On the limo ride home from Burning Man, I was talking to a set of fresh entrepreneurs on the problems they were facing. In between updating my Mattermark dashboard and updating my DraftKings lineup, I listened to some of their problems. Classic issues every startup founder has to face.
Competing for top shelf talent. Finding product/market fit. Landing the marquee reference customers.
After letting them yammer a bit, I slammed shut my Air and stared at them for a long moment.
"Guys," I said, "you know the firm's position on this."
One of the ones bogarting the Pelligrino in the back sighed and replied snarkily, "Let me guess Rob. Be more like Apple?"
"Yes," I declared. "You need to be more like Apple."
"But Rob!" one cried, "I don't see how constant comparisons to a $650 billion consumer electronics company is supposed to help my 5-person SaaS ...