innonate - Latest Comments in Thesis Driven Startups & Investing

Re: Thesis Driven Startups & Investing

Nate Westheimer — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:54:24 -0000

good luck!

Re: Thesis Driven Startups & Investing

ADstruc — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:22:24 -0000

Nate - great post. It is all about the thesis and as you mention, its useless unless strategically acted upon and executed properly (and probably according to the thesis). Also, the thesis is the passion on paper that is a continually reminder/driving point for the team to work for and against. Our team has a great thesis and is looking to secure the funds to take our product another step.

John
ADstruc
Building the first online marketplace for buying/selling outdoor advertising.

Re: Thesis Driven Startups & Investing

Nate Westheimer — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 04:32:52 -0000

No, your thesis is very important here. Would love to have a collection of theses somewhere, just to read through. Not a surprise, I love yours.

Re: Thesis Driven Startups & Investing

Nate Westheimer — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 04:31:51 -0000

Very valid point about how useless a thesis can be for a team who doesn't execute. But it's a good framework to execute around for a team that does.

Re: Thesis Driven Startups & Investing

paramendra — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 17:26:29 -0000

This is one of your better blog posts.

Drop.io is a pride of New York.

This is the first time I am getting the news on Drop.io and Yahoo Mail. This is huge.

I also admire Fred Wilson. Got to know him through his blog. Have exchanged a few emails.

AnyClip has huge potential. Sorry, did not mean to ask an odd question at your NYTM demo. AnyClip will do for old movies what trailers do for new movies. I think you have a killer startup. Ride on.

Re: Thesis Driven Startups & Investing

lessin — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:09:58 -0000

thanks for the shoutout nate, very much appreciate your kind words.... I, clearly, agree that thesis is critical - but as you point, out not in a vacuum. Thesis is necessary, but not sufficient.

To explain... drop.io's consumer interface is not a pure expression of where we think the world is going -- rather, we think that it is a necessary step down a continuum... So, the real balancing act is staying honest to your long term big thesis, while practically executing along down the chain.

some companies I believe do a great job at executing against a particular market or immediate need, but in so doing loose sight of their big thesis and find themselves boxed into a corner. They do a good job painting, but ultimately paint themselves into a corner.

others I have seen with wonderful long-term theses to define their ultimate objective, but they never start painting.

We try to factor for providing real and immediate useful product -- diligently painting away -- while keeping our thesis in mind to make sure that we are not sacrificing tomorrow for today...

the reason that we are talking about our thesis at all is that as we launch http://dev.drop.io - we think that others need to know what we are really after in order to best use our opened services

Re: Thesis Driven Startups & Investing

aweissman — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 09:39:44 -0000

Our thesis - which is unimportant here - is comprised of certain elements (core beliefs, philosophies if you will). One of those relates to businesses that are "data washing machines" - those that take dirty (unstructured) data and cleanse it - add structure, or metadata to it, thereby increasing the value of that data to existing or new users of it. Data, in effect, increases in value as it get passed along.