welcome back to this third segment here
we are with Brad Feld so in this segment
lightning round ideally it’s either/or
you can’t really answer it depends but
again nobody’s gonna cry if you decide
to even expand so let’s start off what’s
more important idea or entrepreneur
entrepreneur what’s more important idea
or execution execution what’s more
important execution or entrepreneur
neither okay is there not separable okay
interesting so to you even if you have
an entrepreneur who’s like a big idea
guy you expect him to be the education I
think I think I’ve thing in that context
to the company okay okay fair enough um
what’s more important timing or look
neither is there one thing that you
think is you can’t control either of
them tick and they’re not controllable
so I think the only things that you can
put importance on are things that you
can control okay love by the way luck is
great and awesome timing is great but as
an entrepreneur you can’t control either
room fair enough icic your perspective
so what is more important we hear
content is king but nowadays the
companies that have the most amount of
value it’s the distribution companies
what’s more important content or
distribution it changes over time and it
depends on what you’re dealing with
today right note it depends on the
segment you rent and in fact it’s very
interesting many of the distribution
dynamics change very rapidly and one of
the reasons there’s so many challenges
that existing incumbent content
providers have and why there’s such
messed up intellectual property dynamics
around content is because you have
incumbents trying to prevent new
distribution dynamics from appearing in
the market you have other situations
where the distribution dynamics are
untenable in the context of the content
being created and so this dislocation
will continue to change I believe that
when we get teleportation machines and
we can teleport us to Europe and five
minutes distribution changes again right
so it’s it’s I think it’s very hard to
take the two apart fair enough i’d like
to have a record a conversation with you
and you
must there okay what’s more important
data or distribution never thought about
it I think data is more important okay
and what’s more important data or
content no I think data is way more
important okay so speaking on data let’s
just double click there and expand is
the fact that data is big data is so hot
now has it always been hot or is it that
the technology and the data capturing is
change or is it just a recent phenomenon
and if so why yeah I was the keynote at
a conference last week that was a big
data conference in Boston and my my
headline sentence i started my talk off
first thing in the morning by saying big
data is and you know the thing
that we call big data today will be
microscopic data in 20 years and so the
idea that there’s this special thing
happening that’s unique it’s just the
label of the day it’s always been a
phenomena of trying to deal with this
data and the interesting thing is you
get new vectors right 10 years ago we
didn’t have real-time geolocation in our
data right we didn’t have chocolate in
our peanut butter and now we have
chocolate and our peanut butter and
there’s a whole different set of things
you have to do we didn’t have the
ability from a computer spective to
process a bunch of this stuff in real
time and now we have the ability to
process a bunch of stuff in real time
those two things are intrinsically
linked I mean it’s interesting that
dichotomies of many of these questions
which is more important i guess i guess
i don’t care if i had sort of a wrap-up
question across all of this is do you
actually care about the answer to any of
those questions like that i actually
care if i’m right or wrong because i
think all of the individual components
are important and in the context of data
when I answer data versus content I
actually view it much much harder to
understand what’s happening than it is
to do something that people respond
positively to so for example I’ll use
cheeseburger as a fun example that Ben
ha who’s the CEO of cheeseburger
believes that humans already know it’s
funny and that we don’t need to
manufacture funny that what we need to
do is surface it and then we can add to
it now you can say that’s cute for cat
pictures but that can’t make full length
movies and the answer is why not
right and you know I having somebody who
you know just wrote a couple of books
you know is there a difference between a
long-form book and a blog post and a
video absolutely right which is more
important the content that I created
there or the distribution well let’s see
the contents actually quite important
because unless the content makes any
sense nobody gives a the
distribution actually matters but maybe
not the distributions exist today the
physical book distribution doesn’t
matter not even clear that the
distribution of the virtual book or the
the digital book matters the
distribution of the ideas matter and so
how do you distribute those ideas and
you can’t distribute those ideas 200
pages at a time all right so how do you
deal with that in the context of this
rapidly evolving world you touched how
is it I totally obfuscate of device name
right but what I was gonna say it’s good
it’s now the thunders not it’s falling
yet this is the same Superman touched on
something so we’re gonna go on a total a
