Sharing The Indie Era of Startups

Featuring Bryce Roberts

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I’m a big fan of nuance. When I meet people who read my writing, I often get compliments about how I “tell it like it is,” or “speak truth to power.” In reality, I think my main differentiator is that I’m willing to accept nuance.

I’ve written before about how the emergence of identity-based values can be the kiss of death for accepting nuance:

“So often, people trust nuanced tribal group identity and political association without any basis of first principles. I'm not Mormon, or Christian, or Republican, or a Costco member. I am a system of values and beliefs that determine how I act. Group membership should be a lagging indicator of your beliefs, not a leading indicator. When people substitute their own value system with a cookie-cutter platform from their in-group the first thing to die is nuance.”

So one of the things that surprises people is when I (as a VC) am willing to say things like:

• “Most VCs are incapable of changing their minds.”

• “Most VCs fall victim to reactive decision making.”

• “Most VCs are incentivized to avoid being wrong (or letting people know that they were wrong).”

• “Most VCs don’t really trust each other (or anyone).”

• “Most VCs don’t really care about a company’s long-term economic engine.”

Or, one of my personal favorites:

• “VCs are often just scared-of-their-shadow lemmings who retreat to the safety of "we’re just asset allocators" when things get tough.”

People may think this simply comes from a deep sense of self-loathing. But, again, in reality, these perspectives all come from a willingness to accept nuance. VCs can be both frequently wrong, stupid, harmful, or bad, but still be a critical part of pushing innovation forward. Those two buckets of characteristics don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

And one of my favorite champion’s of nuance is Bryce Roberts. For years, he’s pitched a thesis around the “indie startups.” A framework for building companies that are not desperate for endless supplies of capital, but rather with just a bit of capital can become substantial businesses.

This past week he shared a great talk that he gave at a conference, entitled “The Indie Era of Startups.” Rather than spin my own take on this nuanced idea that a lot of companies shouldn’t raise venture capital, I instead just wanted to point you to Bryce’s presentation. Enjoy!

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