Definition
Startup Thinking is the exercise of questioning received ideas and rethinking business from scratch. Positively defined, a startup is the largest group of people you can convince of a plan to build a different future. Its most important strength is new thinking; small size affords the space to think that is often suffocated by the bureaucracy of large organizations or the isolation of a lone genius.
Why It Matters
Startup thinking is the ‘first principles’ approach to building the future; it creates the small, protected spaces needed to rethink entire industries from scratch, away from the suffocating bureaucracy of established giants.
Core Concepts
- The Group Mission: New technology typically comes from small groups bound by a mission (e.g., Founding Fathers, Royal Society, Fairchild’s “Traitorous Eight”).
- Bureaucratic Friction: In big organizations, signaling work becomes more valuable for careers than actually doing work.Entrenched interests shy away from risk and move slowly.
- Lone Genius Myth: While a lone genius can create art, they cannot create an entire industry. You need a team to get stuff done, but it must be small enough to remain nimble.
- First Principles over formulas: There is no formula for innovation because every act of creation (0 to 1) is singular. Startups must think from first principles to find value in unexpected places.
- Questioning Dogma: A startup’s primary job is to ask the questions that nobody else is asking, particularly those relating to the Contrarian Question.