Competitive Edge

with market-industry around me, what I am best at, better at than others, what is my edge
assets (how you get there), market realities, asipirations (goals, where you want to go)
assets - $$, soft -who I know, my skillset (amplify, develop them), what was going on in the industry, know who to call to solve questions, and how to evolve these
people and skills - key problem to solve (in start-up like falling off a cliff and need to build a plane, fires everywhere, need to determine what to focus on with advisors)
edge: play your strengths, passions/aspirations, tiger-mom approach- figure out market needs and go do that
what should I invest in: assets, aspirations, market realities
do intense plan for couple of years only, excecute it and pay attn (passions can change, assets are increasing, market is changing)
real relationships with allies are essential (as well as acquaintances who have different interests than you)
flexible persistence (vision, mission, conviction, flexible-really customer demand, product-market fit)
domain experts (get options, day-to-day), personally know you well (mom- know who I am), smart people but have perspective to add (cross-check)

Networks

can change the curve of business/how I operate
~~allies (time, emotional investment), colleagues, tackling world together~~
identify people you're going through life with; explicit conversations are needed (specific, not trade-in alliance), working on together and help each other
pick investments together, key trends; learn faster and direct companies better
1 + 1 > 2
acquaintances - friendly but not full-on friends, large swath that spans industries, diversity of ideas, fresh blood
need both alliances and acquintances- blend of close and weak ties valuable with coherent trust dymanic and plent of informational diversity
this works for start-up's
online networking just amplifies connections
be thoughtful and systemic how I am building alliances and acquaintances - how I help others
~~theory of small gifts - give people something valuable to them~~
interesting people find/free commitment strategy- pre-allocating time, energy, money to this
meeting new person even someone famous - referral from someone you know and trust, but can always help them (information they have not heard before)
connect based on another person
be attentive to how you can help
really careful about what you are doing is not an ask
double intro- are you intested in meeting from both parties
common humor

attack risks, take intelligent risks - driving initiatives with intelligent risks
mortal (consequences are really bad)/immortal risk- huge amount of energy that it goes well bc highly adverse
intelligent risk - immortal risk can question your loyalty to current responsibilities, not being a great idea, but put extra work, approaching mgr, aggreeing, having others work with him- easiest way, help out in some way other team for free
competitive edge- take intelligent risk and knowing how to manage it
start-up - moving so quickly, can't fill in every variable in risk model, limited info, so much uncertainty
~if worst case scenario survivable then will take on risk
if not much competition then have time to build business leadership skills
what if you don't know market realities/totally new domain, not a substitution - use network, and if hypothesis is true, what other things can I observe - proxy to psychological mindset, test it with cheap shots, do something small and get some data on it

ovreall arching mindset, approach to life - permanent beta
always growing, iterating, improving, always Day 1 to not rest on laurels, not dwelling on past successes
not finished; otherwise, that's when competitor will overtake them, work in progress
always invest in self, continue to adapt and evolve (competitive edge, network, intelligent risks)
Benjamin Franklin - will I go to bed tonight smarter than I am right now?
keep reinventing self
always in test phase
to bootstrap
financing- think of next round- higher valuation (progress), island-hopping, prove to have broader range of investors to invest in
where to get best possible data to accelerate users; customer flow; figuring out how to acquire, better quality, efficient, consistent way
opportunities- careers don't work with series of jobs, but puncutated with breakout opportunities to accelerate co, best way to hustle is to interact with hustlers who have been able to survive
sage advice- investment is like marriage, how to build really good relationship fast, risk: what are the risks and how you are trying to manage it (if don't mention risk- blind or lying) to build trust and confidence