Three Things I Learned in SaaS, Sports, Tech, & Live Events for 1/12/24
Three Things: Stanford's loss is our opportunity - Travel in the early days of a start-up and selling control
Three Things I Learned In SaaS, Sports, Tech, & Live Events
Started the week in Houston for the CFP National Championship Game. There are a lot of balls in the air this week, so, a short one this week:
Under 51% may as well be zero. I traveled to the game with a highly successful friend. He’s one of those geniuses who isn't aware of his genius and drops life-changing knowledge like it’s commonplace. We were talking about businesses and common mistakes. He mentioned the advice he got early on in his company: “When selling your business, just know anything which drops you below 51% is effectively the same as zero when it comes to control.”
In "How I Built This," the author tells the story of James Dyson losing his first patent and company after selling himself down to 30% ownership. He couldn’t do anything to stop it. Who we sell to matters. How much we sell matters even more.Stanford turning away superstars is an opportunity for us all. Many colleges have been an economic grift, or absurd elitism, for a long time- though this isn't the outlet for that rant. A relic that survives thanks to social pressure as many believe companies will "only give the great jobs to the top universities." That hasn't been my experience recently. According to the WSJ, Stanford, considered a top institution by many, is turning away ~75% of the applicants who get a perfect SAT score. Other universities are getting as difficult. A close friend is a big Michigan fan and an alum. His son, who has nearly a 5.0 GPA and immaculate test scores, didn't get into his alma mater The good news is that this is the real world, not academia, and results matter here. We can use this to our advantage. FWIW: My top two revenue drivers graduated from Sonoma State University - a school many outside of the area don't even know exists. And they're 10x'ers
Travel and start-ups. One of the worst parts of the early years is the travel. Every single penny counts: the cheapest fair possible, the cheapest hotel possible, and lots of subway sandwiches. Don’t get me wrong, it's a good thing in the end. These days just flying coach at a regular hour, without connections, and staying at a Fairfield Inn feels like the good life to me.