A Precursor Ventures partner argues first-time founders reason from first principles instead of following playbooks, which breeds both inefficiency and breakthrough ideas. Emerging fund managers work the same way. Newcomers spot what insiders miss.
I think the one thing I love about first time founders is oftentimes they, they don't have like a playbook from their last company that they followed. And oftentimes they don't have a playbook at all. They're like, oh, I'm just going to reason from first principles now. Sometimes that leads to waste and efficiency, but other times that leads to truly interesting breakthrough ideas that are so different than what other people would think of. And those people are just following their instincts. They're not trying to pattern match to a playbook. They're not trying to like follow something they read in a blog. They're just like, I, I don't know any better. So I'm just going to follow my own instincts here. And I think it's kind of magical. We, we have a handful of companies where I think it was the lack of playbooks and the lack of sort of knowledge of what to do. I, I can honestly say the same thing is true of emerging managers starting their own funds. I've met some people who are really good investors precisely because they simply hadn't been indoctrinated into the things that other people have. And they have different beliefs about what good looks like and where to find companies and how to work with people. And so I think this is why, like every industry needs newcomer outsiders, because they just bring a different perspective.
