This is a question that comes up often and Ali Tamaseb, partner DCVC, spent 300 hours analyzing public data, talking to founders and combing through Crunchbase and PitchBook on exaclty this topic .
The questions he had included:
* How many competitors did they have when they started?
* What were their defensibility/moats?
* Did the founders have work experience in the same sector/industry?
Here is a sample of what he found:
1. These companies had, what he calls ‘Super Founders” – those had a exit of $50m or an ARR of $10m+
2. Directly Relevant Industry Experience Does Not Matter;
3. The market was already large at the time of founding. 65% wanted market share from competitors.
4. Timing is overrated
5. Save Time, Save Money, Or Make Things Easier. By far the top-performing category is productivity.
6. Over 50% Were Competing With Multiple Incumbents At the Time of Founding
7. The Product Matters! most startups had very high differentiation in their core product offering with competitors
50 learnings are listed by Ali. A nice list for you to ponder over state of your startup and the possibility of getting the U status.
Where I learnt this #414
Land of the “Super Founders“— A Data-Driven Approach to Uncover the Secrets of Billion Dollar Startups
