Planning for Volatility
Investing, entrepreneurship and career planning during economic and social uncertainty.
In Times of Pandemic, In Gates We Trust
Even as reports of a new viral outbreak in China started popping up during the first weeks of 2020, most people were slow to pay sufficient attention to the developing threat. In contrast, Bill and Melinda Gates acted decisively and quickly. On January 29th, the Gates Foundation pledged $10 million “to help frontline responders in China and…
My 2020 Vision for Graduates: How to be Optimistic in Terrible Times
Shortly after I graduated from college in 1990, America entered a recession. The unemployment rate peaked at 7.3 percent in 1991. That same year, the U.S. experienced a record number of murders. The world was also in the midst of the AIDS epidemic. Tens of thousands of people around the world were dying from a…
United We Stand
From the moment Donald Trump announced his presidential campaign in June 2015, I’ve been a Never Trumper. That was because he’d spent zero minutes of his life as a public servant — and virtually every minute of his life engaged in narcissistic self-promotion. He started out slapping his name onto skyscrapers and casinos, and then less grandly,…
Is Blitzscaling Over?
By Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to batter the world, many have declared an end to the “Unicorn Era” in general and blitzscaling in particular. Suddenly, capital is harder to come by, customers aren’t buying, and none of us can leave our homes. Meanwhile, the United States has already lost more lives to the disease than…
A Fun Moment in Podcasts
I was delighted to learn that WaitWhat, the startup company that makes my podcast Masters of Scale, is up for a few Webby Awards. There’s a popular choice vote that finishes tomorrow, Thursday. Initially, I resisted posting about it and encouraging people to vote; it felt too self-serving. But then I found out that Jessi Hempel is also up for a Webby…
Make Election Day a Holiday: It’s the American Thing to Do
In one important measure of democracy, America is unfortunately not first. Or even 20th. In fact, according to a 2018 study by the Pew Research Center, the United States ranks near the bottom for voter turnout among its peers in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, just 26th out of 32 countries. In the top…
In Praise of Professional Venture Capital
It’s become fashionable among some entrepreneurs, and even some venture capitalists, to badmouth the venture capital industry. The industry certainly has many flaws. But to paraphrase Winston Churchill, venture capital is the worst method for financing scaling startups except for all the others. One of the conversations I had with Wences Casares (founder and CEO of Xapo), during…
Chile, Entrepreneurs, Endeavor, and Global Lessons
Silicon Valley can frequently be too provincial in its views of entrepreneurship, strategy, and markets. Part of why I’m on this trip with Wences Casares (founder and CEO of Xapo) is to learn (and share) a broader view of entrepreneurship, where the strategies of Blitzscaling can be applied outside of Silicon Valley and China, and participate in Endeavor’s critical global mission for…
Argentina Entrepreneurship, Endeavor, and Global Lessons
I’ve come down to Argentina with my friend and portfolio company CEO, Wences Casares, the founder of Xapo. Wences and I have served on the board of Endeavor together, which enables high impact entrepreneurship around the world. As part of connecting with local Argentinian entrepreneurs and part of the amazing Endeavor networks here and South America, Wences and I…
Tory Burch: Combining Incredible Patience and Explosive Speed
Successful entrepreneurs have to find a way to combine both incredible patience and explosive speed. Sounds paradoxical? Perhaps, but that same, seemingly conflicting combination has powered the success of fashion designer Tory Burch. In this episode of Masters of Scale, you’ll hear how Tory’s remarkable story combines patience and speed. You’ll hear how Tory went from a tomboy who…
WeWork: Blitzscaling or Blitzflailing?
Prominent news organizations, ranging from The Economist to Wired (multiple times), have been describing WeWork as an example of blitzscaling. New York Magazine offers a vivid example, writing in a WeWork profile: “The [Softbank] Vision Fund began making enormous bets on Uber, Slack, DoorDash, and dozens of other companies, employing a strategy that has come to be known, with some derision, as “blitzscaling”:…
Donald Trump is Seriously, Literally Absurd
During the 2016 presidential campaign, a truism emerged that the best way to understand Donald Trump is to take him seriously, not literally. This has always struck me as nonsense, for two reasons. First, it creates an artificial divide where there is in fact a natural unity: Taking someone literally is an obvious early step in…
Bitcoin Rap Battle: Hamilton vs. Satoshi
Today, there is a vigorous debate raging between cryptocurrency and centralized currencies. Bitcoin celebrated its tenth anniversary this year, and cryptocurrency values overall were climbing again after a period of decline. Media interest increased again too, and with it, arguments about cryptocurrency’s volatility and ultimate value to society. Was it still just a speculative fad…
Mastering Growth
How I’m working with Harvard Business School Online to teach the counterintuitive truths of scaling up As a founder, you rarely have enough time to step back and strategize. Entrepreneurs feel the pressure to execute, often prioritizing daily firefighting over long-term planning. You put your blinders on and stay laser-focused on what’s directly ahead. But…