Creating a movement is like starting a conga line at a funeral.

You need impeccable timing and a lot of confidence.

Create a Movement

• Why Read:

  • This article provides a compelling framework for founders to build a transformative movement around their startup's purpose and vision, making it an essential for any founder aiming to drive radical change.

• Featuring:

  • Mike Maples (@m2jr), Founding Partner at FLOODGATE

• Link: 

  • “How Movements Make Radical Change Real”

Key Concepts and Tactics:

• Understanding the Power of Movements:

  • Point: Recognize that movements are essential for turning radical ideas into reality.

  • "Ideas make radical change possible. Movements make radical change happen. Product ideas that incorporate elements of inflection theory—inflections and insights—create potential for radical change. But to transform potential into reality, you must be more than just right about the future; you have to change how people behave."

• Defining a Higher Purpose:

  • Point: Establish a compelling higher purpose for your startup that transcends product features.

  • "Just as a breakthrough idea starts with an inflection and insight, a movement starts with a provocative higher purpose. This higher purpose energizes specific people with specific calls to action. For instance, Tesla's mission is to "accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy." Notice that the statement doesn't even refer to the product Tesla sells."

• Identifying an Enemy:

  • Point: Frame the status quo as the enemy to create a stark contrast with your vision.

  • "Your story must also have an enemy. That enemy doesn't have to be a specific product or company; it's the status quo. Apple's "1984" commercial positioned IBM's dominance of the computing industry and its corporate-centricity rather than its focus on individuals as the enemy."

• Focusing on Early Believers:

  • Point: Identify and engage with co-conspirators who are ready to embrace your vision.

  • "Once you have a provocative higher purpose, you need to build an early coalition of the people I refer to as co-conspirators. Building your early coalition starts with asking a simple question: Who is ready to move first?"

• Creating a Contrast:

  • Point: Highlight the difference between the current reality and your proposed future.

  • "Your story must villainize the status quo by describing its problems, create a sense of grievance about those problems, and sharply contrast between the world governed by the status quo and a world freed from its dominance."

• Reaching the Tipping Point:

  • Point: Recognize when your movement is gaining mainstream acceptance.

  • "As a start-up investor, witnessing a company gain mainstream recognition is rewarding. It signifies that the movement has succeeded in establishing a new status quo. For instance, the moment I realized ridesharing was transcending into the "new normal" was when I began spotting Uber and Lyft signs in airports, a clear indicator of mainstream acceptance."

State of the Cloud from BVP

Why Read:

• The team at Bessemer Venture Partners provides a comprehensive overview of the rapidly evolving AI foundation model landscape and the transformative impact it will have across industries - making it an essential read for any startup founder.

Featuring:

• Kent Bennett, Mike Droesch, Sameer Dholakia, Talia Goldberg, Brian Feinstein, Janelle Teng, Caty Rea, Lindsey Li, Maha Malik, Bhavik Nagda, Aia Sarycheva, Alex Yuditski

• Link:

• “State of the Cloud 2024”

Key Concepts and Tactics:

1. Understanding the AI Foundation Model Landscape:

   • Point: Recognize the intense competition and rapid innovation in AI foundation models.

   • "Foundation models are the new "oil" that will fuel downstream AI applications and tooling. In 2023, foundational model companies captured the lion's share of venture funding in AI, accounting for over 60% of total AI dollars. Players such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, Cohere, among others raised $23 billion at an aggregate market cap of $124 billion, underscoring their critical role in the AI ecosystem globally."

2. Leveraging AI to Enhance Developer Productivity:

   • Point: Implement AI-powered developer tools to significantly boost productivity.

   • "AI is driving both innovation and upheaval alike, and accelerating developer velocity, productivity, and leverage for software organizations. Forward-thinking software organizations are routinely surveying the landscape for emerging tools and vendors, and rapidly prioritizing and adopting high-value developer software."

3. Exploring Multimodal AI Applications:

   • Point: Consider developing or adopting multimodal AI applications to unlock new use cases and markets.

   • "The rise of multimodal models and AI Agents is leading the next wave of innovation in AI, and dramatically expanding AI's potential applications to far broader use cases than early text-based models achieved. There's a greenfield opportunity for AI entrepreneurs to innovate across new modalities, such as voice, image and video, as well as agentic workflows."

4. Capitalizing on Vertical AI Opportunities:

   • Point: Identify opportunities to apply AI in specific industry verticals to create high-value solutions.

   • "Vertical AI shows potential to dwarf legacy SaaS with new applications and business models... We believe vertical AI will compete for a meaningful share of these dollars and will also drive activity in areas where human labor was insufficient."

5. Embracing AI in Consumer Cloud Applications:

   • Point: Explore opportunities to integrate AI into consumer-facing cloud applications.

   • "As the fast-evolving multi-modal capabilities of LLMs allow us to extend and enhance our text, visual, and auditory senses in previously impossible ways, we're seeing potential for disruption open up in every category of legacy consumer cloud."

6. Preparing for AI's Long-Term Impact:

   • Point: Recognize that AI's impact may exceed current expectations and prepare for long-term transformation.

   • "A survey of several dozen Bessemer investors working around the globe in all stages and across every technology sector gives a clear answer: so far, the hype is well deserved. Everywhere we turn we see evidence of AI impact at levels without historical precedent."

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