Divinations

Get smarter about business strategy.

Apr 15, 2022

Elon is Right: Twitter Should Open Up the Algorithm

Commoditizing tweets’ complement (the algorithm) will increase usage and rebuild trust

Jun 5, 2020

What good is strategy right now?

A conflict of interest

Apr 30, 2022

Twitter as a City-State

The Argument for Democracy in Cyberspace

May 1, 2021

Spotify’s Upcoming “Open Access Platform” is as Surprising as it is Awesome

I hope it becomes a new paradigm for the creator economy

Feb 5, 2021

A Post-Mortem for Social Podcast Discovery

Three reasons why RSS still dominates in audio, but not text.

Aug 20, 2021

Twitter’s Longform Strategy

What does the future hold for readers and writers on Twitter?

Nov 16, 2022

Technology Waves and How to Ride Them

Advice for Generalist Founders

Nov 4, 2021

How Valuation Works

A guide to the “right way” (discounted cash flow analysis), and why “everything is dumb right now.”

Jan 16, 2020

Your actual competition

A guide to Porter’s “Five Forces” framework—through the lens of Spotify

Dec 7, 2022

My Philosophy of Product Building (Part III)

On launching and learning

May 12, 2022

Why Sh*t is Hitting the Fan

How the Fed accidentally scuttled your Series B, simply explained

Jul 11, 2020

Strategy should be painful

Businesses plateau for two reasons: Their strategy is wrong (Wrong Strategy Syndrome) They fail to execute any strategy at all (Fuzzy Strat

Feb 11, 2020

The Four Strategies

How to understand the essence of any business

Dec 6, 2021

The Three Systems Beneath Network Effects

An exclusive excerpt from a16z general partner Andrew Chen’s new book, The Cold Start Problem

May 21, 2021

Why I Love Working at Startups

A friendly rebuttal

Jul 19, 2020

Disrupting Disruption

Strategy’s most famous theory could be wrong

Dec 17, 2019

How Competition Works

It’s not like war, but it’s not like art class, either.

Nov 30, 2022

My Philosophy of Product Building (Part II)

Building your v1

Apr 2, 2020

Why is Netflix more profitable than Spotify?

Three Shorts — April 2nd, 2020

Sep 7, 2021

How Power Works in Venture Capital

Is being Sequoia actually pretty easy?

Jul 3, 2020

Product Case Study: HEY

A radical new take on email

Sep 30, 2021

The Market Wedge: How to Pick Your Initial Market

How and why early-stage startups sacrifice growth for power

May 9, 2020

How creators can go “on tour” on the internet

Growing an audience ain’t what it used to be

Apr 10, 2020

Notion’s $2b Valuation is Sensible, Probably

Three Shorts: Notion, Roam, and “Time Preference”