Divinations

Get smarter about business strategy.

Nov 9, 2022

Status as a Disservice

The blue check fiasco reveals a shallow understanding of how status motivates participation in social networks. Here is a deeper look.

Jul 12, 2023

Twitter Is Fragmenting

The future of social networks is in smaller communities

Apr 15, 2022

Elon is Right: Twitter Should Open Up the Algorithm

Commoditizing tweets’ complement (the algorithm) will increase usage and rebuild trust

Aug 20, 2021

Twitter’s Longform Strategy

What does the future hold for readers and writers on Twitter?

May 1, 2021

Spotify’s Upcoming “Open Access Platform” is as Surprising as it is Awesome

I hope it becomes a new paradigm for the creator economy

May 21, 2021

Why I Love Working at Startups

A friendly rebuttal

Jan 16, 2020

Your actual competition

A guide to Porter’s “Five Forces” framework—through the lens of Spotify

Nov 16, 2022

Technology Waves and How to Ride Them

Advice for Generalist Founders

Nov 4, 2021

How Valuation Works

A guide to the “right way” (discounted cash flow analysis), and why “everything is dumb right now.”

Jul 11, 2020

Strategy should be painful

Businesses plateau for two reasons: Their strategy is wrong (Wrong Strategy Syndrome) They fail to execute any strategy at all (Fuzzy Strat

Dec 7, 2022

My Philosophy of Product Building (Part III)

On launching and learning

Sep 7, 2021

How Power Works in Venture Capital

Is being Sequoia actually pretty easy?

Jul 19, 2020

Disrupting Disruption

Strategy’s most famous theory could be wrong

May 12, 2022

Why Sh*t is Hitting the Fan

How the Fed accidentally scuttled your Series B, simply explained

Feb 11, 2020

The Four Strategies

How to understand the essence of any business

Dec 6, 2021

The Three Systems Beneath Network Effects

An exclusive excerpt from a16z general partner Andrew Chen’s new book, The Cold Start Problem

Dec 17, 2019

How Competition Works

It’s not like war, but it’s not like art class, either.

Apr 2, 2020

Why is Netflix more profitable than Spotify?

Three Shorts — April 2nd, 2020

Mar 5, 2020

Dominance Friction

Jesse Beyroutey, partner at IA Ventures, on why some companies achieve dominance while others get bogged down.

Sep 30, 2021

The Market Wedge: How to Pick Your Initial Market

How and why early-stage startups sacrifice growth for power

Nov 30, 2022

My Philosophy of Product Building (Part II)

Building your v1

Apr 10, 2020

Notion’s $2b Valuation is Sensible, Probably

Three Shorts: Notion, Roam, and “Time Preference”

Jul 3, 2020

Product Case Study: HEY

A radical new take on email

May 9, 2020

How creators can go “on tour” on the internet

Growing an audience ain’t what it used to be