Fundamental Thinking
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Your feedback on last week’s “Co-founder Matching” post was awesome! It got me pumped to dive into the concept of fundamental value - or as Arnaud from Ovni would say, value proposition.
Personally, I’m all about the term fundamental value and fundamental thinking. It’s got this philosophical vibe to it - like you’re diving deep into the big questions of existence, knowledge, and reality.
When you bring that mindset into business, fundamental thinking becomes a killer tool for cutting through the fluff of surface-level marketing and speculative bubbles, bringing you back to what really matters. The idea is simple: for every project, ask yourself, where’s the real economic value being created? What’s the core value proposition?
Just like in philosophy, it’s all about methodical doubt - starting from the heart of the matter and then working your way out to the surrounding details.
Let’s say you’re a VC (startup investor), and someone pitches you a deal. The entrepreneur’s super talented, the marketing’s on point, and the investor branding is slick. But it’s crucial to ask: Where is this actually generating economic value? Who’s it for? How is the market being locked down, with serious barriers to entry? And is the valuation really in line with the value being created?
This approach will help you toss out all the projects that are all style and no substance - as Gstaad Guy would say: à la poubelle. Like spotting those new startups that are just slapping a ChatGPT layer on top of something.
Now, these startups can still be interesting, but they’re not exactly VC-friendly (investor-friendly) because of the low barriers to entry and minimal infrastructure costs.
In a nutshell, fundamental thinking is a way to make a seemingly complex world feel way simpler. It helps you steer clear of potential scams and sharpens your critical thinking, allowing you to build real conviction.
Thanks a bunch for reading this far! Feel free to share this edition (and the previous ones) and enjoy lots of perks: stickers, caps, access to events… By the way, the first event is coming up at the end of September in Paris, organized with Giancarlo Chapoutier.
Catch you soon!