Taylor Cordoba, founder and CEO of Havilo, explains why finding the right co-founder is more important than committing to an initial business idea.
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Cordoba: Most startup failures stem from founder breakups
“Well, and most, because I worked after I graduated, I worked for Berkeley Skydeck, and most of the, like, startups that fail, fail due to, like, founder breakups.”
Insight
Cordoba: Universities, not accelerators, are the primary centers for startup collisions
“I found that those four things tend to live in or around a university, or they live in or around some sort of central community that touches all of them. So accelerators serve this purpose on a micro scale, but really university is the biggest portion of this.”
Insight
Cordoba: AI lacks novelty; breakthrough ideas require human creative collisions
“They're not known for novelty. It is human creativity that does that, and you have to collide with the right people in order for those awesome ideas to emerge.”
Insight
Cordoba: Harvard-MIT lagged Silicon Valley due to concentrated, non-diverse networks
“Even if you look at part of my research in undergrad, so I looked at, okay, even on the East Coast, there's plenty of innovation, but the Harvard-MIT geographical region hasn't yielded the same outcomes as, say, the Stanford-Berkeley, Silicon Valley region, ri…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Cordoba: Future innovation will come from non-coastal, blue-collar industries
“I think that the future of innovation is going to come from the
Less flashy industries than what we've seen historically.
I believe it's going to come from the regions and areas that, as I, listen, I born and raised California, love the West Coast.
I do believ…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Cordoba: Every founder joined Berkeley Skydeck to access its network
“Every founder without fail said the reason I joined is because I want access to the Berkeley network.”