(Excerpt from Modern Monopolies by Alex Moazed and Nicholas L. Johnson) network effects are a double-edged sword. Successful platforms are very hard to compete against, but the same network effects that drive growth...
(Excerpt from Modern Monopolies by Alex Moazed and Nicholas L. Johnson) Uber’s “surge pricing”—dynamic pricing that rises in response to high demand—is a direct attempt to balance supply and demand. Surge...
(Excerpt from Modern Monopolies by Alex Moazed and Nicholas L. Johnson) Monopolies are typically viewed as a result of market forces breaking down—the forces of supply and demand aren’t able to keep a company’s...
(Excerpt from Modern Monopolies by Alex Moazed and Nicholas L. Johnson) (Fred Wilson) he has told what he called the “dentist office software story.” The story, “a modern day fable about defensibility in the...
(Excerpt from Modern Monopolies by Alex Moazed and Nicholas L. Johnson) The core argument in favor of markets was always that they were more efficient than central planning. In the United States, we take that as gospel,...
(Extracted from My top essays/tweetstorms in 2019 on product/market fit, investing, KPIs, YouTubers, and more by Andrew Chen) 2019 state of tech investing: Pre-seed- Bet on the entrepreneur Seed- Bet on the...
(Excerpt from Bloomberg on Bloomberg) Humans are loath to change and nervous about anything difficult to understand. More capabilities, better efficiency, increased reliability, fewer controls—all are benefits buyers...
(Excerpt from Zero to One by Peter Thiel) seven questions that every business must answer: The Engineering QuestionCan you create breakthrough technology instead of incremental improvements? The Timing QuestionIs now...
(Excerpt from Zero to One by Peter Thiel) There are two kinds of secrets: secrets of nature and secrets about people. Natural secrets exist all around us; to find them, one must study some undiscovered aspect of the...
(Excerpt from Zero to One by Peter Thiel) The power law is not just important to investors; rather, it’s important to everybody because everybody is an investor. An entrepreneur makes a major investment just by...