tangent here you talked about Ben who I
met a couple times once in New York he’s
Seattle entrepreneur cheezburger network
so maybe six to 18 months he start to
get more and more in the press in a good
way but also less good ways but my point
is he was under the limelight today you
see BuzzFeed in the news for a lot of
the same reasons like trying to capture
what’s viral and all that so my point is
I hope they both do kickass exits
everybody’s happy but you as an investor
in Ben’s company when you see enough
you’re not an investor in BuzzFeed ok so
when you see another company that’s more
or less trying to have the same message
what’s your reaction do you take that
email you take that article about
BuzzFeed being the latest thing since
sliced bread do you send it to Ben or do
you send it to a couple of guys on this
team do you send it to members of the
board if you’re on the board and you’re
like hey guys these guys like tell take
me through that you know so for starters
most of those situations you know the
the somebody like Ben knows all of his
competitors and other things that are
happening they’re interested what
interesting well but before I do and if
I see them they’re mostly just hear some
data I I actually don’t personally worry
that much about the competitive dynamics
in a rapidly emerging segment I believe
very strongly you should study your
competitors closely understand what
they’re doing and then concentrate on
doing what you do that’s unique and
special and we’re fortunate in that many
of the companies we invest in are you
know the leaders in their market or the
number two in their market and those are
both you know the classic GE be number
one or be number two in your market as
an adventure investor I’m okay with
either of those positions they require
different strategies and when you look
at the competitive dynamics like to say
be obsessed about your competitors while
not worrying about them at all know what
they’re doing but stay focused on what
you’re trying to achieve and if what
you’re trying to achieve doesn’t make
sense at some point change it but don’t
let it be influenced by whatever the
latest thing that somebody wrote about
it’ll be data-driven okay it’s nice that
everybody’s talking about them but does
it actually have any impact on what’s
happening to you and is it actually the
same thing you’re doing or is it just a
lightweight copy of what you’re doing
and if it’s a lightweight copy of what
you’re doing what are you doing that’s
different and defensible okay good stuff
a couple more questions and then you’re
off so would you say that early stage
investing or VC many or whatever bc’s
usually invest in or even late stage is
are any of those are all of those are
none of those like leading indicators of
what’s becoming hot or is the trailing
indicators and that it’s already been
hot it’s grown and they’re not the money
comes after it I think it varies by
investor I think a mistake that a lot of
entrepreneurs make is looking at VCS as
a single archetype yeah you know there’s
I don’t know whether there’s 10 or 20 or
50 archetypes but it’s like Dungeons and
Dragons which is what I played when I
was a kid or magic the gathering or you
know there’s just a lot of different
archetypes and to say all vc’s fit in
the same archetype and there
or is an error an early-stage investor
that has very very deep knowledge in an
area can be a very powerful leading
indicator that person can also
completely miss the boat I said just
because they’re an early-stage investor
doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re
going to be leading a care and the same
is true the other direction right the
later stage investor that is investing
in things in a significant way but
before anybody really recognizes that
that category is taking off actually
might be a good leading indicator
they’re also very obvious lagging
indicator characteristics right the 17th
thing that gets funded that looks like
cheeseburger for example okay got it
right and so but that’s already you know
that ship has sailed and then you have
to ask the interesting question is is
what cheeseburgers mission still
compelling and relevant and a company
that never refreshes what it’s trying to
get at based on the dynamics of how the
market unfolds is probably not one
that’s going to be successful good stuff
last question are you expecting a big
shake out amongst all the incubators
that have popped up around the country
and in fact around the world so separate
incubators from accelerators because I
really use the words deliberately
different so extend what is what are you
well for me an accelerator is a program
like TechStars that give somebody money
gives a company money relatively small
amount of money in exchange for some
equity in the company puts them through
a 90-day program the style that is a
text our style is a very heavy mentor
driven program you’re surrounded by 50
50 to 100 mentors for the program and
whatever the geography it is and that 90
day cycle at the end and buy the land
techstars there’s a belief that you have
to be co-located so there’s a lot of
value in having everybody in the same
physical space for variety of reasons
and at the end of it you know the
companies are launched and they might be
launched during the program some of them
are watched before they come in the
program but there’s another level of
launch that happens at the end of the
