NOTICE: Keating has joined the EisnerAmper family.
NOTICE: Keating has joined the EisnerAmper family.
At a recent a16z Summit, D'Arcy Coolican of Andreessen Horowitz insightfully expanded on the simple-but-crucial element of market timing for a startup by examining the concepts of societal "zeitgeists". If a startup is addressing one or more core issues within a current zeitgeist, they greatly increase the chance of survival because the solution doesn't have to be perfect out of the gate - the zeitgeist wants it solved so badly that society almost wills success and grants patience.
From the YouTube description of the video:
"You can’t predict the future, but you can get close by paying attention to the zeitgeist. In this talk from a16z Summit, D’Arcy Coolican shares how to create products that follow macro trends and gives examples of current trends capturing the attention of the media, investors, and talent teams today. D’Arcy identifies the ever-elusive concept of product zeitgeist fit including how to spot it, embrace it, and capitalize on it."
From Coolican:
“It turns out the best way to see the future isn’t to look for what’s working, it’s to look for what isn’t working, but people still really care about. The things that are broken, and terrible, and frustrating, but still inspiring energy and enthusiasm. The things that are sitting in the zeitgeist.”
“The death of most startups isn’t because they don’t get their tech to work or their competition out-executes them. The death of most startups is indifference. They fail to launch because nobody cares.”
Your startup doesn't necessarily have to be the hero in a zeitgeist (especially if you are not in consumer tech), but you have to make sure that somebody cares.
Good stuff. Take a listen.
