Hungry Start-up Strategy

NOTES

1. Many very valuable companies in the 2000s—such as Twitter and Instagram—attract numerous users but not many paying customers. Their value is related to their growth and their potential to attract advertisers. My successful 1990s start-up investments drew paying customers and the failed ones were unable to attract users or paying customers.

2. From Porter’s 1980 book, Competitive Strategy, the five forces—rivalry among existing competitors, the bargaining power of buyers, the threat of new entry, the threat of substitute products, and the bargaining power of suppliers. Porter argues, explain why industries vary in their return on equity based on the varying strength of these forces.

3. Peter Cohan, “Head in the Cloud,” Hemispheres, November ...