The core framework of playing to win remains the most useful thing I’ve ever encountered in business writing.
So many strategies large and small fail because of capabilities. Depending how senior you are or how much flexibility you have, capabilities become the constraint in strategy.
And then eventually you realize if you want to expand the terrain, you need to expand your capabilities.
For new or young leaders one of the big leaps you need to make, a great filter of sorts, is hiring great people outside your personal zone of genius but that who expand the capabilities of the team, and thus what is possible for the team to achieve.
First time it happens it almost feels like magic.
Every time it happens I still feel like a kid at Christmas.
just do things man do things bro just like pay attention to the world around you and be curious!
just write. just create. don't repackage. synthesize! create novelty! understand the world. don't just hear the world, don't echo it. listen to the world, and enhance it
feel it!
WalkingRAG is finally out! After so many versions and prototypes the UI is done, I couldn't help but record a quick demo
Glad to have this out as we close the week, pretty excited to get this in the hands of customers 🚀
Software as a Commodity > Software Eating the World
By: Nathan Resnick
The sales engineer was walking me through their unified API platform. It would cost me a huge sum and I’d have to commit for a year. Before the demo was over, I had discovered six other solutions, two of which I could sign up for right away without any commitment. They both cost 90% less, had 95% fewer employees, and hadn’t reported any venture funding.
It has been 10 years since @pmarca famously wrote the essay, “Why Software Is Eating the World.” In it, he describes how internet companies are building real defensible businesses.
He was right to an extent, 28% of the S&P 500 is now made up by market capitalization from tech companies and the top seven, all of which are tech, determined the returns.
If you look back 10 years ago, software creation took capital, time, and people. In today’s world, the cost to create and sell software nears 0.
Software is as competitive as ever. Every salesperson gets asked, what sets you apart from Y competitors?
What used to take dozens of engineers to accomplish, now takes one. Customers can onboard themselves, driving the cost of sales down and a great product can drive self expansion. It is true and will continue to unfold; AI has been an enabler here.
If you look into the power laws of VC, any sign of success is followed by severe competition driving down returns.
Stripe, the darling of Silicon Valley worth $50B, is getting squeezed by competitors like Adyen and Checkout. As their customers like DoorDash grow bigger and handle more payments, they are more likely to seek a discount on the fee Stripe charges for each transaction. Doordash has options, Stripe doesn’t.