The Exchanges

Q What do you mean by entrepreneurs have become democratized?

A So, you know, I think there was a time when, uh, if you wanted to become an entrepreneur, you had to have the right connections. You had to have access to a lot of money and capital. You had to kind of Looked the part, and you know, if you look at the, like, famous entrepreneurs in history, a lot of them came from very specific kinds of backgrounds, and it was a rare thing. It was considered a little bit crazy. You know, as, as the semiconductor revolution has kind of systematically, you know, eradicated barriers to entry for everything, I think about it, you know, you go back to the old Karl Marx idea of who, who owns the means of production. Well, we are now living through a time where you can rent the means of production, which means that if you want to test an idea, if you want to start something in your dorm room at Harvard, You know, just because you started small doesn't necessarily mean it can't scale to something, you know, massively large. And so, uh, you have that phenomenon. Plus, the fact of the internet itself has made the idea of entrepreneurship as a possible career path accessible to people who, you know, you used to have to, like, know somebody in Silicon Valley to kind of, like, understand what was happening here. Now, Silicon Valley is like a reality TV show that everyone on the world watches.

AI assessment note: “made the idea of entrepreneurship as a possible career path accessible to people”

Q So like, what's the high level moral of that story?

A So there's a couple of things. One is just people use it as an example, I think, to see how minimum viable product thinking can work, right? So reduce scope, reduce the number of customers affected, um, try to figure out what is that experiment that can help us learn whether our strategy is actually right. And in this case, What they learned was that what they thought customers wanted was wildly different than what they actually wanted. But the other moral of the story is that this, before it is anything else, is a management issue. It is not a technology issue. It is not a process or tools issue. It is really about how do we manage people. Most companies have all the raw material they need to work in this more entrepreneurial way, including, by the way, the actual people that you would need to act in this creative way. I mean, I'm amazed at the caliber of people who work at these companies who are being told what to do.

AI assessment note: “the other moral of the story is that this... is a management issue”

Q What do you mean by entrepreneurs have become democratized?

A So, you know, I think there was a time when, uh, if you wanted to become an entrepreneur, you had to have the right connections. You had to have access to a lot of money and capital. You had to kind of Looked the part, and you know, if you look at the, like, famous entrepreneurs in history, a lot of them came from very specific kinds of backgrounds, and it was a rare thing. It was considered a little bit crazy. You know, as, as the semiconductor revolution has kind of systematically, you know, eradicated barriers to entry for everything, I think about it, you know, you go back to the old Karl Marx idea of who, who owns the means of production. Well, we are now living through a time where you can rent the means of production, which means that if you want to test an idea, if you want to start something in your dorm room at Harvard, You know, just because you started small doesn't necessarily mean it can't scale to something, you know, massively large. And so, uh, you have that phenomenon. Plus, the fact of the internet itself has made the idea of entrepreneurship as a possible career path accessible to people who, you know, you used to have to, like, know somebody in Silicon Valley to kind of, like, understand what was happening here. Now, Silicon Valley is like a reality TV show that everyone on the world watches.

AI assessment note: “eradicated barriers to entry for everything... you can rent the means of production”

Q then take on that company. So it's a really big deal that they can't, some of these companies can't then innovate themselves. So it's a big problem you're talking about is how to get at that. So anyway, so given this Condition. Like how, what have you seen about how people are becoming, I mean, isn't there a word called entrepreneurs that's been around forever? Like, what does that mean?

A Yeah. I, you know, I don't actually like that word that much because I feel like, you know, an entrepreneur is an entrepreneur. It doesn't matter if they live in a garage or they wear a suit or they have health benefits or they eat ramen noodles. Like the, the, the surface details don't matter. What matters is the fundamental, you know, reality of their job, which is they're trying to create something fundamentally new. And, you know, a lot of big companies actually have outside Outstanding research labs where they're doing breakthrough science and they manage the scientific uncertainty really well. And yet, as soon as they take those discoveries out of the lab, it's like, okay, we're done with the science, now the astrology. And it's like, they take these world-class scientists and like, forget everything you know about science, now we're going to build a business plan. Tell me what's going to happen in the future. And then make it happen through the power of your mind.

AI assessment note: “I don't actually like that word that much because I feel like, you know, an entrepreneur is an entrepreneur.”

Q then take on that company. So it's a really big deal that they can't, some of these companies can't then innovate themselves. So it's a big problem you're talking about is how to get at that. So anyway, so given this Condition. Like how, what have you seen about how people are becoming, I mean, isn't there a word called entrepreneurs that's been around forever? Like, what does that mean?

A Yeah. I, you know, I don't actually like that word that much because I feel like, you know, an entrepreneur is an entrepreneur. It doesn't matter if they live in a garage or they wear a suit or they have health benefits or they eat ramen noodles. Like the, the, the surface details don't matter. What matters is the fundamental, you know, reality of their job, which is they're trying to create something fundamentally new. And, you know, a lot of big companies actually have outside Outstanding research labs where they're doing breakthrough science and they manage the scientific uncertainty really well. And yet, as soon as they take those discoveries out of the lab, it's like, okay, we're done with the science, now the astrology. And it's like, they take these world-class scientists and like, forget everything you know about science, now we're going to build a business plan. Tell me what's going to happen in the future. And then make it happen through the power of your mind.

AI assessment note: “I don't actually like that word that much because I feel like”

Q Which is probably also a sign of not a good thing, but, um, that do own this in some way, shape, or form. I mean, what's the, how do you prevent the risk of that just being yet another idea that doesn't go anywhere? Like, how do you, how does Lean Startup kind of help with that? Like, what have you seen on the front lines of that?

A Someone once came up to me after a talk, and they said, I have a question for you. There's this guy in my company who has a C-level title. I think his title was like Chief Information, Chief Innovation Officer or something. He's like, that guy always comes to work in red pants. He has no responsibilities. He doesn't do anything as far as I can tell. He has no, like, he doesn't have no operational, he's not responsible for any quarterly targets. He's like, if I came into work dressed like that and talking like he'd, I'd be fired in a heartbeat. He's literally like coming up to me like, can you explain to me what this person does?

AI assessment note: “can you explain to me what this person does?”