Don’t Believe Your Own B.S.
In Silicon Valley, we worship the idea of superpowers — and for good reason. When you meet an outstanding Founder it’s like coming face-to-face with a true force of nature. They see what others do not. Their reality is not, nor ever has been, realistic in the ordinary world.
These “reality distortion fields” are necessary for the extreme sport of startups. I certainly found this to be true when I was building and scaling Trulia. How else can you sell a product to customers that doesn’t even exist yet? A future revenue plan for investors that is more pipe-dream than pipeline? An unbeatable opportunity to prospective employees when your odds of winning are 1 in a million? Proof points:
- Steve Jobs was so resolute in his vision for Apple I that he convinced a Mountain View store owner to purchase 50 of the computers even though he didn’t have the money to produce them. When he finally found a way and delivered the “assembled” computers, they not only required additional components and coding from the buyer, but also lacked a case — so they looked more like motherboards. When the store owner was reluctant to accept the machines, Jobs stared him down and persuaded him to take the leap.
- Diane Greene saw a huge opportunity that most others were blind to when as Founder/CEO of VMWare. At a gathering with several prominent startup Founders of the dot-com boom like Pets.com, Webvan, and Toys.com, Greene shared her vision for virtualization software. The Founders reflexively shot back that “software was dead”, not realizing that virtualization software would be the very innovation to catapult cloud-based computing. The ability to see around corners is precisely what makes reality distortion fields so powerful.
- Drew Houston stuck to his seemingly unreasonable belief that Dropbox would work, even after his idol told him it would fail. When Steve Jobs offered to acquire Dropbox, Houston turned down the offer. In response, Jobs told Houston that Apple would crush Dropbox. Most would have succumbed to Steve Jobs, but not Houston. Dropbox rose to industry dominance, IPO’d, and now has a $10 billion market cap.
But here’s the danger: superpowers cut both ways. They may spur meteoric growth, but without enough self-awareness, they can just as easily lead to a startup’s undoing. From Uber to Zenefits, we’ve seen this play out time and again. You might have the ability to see the future, but if you don’t learn to see beyond your own bullshit, you can destroy or impair the very company you’ve worked so hard to build.
This essay was originally posted on nfx.com. This is just a sample. Click here for the full essay.
About Pete Flint:
Pete is the founder and former Chairman and CEO of Trulia. In 2015 Pete merged Trulia with Zillow in a transaction which valued Trulia at $3.5BN, after which he served on the Zillow Group board. Previously he was part of the founding team of lastminute.com which was acquired for over $1.1BN. Today, he is a Managing Partner at NFX. Follow Pete on Twitter here.
About NFX:
NFX is a seed and series A venture firm based in San Francisco. Founded by entrepreneurs who built 10 companies with more than $10 billion in exits across multiple industries and geographies, NFX is transforming how true innovators are funded. Follow us on Twitter
