punctuative! by Matt Winn

I’m in the middle of reading Bill Taylor and Polly LaBarre’s new book, Mavericks at Work, and it’s definitely resonating with me. They write in Chapter One, “The logic of competition has evolved from the imitative world of products versus products to the revolutionary fervor of business models versus business models to, now, the promising realm of value systems versus value systems.” The two follow with a ton of examples, including ING Direct’s core mission of encouraging savings, HBO’s mission to produce better video content, and Cranium’s efforts to make gaming fun, instructive, and universally appealing. Great food for thought for investors. Consider Charlie’s take on Sevin Rosen’s decision to drop their new fund. I disagree that products are irrelevant, just less relevant. Perhaps Apple’s stranglehold on the MP3 market is the best example - design and community matter for a commodity. But I expect we’re going to continue to see innovative new intellectual property, monetized and championed by value-centric, customer-minded management, win. Medical device companies, for instance, are gracing VentureWire’s daily almost as often as media co’s these days. As this process of innovation accelerates, however, so doth competition. Bill and Polly describe Craigslist’s ability to “compete by not competing.” In other words, someone else may have the same product and business model; ignore them and focus on values, and by extension, the customer. In the process you’ll differentiate, build Seth’s Purple Cow. Craigslist offers a no-nonsense product meant to help people, generating profits almost as an aside, and fierce brand loyalty without a logo. At my prior company, DrJays.com, we had a picture of Marcia Brady on the refrigerator. Our startup was the “girl next door,” not a new, flashy business model but one that worked and was run by a management team that knew its customer and stuck to its values. Online retail was already defined by Amazon, but we plugged away at the “urban streetwear” niche and in the process built a unique property and a success, called on of late by top tier venture firms looking to make an investment.

Polly and Bill also deconstruct the language of mavericks - “not buzzwords…, but an authentically homegrown language.” It’s true. Entrepreneurs tend to develop their own dictionary, separate from the standardized language that walks the halls of entrenched enterprises. Maybe its chutzpah, but I think it’s simply a response to uncertainty. We’re all looking for a little control here and there, right? Is “punctuative” just a buzzword or is it homegrown? Probably, like Craigslist, it’s a result of “nerd values.”

Full disclosure: I’m hosting Polly in Louisville for this week’s IdeaFestival. Looking forward to hearing Ray Kurzweil, Burt Rutan, and others present as well.