Taking the right risks

As you begin to disrupt yourself, I want you to think about taking the right risks.…People don't buy products, they hire them to fill needs.…Disruptors look for needs not being met, and then try…something new rather than competing against established curves of learning.…The financing of start-ups, for example.…Venture capitalists are raising ever larger…funds precluding them from smaller deals.…This is opening the door for disruption from…smaller pools of capital like angels, accelerators, crowdfunding.…When I moved into equity research, I was…hired to cover the cement and construction sector.…

I'd started to build my models when Smith…Barney announced it would emerge with Saulman brothers.…And guess what?…They already had a highly ranked cement…and construction analyst. Shut the front door,…the sides and the back doors are closed.…But, there were a number of media…companies going public, no analysts to cover them.…As the theory of disruption would dictate, I built my…own door and within a year, I was a ranked analyst.…