Creative Destruction

Creative Destruction is a newsletter for the network of investors, entrepreneurs, scientists and early adopters interested in learning how business, finance, and technology industries really drive innovation. Not the headline story, but inside. To help the network learn how new entrants disrupt conventional wisdom and drive exponential change. Our audience includes some of the most legendary investors on Wall Street, leading entrepreneurs and thoughtful academics. We work hard to bring you actionable insights on what’s happening in the economy and innovation.

Ultimately this network is a catalyst for innovation. The people in this network, and the stories told, change the speed of innovation.

You can choose the free subscription, but pick the paid subscription because it helps produce more insights and debate. Those insights will make you a better investor, entrepreneur, customer, and scientist.

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Background

The world is crowded with stories about the changing investing landscape, Silicon Valley, hot unicorn startups, etc. We couldn’t help notice the lack of good data about the toils behind building a new venture or creating new innovation.  

What really works? What are the failures? How do entrepreneurs overcome uncertainty? What new technologies are on the horizon? How does public policy help or hurt?

These are the questions that Creative Destruction seeks to answer.

Failure teaches us more about success

You can read the venture press all week and still not understand the truly tough decisions entrepreneurs make. Or the stories about those that failed.  

That’s not because the venture press isn’t doing their job — it’s because no entrepreneur ever wants to communicate doubt about their performance.

Sometimes, perhaps more often than not, their success is a bit more about luck. The data on the struggles are thin. The unfortunate result is a flood of startup stories and articles that don’t have the one thing everyone wants: hard data and facts about how entrepreneurs succeed.

As the CEO of a venture fund, I find myself in a privileged position. I get to look behind the curtain and see all of the stories. We look at hundreds of startups a year across multiple industries. We talk to investors, customers, and scientists. We see one company saying it is impossible to scan tiny cancer, and then the next moment a company saying it can. We’re working with many of the largest and most sophisticated venture firms in the country, as well as many of the fastest growing and most innovative ventures.

Rather than sitting on the sidelines, picking fun at yet one more bad article, I decided to tell the stories about the process of Creative Destruction. This is the creative force behind the insanity of entrepreneurs focused on a fundamental economic change.

My firm, our investors, and I are on a mission to fund more entrepreneurs because we see that entrepreneurs are the ones that unlock the innovations that change the course of things.  

No one comprehended a change to the world on June 29, 2007, but that was the day Apple introduced the iPhone. Did you know so much would change? While the iPhone had a big impact, 1000’s entrepreneurs each day introduce other opportunities, a blinding flash of the obvious, that forever change markets big and small.  

We never know what they will create, but we know they will do it on a regular basis.

We benefit tremendously from every entrepreneur we meet. We can only invest in a few, but we can all build on the opportunities we observe. And maybe you can do more. Creative Destruction is here to open that story so we each can learn and see our roles.

We hope you enjoy it, and that you’ll share your thoughts and ideas with us.

A Caveat for Compliance

Creative Destruction is run as an independent effort. Not every view expressed within reflects iSelect’s interests or perspective: We sponsored this conversation, but we didn’t constrain it.

While some of the people I feature are portfolio companies, many are not. They are just our contribution to the anarchy that is innovation. They, like us, simply felt that this is an important dialog to be a part of. We’re extremely grateful to them for contributing their time and perspective.

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Harnessing the forces of Creative Destruction. How business, finance, and technology industries drive prosperity and improve the human condition.

People

Harnessing the forces of Creative Destruction. MD of iSelect fund. VC improving health through improved food and longitudinal data. Innovation is Deflationary. Past includes IoT, Phantom Works, MIT, RPI, and F/A-18 E/F.