Go big or die trying?
It is a time for big bets. That means three things:
Some companies will pull so far ahead that they will dominate
Some companies will flame out trying to take their moonshot*
*Maybe we should call them MarsShots if we’re thinking 100x
There will be those who play the slow and steady game, building incremental gains. Those companies can do really well, but they will never be giants. For a lot of business owners, that’s perfect. Build a business that provides value to happy customers, make good money and give teammates good lives.
Those taking the MarsShots aren’t in it for incremental gains. They’re in it to make it to Mars or die trying (while being gobbled up by a private equity firm).
100x is demanding
Building 100x demands a very intense level of problem:solution awareness. You have to know the problem so damn well that you can see around corners and find that as-yet believable way to solve it.
Companies like Equals can do it. A new kind of CRM like Clarify can do it, too. They’re taking on giants and that requires the biggest of thinking and the deepest understanding of very particular problems.
It will take resources, guts, grit, and a whole lotta grinding it out.
Is 10x the secret to 100x?
Products like Basecamp are 10x products with a twist. For these products and the companies that build them, there are two parts to the 10x equation:
Part I — 10x better
Part II — for a specific type of customer
It’s easier to build 10x when you build for people who think and act a bit different. Steve Jobs knew this. He said it in this iconic and amazing ad:
If you can find your tribe and build a 10x experience for them, I think it could amount to a 100x solution for a lot of other people. A bunch of weirdos and misfits were the first to buy into Apple’s 10x vision.
It was 10x better than what the misfits were used to. 10x better than the “average” consumer products.
And when enough of the misfits discovered a 10x better product, the rest of the world noticed. And to them, the rest of us normies, going from Windows XP to MacOS X felt like a 100x leap.
So the challenge is to build 100x and maybe we can do it by serving really well “our people.” The misfits like us.
Peter
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