probe an incubator is physical space
that the current best example of
incubators are co-working spaces there
places where people can congregate in
one place and they typically pay rent
and sometimes there’s some other
economic dynamics associated with but
it’s a way to concentrate entrepreneur
Leonard
but there’s no duration dynamic usually
in an incubator you stay for however
long you want to pay rent there is no
structure around it that’s formalized
the structure is very ad hoc in some
cases there are programmatic activities
but it’s not the same as accelerator I I
think co-working spaces are good i’m a
big believer in this notion of
entrepreneurial density in the book
before startup life startup communities
you know which is the one that we’re
talking about here today i talked about
this idea of entrepreneurial density and
really concentrating the entrepreneurs
in a relatively tight geography which in
Boulder for example is like five blocks
by ten blocks in downtown Boulder and
you in New York you know union square is
a great place of entrepreneur density so
I think that they’re useful but I think
accelerators are magical accelerators
are something that essentially become
education for entrepreneurs their
graduate school like phenomena that
happens in a very concentrated period of
time that not just gives them access to
a little bit of capital and mentors but
yr is them together in a very
substantive way puts incredible pressure
on the team to execute a lot over a
short period of time gets them connected
into the community in a much more
credible way the question of will there
be a shakeout of course there will be
some that succeed and fail I actually
don’t know on a macro basis what the arc
is I think the hardest point for an
accelerator is the self sustainable part
of it the first year is really easy
everybody is excited there’s a new
accelerator boom the second year usually
relatively easy still the third year
people realize oh this is hard like you
know there’s not quick exits like it’s
more capital going in and the people
running the accelerator realized this is
not a get-rich-quick scheme and the
community if the community hasn’t
rallied around the accelerator or if
there’s not other stuff all of a sudden
it starts to feel a little lonely so I
think that there’s definitely lots of
examples of accelerators that will go
through a two or three or four year art
but I don’t think we’re anywhere close
to the ability to saturation in terms of
this dynamic and I think it’s a model
which will continue to evolve a text
arts but i think has durability for a
very long time good stuff that was Brad
Feld with us on this installment of hit
mojo see you next time
we are with Brad Feld so in this segment
lightning round ideally it’s either/or
you can’t really answer it depends but
again nobody’s gonna cry if you decide
to even expand so let’s start off what’s
more important idea or entrepreneur
entrepreneur what’s more important idea
or execution execution what’s more
important execution or entrepreneur
neither okay is there not separable okay
interesting so to you even if you have
an entrepreneur who’s like a big idea
guy you expect him to be the education I
think I think I’ve thing in that context
to the company okay okay fair enough um
what’s more important timing or look
neither is there one thing that you
think is you can’t control either of
them tick and they’re not controllable
so I think the only things that you can
put importance on are things that you
can control okay love by the way luck is
great and awesome timing is great but as
an entrepreneur you can’t control either
room fair enough icic your perspective
so what is more important we hear
content is king but nowadays the
companies that have the most amount of
value it’s the distribution companies
what’s more important content or
distribution it changes over time and it
depends on what you’re dealing with
today right note it depends on the
segment you rent and in fact it’s very
interesting many of the distribution
dynamics change very rapidly and one of
the reasons there’s so many challenges
that existing incumbent content
providers have and why there’s such
messed up intellectual property dynamics
around content is because you have
incumbents trying to prevent new
distribution dynamics from appearing in
the market you have other situations
where the distribution dynamics are
untenable in the context of the content
being created and so this dislocation
will continue to change I believe that
when we get teleportation machines and
we can teleport us to Europe and five
minutes distribution changes again right
so it’s it’s I think it’s very hard to
take the two apart fair enough i’d like
to have a record a conversation with you
and you
must there okay what’s more important
data or distribution never thought about
it I think data is more important okay
and what’s more important data or
content no I think data is way more
important okay so speaking on data let’s
just double click there and expand is
the fact that data is big data is so hot
now has it always been hot or is it that
the technology and the data capturing is
change or is it just a recent phenomenon
and if so why yeah I was the keynote at
a conference last week that was a big
data conference in Boston and my my
headline sentence i started my talk off
first thing in the morning by saying big
data is and you know the thing
