001 — Build Useless Things 🚀
Quick context: In an effort to get back into writing, I’m going to start sharing some unfiltered notes every Sunday. They will be simple posts that cover topics on my mind during the week. Feel free to call me out on anything.
For the past few years SV has been preaching to build useful things that people need. YCombinator, which is the leading incubator in the world has gone as far as to say that [with the exception of a few ideas] they would only invest in companies that want to up-end existing industries with technology. You can read endlessly about this all over the internet. The problem with this line of thinking is that it forces otherwise creative people to tackle problems they have little to no interest in. FOUNDERS WANT THAT PAPER. THEY NEED IT.
There is value in building products that tackle the antiquated financial industry, pushes healthcare forward, or helps farmers take advantage of technology to help support themselves. I don’t think there is value in ‘forcing’ groups of founders to conform to these ‘disruptive’ buckets. I’m all for constraints because they breed creativity, but this is a stretch.
We are starting to see the issues this is creating in FinTech, which was one of the first industries in this wave of disruption. Hint Hint SoFi…
I would much prefer a small amount of quality founders tackling big problems than every Jo Shmo founder out there thinking they are the next Internet Gandhi.
I’m very excited about VR/AR and the Blockchain. These technologies will infuse SV with a dose of much needed creativity. VCs are gonna come out of the woodwork wanting to fund useless things once again.
Some of the best companies, and industries have come from building useless things that founders are insanely passionate about. Don’t be discouraged and certainly don’t think you have to please investors with homogonous ideas they want you to pursue. Let others stay in their lane and get out there and build things you’re passionate about. Get out there and build useless things!
