Clubhouse, Hype & Startups
Clubhouse blew up within VC circles a few weeks ago. Invite-only and with reportedly only 5,000 users, it is already being hyped as the next Twitter or Snapchat.
On trend and on theme, Clubhouse leverages the last unused social channel (voice) at a time when people are tired of seeing each other on Zoom videos and want a bit of spontaneity, serendipity and joy in their lives. It’s not a new paradigm either, as the likes of Discord, Snap and Houseparty have paved the way; you know how we VCs love our analogs ;-)
As Alex Konrad’s scoop hits twitter, we discover that the first wave of the hype plan has worked, as Andreessen Horowitz leads a $100M pre-money round with (shock, horror) $2M in secondary (just like Facebook). Well done, now it’s Time to Build :-)
It’s quite the shortcut, creating a hype wave within the circle that’s going to fund you. I can only admire the marketing prowess.
As expected a lot of heat is coming out around the perceived absurdity of the financing, the excessive secondary, the low number of users etc. — all mind you from people who probably aren’t anywhere near the company or its backers.
Hype is a powerful force, a wave. By its very nature, it divides opinions, and it can turn against you. Used poorly it is also downright manipulative. But it’s also a core part of how many startups get off the ground.
To quote Mike Maples, Jr., “startups start out dead and have to prove they are alive”, and because they paint a picture of a future that does not yet exist, “they have to become a movement”. In other words, they have to galvanise people around a potential that does not exist yet.
Let me take another example: Roam Research. For its devoted base of users, myself included, it is a game-changer in research and the organisation of thoughts; it is also a cult, the #RoamCult. Read the brilliant post by Jeff Morris Jr. on why he invested.
One day, I will tell people that I fell in love with a band called Roam Research before they blew up.
There you have it. The next undiscovered band, and quite the Hype Engine: “Is Roam a future Notion competitor? Wikipedia 2.0? Quora 2.0? Evernote built by devs? A Google Docs replacement? Github for ideas?”
You may find it less offensive because it’s does “serious things”, but the mechanics are the same.
Hype, startup edition, is a tool for people who invent the future to get other people to believe in them and follow them. It relies on having strong opinions about the world and making bold statements. It can turn on you. It can be used in dubious ways too (read Gemma Milne’s book — Smoke and Mirrors). It can make people really angry. It requires all of us to keep a critical mind and debunk the copious amounts of BS being thrown at us. But it works. And it’s usually fun, which is a real bonus these days.
We don’t know if Clubhouse will becomes a laughing stock or a place where a billion people experience the joy of serendipitous conversation. But as an exercise in leveraging hype to get to the first goal post, I’m pretty impressed.
