Book Club, September '22 Edition

No time to waste right now, so let’s dive into JP’s recommended reads for the month of September:

Why Youth Has an Advantage in Innovation & Why You Want To Be a Learn-It-All, by Bill Gurley

Bill Gurley, partner at the powerhouse Silicon Valley VC firm Benchmark Capital, is known for making an $11M investment in Uber back in 2011, which paid off to the tune of billion$. Additionally, he’s been involved in GrubHub, Zillow, & Glassdoor, just to name a few (the guy is major league). In this blog on Above The Crowd, he dives into why founders that are youthful can have strikingly larger advantages in the world of tech & startups as opposed to their older counterparts.

Given the youthful spirit of JP & its founders, we thought this might be fitting, especially given the velocity at which many of us are beginning to Pop Off.

How the 100 Largest Marketplaces Solved the Chicken & Egg Problem, by Eli Chait

There are quite a few founders in JP building marketplace startups; some traditional 2-sided, and some even 3-sided. Eli founded OpenTable, which arguably was one of the first companies to master “land & expand” as well as “single player mode” for seeding & scaling marketplaces/platforms. He also dives into another 2 methods for founding/seeding marketplaces:

• Fill empty seats

• Buyers are sellers

So, founders, which one os for you? Read Eli’s blog to find out!

How to Be Silicon Valley, by Paul Graham

Photo by Greg Bulla on Unsplash

PG is one of SF’s luminaries & needs no introduction. As JP continues to grow in size & more importantly influence, it’s vital each founder in the mob keeps a fresh lens on what we’re stirring up in our valley. We’re actively engineering our own ecosystem; the network effects are massive in a 15-20yr scope if we do this right, so go ahead and give this a read.

Until Next Month…

Kick some ass & take some names.

AL