Ian Rountree explains how portfolio company Earth AI applied a full-stack business model to mineral exploration.
Opinion
Rountree: Chaos Industries Has Worse Technology but Superior Commercial Execution
“There's, you know, a much better funded company incubated by ABC called Chaos Industries, which I personally think has worse technology, but they're doing a lot better because they've productized this, they're very good at selling it, they're very good at mark…”
Insight
Rountree: Selling low-cost commodities offsets deep tech technical risk
“Why I love commodities is because
It offsets the technical risk we're taking with less market risk, because I know if I'm selling a commodity, i.e., my product is molecularly identical to the competitors, but I have a cost advantage, I know you can sell that.”
Insight
Rountree: Startups with customer sales cycles over 18 months are de facto dead
“The main reason that startups are time limited is because you raise serially in, like, you know, whatever, you raise 18, 24 months of runway, and so, let's say you raise 24 months of runway, you need to start fundraising, let's say, six months before you run o…”
Insight
Rountree: Perfecting Technology in the Lab Delays Crucial Commercial Learning
“One of the things I didn't see there is that the learning curve matters. And once you start doing a thing, you tend to get better at it. And if you're commercializing something at small scale, you're kind of working out all the kinks that if you're, you know, …”
Insight
Rountree: Selling software to legacy industries limits operational innovation
“Every single time we've invested in a capable team or watched a capable team go after an industry with a lot of inertia there are a thousand little things that can be improved upon that if you're not, Taking that on, and you're just selling into the industry, …”
Opinion
Rountree: Khosla took market risk by investing in Impossible Foods
“Yeah, but he invested in impossible foods, forgetting that there was market risk there.”