What will be the enduring, market-defining companies of the future? Where will they come from? And what are the modern secrets of Silicon Valley? How do we use those lessons to help every region of both the U.S. and the world build scale industries and economies? I have tried to address these questions in my…
Many people often ask, “How did you write this book?” When a simple answer makes the most sense, we usually say, “With a lot of hard work.” But for those who are curious about how Blitzscaling came to be, I thought I’d ask my co-author Chris Yeh to tell the story. The following is a guest post from Chris…
Blitzscaling — pursuing rapid growth by prioritizing speed over efficiency in the face of uncertainty — is the primary way to turn startups into world-changing companies like Amazon, Facebook, and Google. Blitzscaling is risky because it involves committing massive resources while the outcome is far from certain. But in winner-take-most or winner-take-all markets, the biggest…
Uber recently named Dara Khosrowshahi as its new CEO. I’ve known Dara for a number of years, and Uber has made an excellent choice in picking him. Dara is a steady, capable, well-respected executive, which will be important as he works to turn around Uber’s woes, including multiple lawsuits, government investigations, a troubled culture, and most recently,…
Tim O’Reilly wrote a great response to the most recent episode of Masters of Scale, “The Money Episode”. Tim’s LinkedIn Influencer post, “Some Businesses Bleed Black”, adds nuance and complexity to the philosophy that startups should raise more money than they think they need. As Tim points out, there is definitely a continuum between the all-out…
In today’s highly networked world, a key secret to building startups into massively successful companies is blitzscaling: Rapid, relentless growth that allows you to become the first player to achieve scale and develop a daunting competitive advantage. Blitzscaling has allowed companies like Google and Facebook to grow from garage to global dominance in less than…
In 2002 at LinkedIn, there were very few of the perks that Silicon Valley is famous for. Our company headquarters was my apartment’s living room. Free lunches? Yes, if there was an extra yogurt in my refrigerator, or if you consider a can of Coke “lunch.” Nap pods, on-site yoga classes, wellness centers, concierge services,…
Silicon Valley and the surrounding Bay Area has become a global leader in innovation, technology and new industry creation. This small region, with only 7m residents, boasts more than 150 technology companies valued at more than $1bn. Most observers instinctively conclude that Silicon Valley is great because it has a unique ability to create start-ups.…
Silicon Valley has become a global leader in innovation, technology, and new industry creation. The nearly universal explanation for Silicon Valley’s success: entrepreneurs, venture capital, technical universities, existing technology companies — which all lead to launching great startups. So, the explanation for the creation of massive new industries is this: Silicon Valley is great because…