A Product Market Fit Show | Startup Podcast for Founders
00:38:37 · Pablo Srugo
[00:38:37] S0: That's exactly what great entrepreneurs do, which is they see opportunity where other people see problems, right? He sees the situation that most people would just want to, like you said, crush this guy, and he sees an opportunity to partner with somebody who's going to be a better manufacturer. And that's something I see through and through is how do you turn – you say high level, turn challenges to opportunities. It sounds cliche, but there's an example. There's Phil actually doing it. I think, one of my pieces, I just find Phil Knight is the sort of founder that you can really – I mean, Phil Knight's obviously exceptional. He created one of one company, but if you're going to copy founders, he's – he could be top of your list. Bezos is hard to copy. Bezos is like on its <laugh> – he's on some other pyramid of whatever. Elon Musk is another one where, I mean, it's really hard to copy the sort of things he did, but Phil Knight, year after year of doubling, of consistency, of tenacity, of taking opportunities and making the most out of them, those are things that most founders can do and should do. One of the things I saw today – I'm a big fan of Ben Thompson's Stratechery. I'm sure you know that newsletter. Anyways, he was talking about – he's comparing Gates and Jobs. He's talking about some new – there's this new executive order on AI that Biden put out. That's what he's talking about. The point was, obviously, Microsoft got really nothing out of mobile and Apple owned it, and he goes back to this interview, well, I guess a decade or two ago, right? They're asking Gates and Jobs, both on the stage, and they're asking both of them of the future of mobile. And they go to Gates, and they say, “What do you think about mobile?” And Gates is pretty specific things. There's going to be navigation. There's going to be, obviously, internet, communications, all these sort of things in a device, but it's not going to be a core. You’re going to have – it’s going to be this satellite thing, right? The core's going to be your desktop and whatever, and obviously, they fall flat and they get nothing on mobile. And then they ask Jobs. “Jobs, what do you think is the future of mobile?” Jobs is like, “I don't know.” That's his answer. His quote is, “I don't know.” It's changing so fast. There's so many things happening. People are just reacting.
00:40:48 · Pablo Srugo
Opportunities come out and then they just build on, that honesty towards uncertainty, and that was his point. I totally buy into that. Who won, right? It was not the one who had the set out vision, everything “figured out,” rigid. Because that's the promise is what we were saying before is Bill Gates probably believed that vision, and because he believed it, it got reiterated, reiterated. And all of a sudden, he went all the way in this direction. Jobs was way more fluid, and so he got to actually start from first principles, made the most out of what mobile could have been, and then built on that. The app store came later. Things came later, right? There's value to that. There's value to just looking at what's right in front of you and maximizing that opportunity every time.
00:41:40 · Rob Woodbridge
[00:41:40] S1: Jobs is like, “I don't know.” That's his answer. His quote is, “I don't know.” It's changing so fast. There's so many things happening. People are just reacting. Opportunities come out and then they just build on, that honesty towards uncertainty, and that was his point. I totally buy into that. Who won, right? It was not the one who had the set out vision, everything “figured out,” rigid. Because that's the promise is what we were saying before is Bill Gates probably believed that vision, and because he believed it, it got reiterated, reiterated. And all of a sudden, he went all the way in this direction. Jobs was way more fluid, and so he got to actually start from first principles, made the most out of what mobile could have been, and then built on that. The app store came later. Things came later, right? There's value to that. There's value to just looking at what's right in front of you and maximizing that opportunity every time. That's incredible. It is a very clear understanding. Nobody knows what's going on and nobody knows what this world is going to be like a year from now, let alone 10 years from now, because there are so many forks. And it's better to have an open mind like Steve Jobs. You end up trying to protect yourself as an established company when you have up and comers fighting after you. Clay Christensen used to write or he did until he passed. He wrote about that, the innovators don't analyze, that you are blinded to the things that are below you, and you start to give up your market to those guys because it's not worth your effort to go after those types of businesses in those markets because they – they're low margin. Then you get swallowed by the competition eventually. That's what happened there. I'll never forget Microsoft and Mobile because I had an iPAQ, the very first pocket PC devices, and it was like this big thing. You couldn't connect it to anything. It was basically a useless piece of hardware, and then you had to buy a sleeve with a modem and it was – and an extra battery. And the thing was maybe four inches thick, and you had this stylus. And every once in a while, you could connect to dial in. It was like a modem. You dialed into an ISP, and that's how you connected. And I thought this is the future, buddy. This is the future.
