I spent three years looking for an autotelic business.
I was biking around Atlanta, driving back and forth to jiu-jitsu, listening to the Founders podcast by David Senra. This was before he blew up. He would talk about how Founders was autotelic for him. The activity itself was the reward. I was looking for my version of that.
I tried mobile apps. I tried SaaS ideas. They did not stick. Then I asked myself a different question.
“What could I do forever?”
Not what seems like a good idea. What can I do the longest.
The answer was synthesizing. Finding throughlines between seemingly unrelated markets. I loved the research. Writing about it was a forcing function to understand it on a deeper level. If I could explain it to someone else, I understood it. If I could not, I did not.
I was doing this for free.
That became Trends.vc.
But research reports are not rare. Other people publish analysis. Other people write newsletters.
So what made it different?
I injected myself into it.
The haters section. Nobody had a haters section in a research report. It was my way of playing devil’s advocate on my own points. Objection handling in a way that felt honest. That became people’s favorite section.
The conciseness. Other people wear long posts as a badge of honor.
“I published a 30-page report.”
That is not impressive. That is hostile to your audience. If it could have been one page, it should have been one page.
The product was not the moat. I was the moat.
David Senra would prove the same thing. Other people have biography podcasts. Other people have history podcasts. But his personality, his obsessiveness, his specific angle made Founders something that could not be replicated. The format is copyable. The person is not.
“They be jackin’ the image, but don’t be matchin’ the rhythm.”
— A$AP Rocky, THE END
💜
What red ocean could you turn purple?