that we call big data today will be
microscopic data in 20 years and so the
idea that there’s this special thing
happening that’s unique it’s just the
label of the day it’s always been a
phenomena of trying to deal with this
data and the interesting thing is you
get new vectors right 10 years ago we
didn’t have real-time geolocation in our
data right we didn’t have chocolate in
our peanut butter and now we have
chocolate and our peanut butter and
there’s a whole different set of things
you have to do we didn’t have the
ability from a computer spective to
process a bunch of this stuff in real
time and now we have the ability to
process a bunch of stuff in real time
those two things are intrinsically
linked I mean it’s interesting that
dichotomies of many of these questions
which is more important i guess i guess
i don’t care if i had sort of a wrap-up
question across all of this is do you
actually care about the answer to any of
those questions like that i actually
care if i’m right or wrong because i
think all of the individual components
are important and in the context of data
when I answer data versus content I
actually view it much much harder to
understand what’s happening than it is
to do something that people respond
positively to so for example I’ll use
cheeseburger as a fun example that Ben
ha who’s the CEO of cheeseburger
believes that humans already know it’s
funny and that we don’t need to
manufacture funny that what we need to
do is surface it and then we can add to
it now you can say that’s cute for cat
pictures but that can’t make full length
movies and the answer is why not
right and you know I having somebody who
you know just wrote a couple of books
you know is there a difference between a
long-form book and a blog post and a
video absolutely right which is more
important the content that I created
there or the distribution well let’s see
the contents actually quite important
because unless the content makes any
sense nobody gives a the
distribution actually matters but maybe
not the distributions exist today the
physical book distribution doesn’t
matter not even clear that the
distribution of the virtual book or the
the digital book matters the
distribution of the ideas matter and so
how do you distribute those ideas and
you can’t distribute those ideas 200
pages at a time all right so how do you
deal with that in the context of this
rapidly evolving world you touched how
is it I totally obfuscate of device name
right but what I was gonna say it’s good
it’s now the thunders not it’s falling
yet this is the same Superman touched on
something so we’re gonna go on a total a
tangent here you talked about Ben who I
met a couple times once in New York he’s
Seattle entrepreneur cheezburger network
so maybe six to 18 months he start to
get more and more in the press in a good
way but also less good ways but my point
is he was under the limelight today you
see BuzzFeed in the news for a lot of
the same reasons like trying to capture
what’s viral and all that so my point is
I hope they both do kickass exits
everybody’s happy but you as an investor
in Ben’s company when you see enough
you’re not an investor in BuzzFeed ok so
when you see another company that’s more
or less trying to have the same message
what’s your reaction do you take that
email you take that article about
BuzzFeed being the latest thing since
sliced bread do you send it to Ben or do
you send it to a couple of guys on this
team do you send it to members of the
board if you’re on the board and you’re
like hey guys these guys like tell take
me through that you know so for starters
most of those situations you know the
the somebody like Ben knows all of his
competitors and other things that are
happening they’re interested what
interesting well but before I do and if
I see them they’re mostly just hear some
data I I actually don’t personally worry
that much about the competitive dynamics
in a rapidly emerging segment I believe
very strongly you should study your
competitors closely understand what
they’re doing and then concentrate on
doing what you do that’s unique and
special and we’re fortunate in that many
of the companies we invest in are you
know the leaders in their market or the
number two in their market and those are
both you know the classic GE be number
one or be number two in your market as
an adventure investor I’m okay with
either of those positions they require
different strategies and when you look
at the competitive dynamics like to say
be obsessed about your competitors while
not worrying about them at all know what
they’re doing but stay focused on what
you’re trying to achieve and if what
you’re trying to achieve doesn’t make
sense at some point change it but don’t
let it be influenced by whatever the
latest thing that somebody wrote about
it’ll be data-driven okay it’s nice that
everybody’s talking about them but does
it actually have any impact on what’s
happening to you and is it actually the
same thing you’re doing or is it just a
lightweight copy of what you’re doing
and if it’s a lightweight copy of what
you’re doing what are you doing that’s
different and defensible okay good stuff
a couple more questions and then you’re
off so would you say that early stage
investing or VC many or whatever bc’s
usually invest in or even late stage is
are any of those are all of those are
none of those like leading indicators of
