Common Founder Issue
I've spent the better part of 20 years working on startups and thinking about what makes founders successful. The single most important lesson that I’ve learned is that focus is the biggest competitive advantage that startups have, so I’m always on the lookout for additional thoughts on this topic. In this podcast the legendary investor John Doerr is making the point that every founder & startup needs to identify the single key risk in their business and “marshal all of the resources that you have against removing it."

To tie some previous posts together around a theme, this post discusses why you should share your best startup idea with lots of (smart) people, this post dives into why should shouldn't care about competition and in this podcast John Doerr discusses finding the one key area of focus. In other words, find the one key area of focus for your startup and don't spend your energy on much else (like worrying about competition or whether or not someone will steal your idea).

Context
At this point in the video/podcast, John is making the point that he partners with founders who want to “go big."

Get Right To The Point
To get right to the point go to minute 41:10 of this video/podcast.

If this particular lesson resonated with you, please pass it along to one other person who you think it might help. Also subscribe on the homepage to receive each new lesson via email when I post them (once or twice a week).

Thanks to these folks for helping us all learn faster
John Doerr (@johndoerr) of Kleiner Perkins (@kpcb)
This Week In Startups (@TWistartups )
Jason Calacanis (@jason)
Jacqui Deegan (@jacqKD)
Jacob Beemer (@jacobbeemer)

Please let me and others know what you think about this topic
Email me privately at dave@switchyards.com or let's discuss publicly at @davempayne.