00:44:05 · Pablo Srugo, Rob Woodbridge
[00:44:05] S0: I’m a VC, but I'm so not an early adopter for exact – I just see things for what they are. I'm like this is dumb, and then I'm like, oh, wait, I missed it. I missed it. Does that make me a bad VC? I don’t know. [00:44:16] S1: No. I see evolution of these products that we're seeing is – you see the product that Nike is putting out today is just evolutionary from the product that they put out -- so there was pro sports, and then they moved into consumer. But they’re still in pro sports, and there's a blurring of the lines, right? And so it's really evolutionary. And the things in your ears right now, those earbuds, if I was ever to crown a product of the decade, for me, it's those. I don't know about you, but I mean, I use everything. I got a titanium – a new iPhone. I got an iPad. I got multiple computers, got everything, but the thing that has made my life so different and almost, sadly, complete are these little things that I put in my ear that connect to every device. [00:44:56] S0: That's awesome. [00:45:01] S1: I just put them in, and I hit a button, and my podcast, or book, or music plays. And then I take them out and it stops. And I put them back in and it starts. And then, when I come to my computer, it connects to my computer, and then, when my phone rings, it connects to my phone. It is the thing that – when I was a kid, I used to smoke, and it would be when – I'd have my cigarettes and my lighter, and now I'm like, if I don't have these…. [00:45:22] S0: Them AirPods.
00:45:22 · Pablo Srugo, Rob Woodbridge
[00:45:22] S0: Them AirPods. [00:45:22] S1: I turn around and go back and get them. It’s the greatest product ever. [00:45:28] S0: So we got a bit off tangent here, so let's wrap it up here. Here's what I got. Here’s how I'm wrapping it up. I want to know what you think about this. [00:45:36] S1: AirPods. [00:45:37] S0: Nike wants you to be like Mike. PMF show wants you to be like Knight. What do you think? What do you think? [00:45:47] S1: Oh, done, done. [00:45:47] S0: I didn't listen to the last 10 minutes what you said because I was just thinking that, so I hope it was good, man. [00:45:55] S1: That's why I'm just the filler. I'm the filler for your thoughts, between your thoughts. [00:45:59] S0: That's it. [00:45:59] S1: Everything's fine. [00:46:00] S0: Dude... [00:46:01] S1: Some would say that's the fluffer, but I'm okay with that.
00:46:01 · Rob Woodbridge, Pablo Srugo
[00:46:01] S1: Some would say that's the fluffer, but I'm okay with that. [00:46:06] S0: If you've listened to this episode and the show and you like it, I have a huge favor to ask for you. It's actually a really small favor, but it has huge impact. So whichever app you're listening to this episode on, take it out, go to Product-Market Fit Show and leave a review, please. It's going to help. It's not just going to help me, to be clear. It's going to help other founders discover the show because the algorithms – whether it's Spotify, whether it's Apple, whether it's any other podcast player, one of the big things they look at is frequency of reviews. It's quantity of reviews, and the reality is, if all of you listening right now left reviews, we would have thousands of reviews. So please, take literally a minute. Even if you're just writing great podcast, or I love this podcast, whatever it is, just write a few words. Obviously, the longer the better, the more detailed the better. But write anything, leave five stars, and you will be helping me but, most importantly, many other founders just like you discover the show. Thank you.