Brian

Could this build the foundation for a company to *eventually* win the market & retain market share for longer?

Sure, the better product doesn’t always win. Distribution & first to scale does play a huge role in the chance of winning a market. But, could this different approach to capital expenditure in a highly competitive market be better over the long-term?

Not all capital is necessarily spent on customer/user acquisition, but a large percentage commonly is. This leads to the question of: What happens to the company that raises the same amount of $, but instead invests mainly in their team, product, & brand?

Every country would likely be better off if they used that $ for education, healthcare, etc. So what about in the race to scale? Companies raise capital & aggressively scale to ensure that they don’t lose to their competitors.

The arms race benefits no one. Billions are spent to make sure that a country is “safe” against its enemies. In the end, all $ put towards increasing militarily size/weaponry doesn’t significantly change the power dynamic between the countries who partook in the race originally.

Here’s a thought I had while reading Sapiens: How similar are the ideas of the arms race between countries & competing companies raising capital?

The story about why we’re better off is told only by the winners. For example, can we definitively say that a different social network would’ve caused more or less harm than Facebook? Could they have connected the world in the same way Facebook did?

There’s a common perception that because a company wins, the world is better off for it. Obviously, they wouldn’t have won if this weren’t true. But, there’s no way to actually tell if this is true or not.

If you have any questions or would like to learn a bit more about Utilo, please feel free to send me a DM or email me - brian@utilo.co!

PS: Utilo translates to useful, which is exactly what we hope to be. Sign up for early access http://Utilo.co 

In the future, we hope that Utilo can serve as your go-to place to find or build a community. Where people can meet like-minded individuals, have thoughtful discussions around shared interests, and where communities can flourish.

We’re building Utilo to support communities & founders from their earliest to their latest stages. Unlike the most common alternatives where communities aren’t a main priority, our success is completely dependent upon the success of your communities.

Our goal is to save founders time, energy, and money, so that they can spend time on what matters most – their community.

Here are a few key takeaways: The most common theme we heard across all of our discussions was “I love my community, but hate the work.” Communities lack an easy, simple way to monetize, & Communities need more tools to properly manage and grow their communities.

My Co-founder Nipun & I decided to build Utilo as we learned more about the overall experience with building a community on the existing options out there. After speaking with many community founders, admins, and mods, we learned a few things.

One of the best examples of compounding outside of investing: Brady + Belichick.