Stanford Business School: Marc Andreessen on Big Breakthrough Ideas and Courageous Entrepreneurs
People are much more highly sensitized to bubbles after a bubble. If you could be sensitized before a bubble you could make a lot more money. [2:00]
Two books that are critical if you want to understand the technology industry: Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages and The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail. [3:00]
Market sizes have expanded gigantically. [4:10]
The entrepreneurs of the past were extreme characters. I’m thinking of Thomas Watson Sr. If you want to know what it is like to work for someone who is harsh read a book on Thomas Watson Sr. [The Maverick and His Machine: Thomas Watson, Sr. and the Making of IBM] He makes all of today’s entrepreneurs look like cream puffs. [5:33]
What has been lost is the actual art of building a business. Specifically the art of sales and marketing. [8:32]
Two traits Marc looks for: Courage and Genius. We spend a lot of time talking about courage because it is the one you can learn. Courage is not giving up in the face of adversity. Being absolutely determined to succeed. Courage without genius might not get you where you need to go, but genius without courage almost certainly won’t. [19:29]
The nature of breakthrough ideas is they are not predictable. Upon the first contact, they seem nuts. All the crazy ideas also seem nuts. [33:56]
We think the technology industry has made the world a radically better place. And we think it is just starting. We are just now reaching the point where we can apply technology to a lot of really fundamental problems and opportunities. [39:55]