Name: Fred Wilson Role: Business Domains: business Era: Contemporary Vibe: Enriched.
Thesis-led investing in rapidly changing systems, viewing management as systems engineering applied to people, valuing contrarian non-obvious ideas and small teams with the right people, and believing that good businesses outlast markets while money functions as information.
Early-stage product decisions should be hunch driven and later-stage product decisions should be data driven; favor ideas that most people deride as ridiculous and avoid the obvious thing; go for it at every chance without tentativeness because everything comes from the top.
Venture capital and startup formation, product development and team building, management systems and scaling, mechanical engineering, and capital allocation as information.
Sustained public thinking via blogging, using direct aphoristic statements and systems-level framing, with a focus on the intersection between reputation, identity, and knowledge.
He praises 'crazy' and ridiculous ideas as the source of best outcomes, yet operates as a professional money manager required to return capital with strong returns in a reasonable amount of time; he states that marketing is for companies who have sucky products while operating in a field that requires selling vision; and he notes that the amount of money startups raise in seed and Series A rounds is inversely correlated with success, despite being a venture capitalist who provides such capital.
Bring an idea you cannot get out of your head, avoid the obvious thing, embrace being 'crazy,' do not be tentative or anxious because fear pervades the organization, and allow a little contamination to unleash creativity.
> **"Early in a startup, product decisions should be hunch driven. Later on, product decisions should be data driven."**
> — Fred Wilson
> **"Ideas that most people derided as ridiculous have produced the best outcomes. Don't do the obvious thing."**
> — Fred Wilson
> **"If you have an idea that you can't get out of your head, do a startup. Otherwise join a startup."**
> — Fred Wilson