you want to understand a behavior, look at what's being rewarded. That applies to people, firms and markets.
Where you work shapes who you become
Where you work and who you work for is upstream of the version of yourself that gets activated every day, and over time that shapes who you become. Pick a place that rewards behaviors you'd be proud to lean into.
The laws of great businesses are universal
There are game-changing lessons to be found studying any iconic business. Walmart, Costco, Teledyne, Nike, the list goes on. The more you study, the clearer the patterns get.
Company building is discovery
Companies never arrive fully formed. They evolve, react and find their iconic space via the feedback loops they experience with their surrounding ecosystem.
Ideas compound in combination
Truly unique ideas are rare. Most of what's new comes from combining ideas across fields. That's the whole reason for a latticework.
On living
Walk, and the way appears
Not every problem can be solved by thinking. Overthinking often does more harm than good. Bias toward motion, and great ideas show up along the way.
Tradeoffs are local, not global
Hard choices happen in moments, but in general a life can be positive-sum. Set it up so the things you want reinforce each other.
Hold two conflicting ideas
Don't stretch a framework after a few data points. Sit with the nuance: it may explain some of reality well and the rest poorly.
Spaciousness amid busyness
Slowness amid speed. Without some wandering it's easy to get stuck on good-enough answers.
Joyful competitiveness
Kobe-level relentlessness with Curry-level lightness. Staying light and not taking things too seriously makes the journey more fun :)
Standards become habits become outcomes
The bar you set comes before everything else: in work, health and relationships. Everything is a muscle, and it fades if you don't use it.
The "[your name] experience"
Everyone has a version of how others experience being around them. It exists whether you notice it or not, so own it and be intentional about it.