From the Operators
Justin Baker of Ten-X has an interesting look at the challenges around attracting quality engineering talent, and notes that not only is there a lack of quantity, but those who are available are asking for more money with less experience - making hiring significantly more difficult - in "2018's Software Engineering Talent Shortage— It’s quality, not just quantity"
Jean-Pierre Pequito of Intercom addresses what it takes to truly become a platform, and provides three mistakes that most "platform" companies make before realizing that they need to earn the badge, and not manufacture it, in "The pains of growing a platform"
Steve Blank of Stanford (and serial founder) uses Tesla to demonstrate the power of a new, visionary player in an industry of incumbents, noting that "the assets, expertise, and mindset that made [the incumbents] leaders in the past are usually the baggage that prevents them from seeing the future" in "Tesla: How to Lose $700 Million and Maintain a $60 Billion Valuation"
Yinon Weiss of CarDash explains three fundamental ways most startup CEOs spend their time - recruiting, strategizing, staying alive - and tacks on the final "other" which is explained as the tasks that just won't get done by anyone else - in "How startup CEOs spend their time"
From the Investors
Morgan Housel of Collaborative Fund uses the chasm of experiences between us all to explain the value behind understanding those experiences from the founder's eyes in "We're All Innocently Out of Touch"
Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures looks at several portfolio companies (including Kickstarter, Etsy, and more) and explains how organic customer acquisition is the best channel of them all in "The Top Of The Funnel"
Tomasz Tunguz of Redpoint Ventures explains how the market gap between Coke and Pepsi can explain the power of competition in SaaS, saying "you can create a sustainable competitive advantage for your startup by understanding the true axes of competition" in "False Competition - Why Defining Axes of Competition Matters"
Jared Sleeper of Matrix Partners continues a recent trend of justifying why startups are so important in the face of the unstoppable giants like Google, Facebook, and Amazon in "The case for startups in the age of Goliaths"
