Proprietary Networks

I thought this tweet from Keith Rabois was super interesting:

Proprietary NetworksI thought this tweet from Keith Rabois was super interesting:


I thought this tweet from Keith Rabois was super interesting:

@km brand and proprietary networks are the only asset a VC builds

— Keith Rabois (@rabois) February 15, 2016

The idea is that “proprietary networks” are the only sustainable forms of competitive advantage long term. Everything else can be defeated by competition. While it is not a law, I do subscribe (at least partially) to this idea.

I think you can gain an immense advantage over the rest of the market by having the best conversations with the best people — more often than anyone else.

I think what he means by proprietary is that forming these networks — small communities — where these special conversations happen, is both rare and extremely valuable long term.

I think lots of people try and fail to form long term valuable communities like this because they scale too quickly, try to monetize them, etc.

What they do not see is the intrinsic value of smart people having lots of conversations with each other about the future.

These are people you work on projects with. You battle ideas out with each other.

These are people you want on your team.

Where do you go to build these communities?

Can you organically?

I feel as if over the last few months I have been building a small army of people I would love to build more things with. I have a tiny slack group with ~ 20 people in it — where all we talk about is solving problems and product building philosophy.

I wonder how valuable this group will be in the long run.


Originally published at gonen.blog.

Tagged in Startup

By jordangonen on November 7, 2017.

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Exported from Medium on February 17, 2018.