Building Gorilla Businesses

This episode is brought to you by:

Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis. If you're a professional equity investor and haven't talked to Canalyst recently, you should give them a shout. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/Patrick. 

Hall Capital Partners. Hall Capital is always looking for exceptional investment talent at any stage and size, so if you are raising capital or looking for a career change in the San Francisco or New York areas, you should check them out at hallcapital.com or e-mail at invest@hallcapital.com. 

[00:03:08] - [First question] - What he means by a gorilla company

[00:07:10] - An example of how companies self-organize into gorillas, chimps, and monkeys

[00:09:41] - Why architecture is so important and how it applies to company building 

[00:13:11] - How and when businesses should think about open and closed systems

[00:14:50] - Ways in which enabling tech companies are superior to application ones

[00:16:39] - Thoughts on approaching and hiring a singular use case company 

[00:18:23] - Markets underestimate competitive advantage periods for technological gorillas

[00:20:38] - The inertia and duration of being the creator of a space’s architecture

[00:23:28] - Advice for early-stage companies when creating or dominating categories 

[00:25:16] - What he’s learned about identifying trapped value 

[00:26:49] - Questions that can identify trapped value, factoring for time, and horizontal uses

[00:41:49] - Problems with risk exposure in B2B and applying this model for value creation

[00:33:37] - His initial discovery of the life cycles of adoption and its five categories

[00:39:29] - Perspective on venture capital funding and going from idea to the chasm

[00:44:10] - What good pragmatists in pain look like 

[00:47:29] - Successful vertical uses-case sales motions

[00:50:03] - Guarding from becoming over-specialized in a singular focused effort

[00:50:52] - The Diffusion of Innovations; Ways messages work their way through a company to keep up with category evolution 

[00:55:00] - How extensible these ideas are to non-technology businesses

[00:56:04] - The race between innovation and distribution 

[00:56:44] - What about the world today has changed or influenced his thinking

[00:59:17] - Ways big companies can stay competitive in emerging categories

[01:02:23] - The company he’s most enjoyed studying over his career 

[01:05:25] - Shared characteristics of exceptional leaders he’s met and talked to

[01:07:48] - The Gorilla Game, Crossing the Chasm

[01:08:14] - The kindest thing that anyone has ever done for him