Regurgitate Your Way To Success
Cranky PM, my latest blog obsession (that VC secretary blogger slave girl was the last one ... most of the time they dont last too long, but I do remain a reader), is so right ... that these so called pundits/visionaries spend all day regurgitating analysis from someone less famous or have less friends and pretent to make it their own ... (but its hard to say its not a symbiotic relationship)... Back in the days when I was in the enterprise side of things I had a few meetings like the one she had ... many of them we had to pay for (not directly of course!) by subscribing to their “research” ... so I know exactly what Cranky was talking about ... that both parties are equally guilty!
There are other professions in the valley that is dependent on regurgitation as a source of differentiation ...
1. investment banking research analysts - I dont want to say too much otherwise I might get subpoenaed, but read the footnote of these research reports carefully, if any chart is annotated as “source: company” beaware you are being spoon fed. Remember, there is a reason bankers spend collectively 500hours + to draft a red herring.
2. venture capitalists - ohh. .. this one is so juicy ... VC’s seem so smart not because they are, its because they talk to smart people all day. There is increasing returns economics working here, that the more famous VC’s gets to talk to smarter entrepreneurs & researchers which in turn helps them sound smart and thus attract even smarter people to work with. Why do you think VC’s usually meet with EVERY companies in the space before making an investment? Why do you think sometimes they schedule it all in the same week? (so they can play off questions from one entrepreneur to another) The best VC’s can take all the data and all the perspectives they gather and formulate a unique perspective (I gotta give credit where its due). THAT is what I look for in a VC ... plus someone that’ll give credit to how they sound so smart.
3. entrepreneurs/PM’s - ... I have to fess up ... no idea or product is genuingly unique. We all stand on the shoulder of giants. Thank god we get paid (equity or cash) for execution, otherwise all we do would be regurgitate, rinse, and repeat ... plus the execution makes us feel superior to all other people we diss. (source of Cranky PM indignation?)
4. bloggers - I’m just regurgitating something Cranky PM brought up ... the noise echo ratio of the blogosphere just went up another notch due to my regurgitation.