Psychology of Consumer vs Enterprise startups

The Facebook/Instagram M&A emails are all over Twitter!

This thread isnt abt bigtech anti-trust. Rather its on what the emails say abt the skills & instincts needed for consumer startups (vs enterprise). https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/29/21345723/facebook-instagram-documents-emails-mark-zuckerberg-kevin-systrom-hearing /1

The Zuck emails provide a window seat into the minds of great consumer/B2C founders. It gives a min-by-min sense of their instincts: how they think, analyze, strategize & converge to a decision.

There is no "method" or "playbook", these are all one-offs, and made in-the-flow. /2

Zuck has obviously looked at all the traction data, and it is surely shaping his broad thinking, but his decision is driven far more by his own guts/instincts, than relying on an established method or playbook. /3

One can argue the same for large strategic decisions - M&A, product directions - these tend to be driven largely by instinct than data. While smaller decision points can be data driven e.g. pilots, experiments, A/B tests.

Think Local vs Global maxima - you'll get the drift. /4

Contrast this Consumer psychology play with what's needed for success in case of Enterprise.

Enterprise/SAAS is characterized by the evolution (or emergence) of a playbook - an established set of methods & protocols that lets you fine-tune the product for the target market /5

This SAAS playbook isnt necessarily driven by "instinct", rather its something that can be gradually "taught" or "mastered" (smaller decisions within the overall product may still be instinct driven).

IMHO this marks a crucial diff between the consumer vs enterprise worlds! /6

Datapoint to bolster the consumer vs enterprise theory

Check out this thread where a YCombinator alum rants about YC nowdays having near zero consumer or B2C startups.

Instead, it is packed head-to-toe with Enterprise, SAAS & devtools! /7 https://twitter.com/AdamNeumannsCoS/status/1285651161723342848

My guess - this is true for all accelerators, not just YC!

The reason is the same as stated above - SAAS/enterprise requires step by step product & market iterations (think "playbook"). This doesn't always work in consumer/B2C.... which is more intuitive - a hit or a miss! /8