Capital Chronicles #21

Hello there! Welcome to Capital Chronicles, saving you hours every week with ~2-3 minute summarised insights from the best venture builders, investors and capital allocators out there.

Note: we’re going with a slightly more condensed format this week (answer first, more to the point). Let me know which version you prefer by replying directly to this email.

As subscriber #TBD, read on for the latest…

🛠️ On venture building…

Look beyond the 7 Powers Framework when playing to win (Roger Martin): The most powerful competitive advantage might not be found in Helmer's "7 Powers" framework at all, but in the unique way a company weaves together multiple activities that competitors can't easily unravel.

Go beyond the 7 Powers to craft a company strategy and develop a sustainably advantaged competitive position.

🧭 On venture investing…

Vitality is vital for investors (TDM Growth Partners): Vitality, a company's ability to expand its total addressable market over time by developing new products and services that provide incremental value to existing customers, is often the key to unlocking superior long-term investment returns and sustained growth.

Identify high-vitality companies by looking for three key characteristics: (1) test and learn culture; (2) management focus; and (3) successful product execution.

📖 Learning resource…

Get more done by doing less with intent (Lenny Rachitsky): The secret to getting more done is actually doing less, but with laser-focused intention. Use a calendar for to-dos, the two-minute rule, maintaining a "waiting for" list, prioritizing 1-3 daily tasks, scheduling deep work time, limiting morning meetings, using Do Not Disturb mode, keeping work asynchronous, leveraging virtual assistants, and saying no more often.

Apply 10 tactical techniques to improve your productivity and effectiveness as an investor, entrepreneur and/or operator.

📊 Market insight…

GenAI is accelerating faster than SaaS (McKinsey): GenAI’s penetration of enterprise software is projected to hit ~10% in the next 4-5 years, roughly 3x the penetration of SaaS at similar maturity. Spending is estimated to reach $175-250 billion by 2027, contributing 2-6% growth to the software sector, and the rate of vendor switching could increase by 5-10% due to gen AI.

Gain insights on the GenAI value creation and destruction opportunities: new use cases, accelerated vendor switching, spend reallocation from purchasing to building.

🎲Lucky dip essential reads…

• Looks Matter (When It Comes to Software Products)

• What KPIs do venture firms care about across stages?

• The Top 100 Gen AI Consumer Apps (3rd Edition)

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Have a great week!

Josh