Go Flip Yourself.

I randomly listened to 2 different podcasts this week that actually ended up talking about the same thing: consumer apps and subscription businesses.

First one came from a discussion between 2 couples: the Morins and the Lessins:

The second one was from the Sub Club Podcast and an interview with Eric Crowley, partner at GP Bullhound:

At first sight, we could thought they hold opposing views. On one side: subscription services reaching scale are capped at ±200m subscribers top. On the other side: the appstore ecosystem is far from saturated and there's still plenty of room for growth and opportunity.

Actually I've found there's something quite similar along the line of: rethinking success for consumer businesses. That question 'What does success mean to you?' might have been underrated for far too long. It is time to bring it back.

And for the entrepreneurs out there: spend enough time - altogether as a team - to reflect on it and align whatever you're doing/ the game you're playing/ the decisions you're making with your answers, and actions. It feels more important than ever.

Many myths have been torn down in the past years. Many playbooks revealed toxic. Or, to be more specific, people may have realised that a playbook is as efficient as the expected outcome is understood and embraced fully. Sure you can teach someone how to win at chess; or Monopoly; but it's only as good as one's understanding and willingness to play chess or Monopoly in the first place, and then to win it.

Hunter Walk is right when he wrote the following:

VC (Probably) Isn’t Right For You — Find me someone who can perfectly discern at a company’s beginning whether it’s ‘right’ for venture capital, and I’ll show you the world’s most successful investor. So while Chris’ premise is 100% accurate, it’s also often true only in hindsight for many companies. His real call-to-action here though is to help entrepreneurs know there are other sources of capital/models for building out there which aren’t VC-dependent. That I can get behind. I also believe our industry could improve the ways we help a company get off the venture curve if it turns out that they’re not going to succeed, but that’s a more complicated topic.

Something else crossed my mind here: it's time to learn to know what to want. Be intentional re: your own desire. Otherwise, you'll follow someone else's incentives. It's that simple. And guess what: most of the time, when we follow someone else's incenvite and buy into someone else's narrative, well, we end up feeling miserable.