Max Levchin on the founding of Yelp and the power of a narrow idea

Things that I found to be really compelling investments that either work out or don't, but when they do work out, they work out great are the ones where the idea is actually relatively narrow and the entrepreneur is really focused on doing something exceptionally well. But they're doing this in a market that has just enormous potential. One of my more successful investments is Yelp. And when those guys started, they really. I mean, they had all kinds of ambition, but the number one ambition they had at the very beginning was, was to just make an awesome local review site for San Francisco. San Francisco is a small market, less than a million people sort of stuff. And at the time, I think a lot of my friends told me that's kind of a wacky investment. Those guys throw local parties, you know, they rent out bars, and it's always going to be locked landlocked in San Francisco. And I didn't really mind that, although I did have my concerns. And, you know, five years later, they are an international juggernaut, just nailing it. With their local review service, they were able to figure out the exact formula in San Francisco and replicate it everywhere else in the world.