Dominance Friction

Jesse Beyroutey wants to build dominant companies. And his method for doing it is surprisingly generous.

So far, it’s working. At just 26, he made partner at IA Ventures. IA is quietly one of the most successful seed firms of the last decade, backing billion dollar startups like TransferWise, The Trade Desk, Komodo Health, Datadog, and Flatiron Health. Now, Jesse’s 30, and he plans to continue building IA for the next decade or longer.

So how does he find potentially dominant startups?

The first thing he does is define the term. When most people talk about “dominant” companies, they use it as a general word to mean “big” or “strong” or “intimidating.”