what’s becoming hot or is the trailing
indicators and that it’s already been
hot it’s grown and they’re not the money
comes after it I think it varies by
investor I think a mistake that a lot of
entrepreneurs make is looking at VCS as
a single archetype yeah you know there’s
I don’t know whether there’s 10 or 20 or
50 archetypes but it’s like Dungeons and
Dragons which is what I played when I
was a kid or magic the gathering or you
know there’s just a lot of different
archetypes and to say all vc’s fit in
the same archetype and there
or is an error an early-stage investor
that has very very deep knowledge in an
area can be a very powerful leading
indicator that person can also
completely miss the boat I said just
because they’re an early-stage investor
doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re
going to be leading a care and the same
is true the other direction right the
later stage investor that is investing
in things in a significant way but
before anybody really recognizes that
that category is taking off actually
might be a good leading indicator
they’re also very obvious lagging
indicator characteristics right the 17th
thing that gets funded that looks like
cheeseburger for example okay got it
right and so but that’s already you know
that ship has sailed and then you have
to ask the interesting question is is
what cheeseburgers mission still
compelling and relevant and a company
that never refreshes what it’s trying to
get at based on the dynamics of how the
market unfolds is probably not one
that’s going to be successful good stuff
last question are you expecting a big
shake out amongst all the incubators
that have popped up around the country
and in fact around the world so separate
incubators from accelerators because I
really use the words deliberately
different so extend what is what are you
well for me an accelerator is a program
like TechStars that give somebody money
gives a company money relatively small
amount of money in exchange for some
equity in the company puts them through
a 90-day program the style that is a
text our style is a very heavy mentor
driven program you’re surrounded by 50
50 to 100 mentors for the program and
whatever the geography it is and that 90
day cycle at the end and buy the land
techstars there’s a belief that you have
to be co-located so there’s a lot of
value in having everybody in the same
physical space for variety of reasons
and at the end of it you know the
companies are launched and they might be
launched during the program some of them
are watched before they come in the
program but there’s another level of
launch that happens at the end of the
probe an incubator is physical space
that the current best example of
incubators are co-working spaces there
places where people can congregate in
one place and they typically pay rent
and sometimes there’s some other
economic dynamics associated with but
it’s a way to concentrate entrepreneur
Leonard
but there’s no duration dynamic usually
in an incubator you stay for however
long you want to pay rent there is no
structure around it that’s formalized
the structure is very ad hoc in some
cases there are programmatic activities
but it’s not the same as accelerator I I
think co-working spaces are good i’m a
big believer in this notion of
entrepreneurial density in the book
before startup life startup communities
you know which is the one that we’re
talking about here today i talked about
this idea of entrepreneurial density and
really concentrating the entrepreneurs
in a relatively tight geography which in
Boulder for example is like five blocks
by ten blocks in downtown Boulder and
you in New York you know union square is
a great place of entrepreneur density so
I think that they’re useful but I think
accelerators are magical accelerators
are something that essentially become
education for entrepreneurs their
graduate school like phenomena that
happens in a very concentrated period of
time that not just gives them access to
a little bit of capital and mentors but
yr is them together in a very
substantive way puts incredible pressure
on the team to execute a lot over a
short period of time gets them connected
into the community in a much more
credible way the question of will there
be a shakeout of course there will be
some that succeed and fail I actually
don’t know on a macro basis what the arc
is I think the hardest point for an
accelerator is the self sustainable part
of it the first year is really easy
everybody is excited there’s a new
accelerator boom the second year usually
relatively easy still the third year
people realize oh this is hard like you
know there’s not quick exits like it’s
more capital going in and the people
running the accelerator realized this is
not a get-rich-quick scheme and the
community if the community hasn’t
rallied around the accelerator or if
there’s not other stuff all of a sudden
it starts to feel a little lonely so I
think that there’s definitely lots of
examples of accelerators that will go
through a two or three or four year art
but I don’t think we’re anywhere close
to the ability to saturation in terms of
this dynamic and I think it’s a model
which will continue to evolve a text
arts but i think has durability for a
very long time good stuff that was Brad
Feld with us on this installment of hit
mojo see you next time
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