Politics

How to Tell if You Have Product/Market Fit

This is a debate that will never be settled. Plenty has been written about how to define product/market fit. The consensus seems to be: (a) it’s generally easier to identify when you don’t have it, and (b) when you do, it’s hard to objectively point to why. It’s just a hunch. A feeling.

But, let me propose another way of thinking about it, which comes from my good friend Nicolas Colin of The Family. Nicolas takes a very different approach to helping people thinking about when product/market fit is or isn’t happening, using a story from politics.

Hedge

I recently had the pleasure of meeting Nicolas Colin. I’ve been an admirer of his writing in the past, and we had a delightful conversation at one of my favorite breakfast spots in London. For those of you who don’t know, Nicolas is a co-founder of The Family, an early-stage investment firm started in Paris and now operating in London and Berlin.

He is also the author a new book Hedge: A Greater Safety Net for the Entrepreneurial Age, which I’m happy to have completed just this week. Hedge hits three important notes for me: it is meticulously researched (527 references! 😍), very well-written, and has a point of view that stands out from the others.

Will Generation Z save our country and the economy?

Will Generation Z, which has lived through the Iraq war, the financial crisis, police brutality, mass shootings, rising cost of education, and Donald Trump, be a generation of entrepreneurs? Will they use their creative instincts, technological savvy, and a distrust of the established order to bring radical change to our business and social sectors? These are the right conditions for creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship to flourish.

Immigrant-owned businesses are fundamental to American cities

Earlier this week I read Tech and the City: The Making of New York's Startup Community, by journalist Maria Teresa Cometto and venture capitalist‎ Alessandro Piol. Among many other things, they describe how a preponderance of immigrant-run businesses is attractive to foreign-born high-tech entrepreneurs coming to the United States. Immigrant-owned businesses are one of my favorite things about New York—or any city really. That got me thinking, just how concentrated is New York with foreign-born business owners? What about other American cities? So, I dug into U.S. Census Bureau data to find out.

Immigrant entrepreneurs are vital to American prosperity

Immigration policy continues to vex America. For more than a century, the United States has proudly defined itself as the world’s great melting pot of immigrant cultures and talents. And yet, few issues have more sharply divided the modern political landscape. As policymakers grapple with these difficult questions, two critical realities are too often forgotten amid the haze of fractious political debate — the connection between entrepreneurship and economic prosperity, and the importance of immigrants to American entrepreneurship.

Almost half of Fortune 500 companies were founded by American immigrants or their children

The Center for American Entrepreneurship, a non-partisan policy and advocacy organization, published a study today on the founders of America’s most valuable companies—those in the Fortune 500. The results are striking—43 percent of companies in the 2017 Fortune 500 were founded or co-founded by an immigrant or the child of an immigrant, and among the Top 35, that share is 57 percent.

Democrats Want To Shutdown The Government To Protect DREAMers--Here's An Economic Case For Doing So

Democrats want to withhold support for any spending bill that doesn’t establish the legal right of “DREAMers”—the 800,000 immigrants brought here illegally as children—to stay in the United States permanently. Economic history suggests that we may thank them for doing so.

RD Huffstetler for the Virginia 5th

RD Huffstetler for the Virginia 5th

Yesterday, my friend and colleague Roger Dean ("RD") Huffstetler announced his candidacy for the United States Congress, representing the 5th District of Virginia. He will run as a Democrat, which, given the district, would give a typical candidate an uphill battle—and against an incumbent no less. But, this is no ordinary candidate. It won't be easy, but he can win. And he should win. That would be a great thing for Virginians and for Americans. Here's why.