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Focused on Zero to Traction In a world full of constant distractions focus has become an intrinsically good word. But not all focus is born alike. In the investment world we can roughly see 3 levels of focus. The first one, and also the easiest, is focus as negative selection. By focusing on one sector, geography, or stage, you are effectively deciding not to get distracted by whatever happens outside those areas. The second one is specialized knowledge, that’s the outcome of prolonged focus on a given topic. Specialized knowledge takes time to build, but is essentially open to anybody who decides to pursue it. The third level, and most valuable, is differentiated expertise. Differentiated expertise is achieved when your specialized knowledge is applied to an area where generic knowledge is the least accurate, or even wrong more often than not. Another term is “counterintuitive”. Areas or topics that are counterintuitive are the ones where specialized knowledge can best lead to differentiated expertise. Since the very beginning of Founders in 2013 we focused solely on taking companies from “zero to traction”. We believe the earliest stage in the life of a company is still the one when investors can move the needle the most (and unfortunately also make the most damage). One reason why this is true is because the earliest state is counterintuitive. Most of the mental models, skills, experiences that will take you forward after you have reached some traction are very often misleading and dangerous when applied in the early days. On top of that, very few people, entrepreneurs as well as investors, have really focused, long enough to master, the intricacies of pre-traction challenges. Entrepreneurs are not supposed to, ideally you would want your company to be the first and last you’ll ever start. And even if you do start a new one, unless it’s because you failed very fast, it will be a few years since the last time you found yourself there. Investors actually do have a chance to master that, but often decide not to. Very large portfolios don’t allow for actually getting into the nitty gritty of what happens the early days, “operators” turned VCs have built their experience operating at a different stage, and larger funds dipping into preseed have just too little experience and time to focus and learn the ropes. We are talking our book here, yet it is our firm believe that if you structure yourself so that you can spend significant time, over and over again, in the zero to traction stage of a company, you can move the needle the most after the investment is done, and you can build a truly differentiated expertise. More on why exactly the early stage is so “counterintuitive” in a future post.