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
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
