"The best companies didn't have political alliances because their product was awesome and they mostly knew it. The second best companies had fantastic political

"The best companies didn't have political alliances because their product was awesome and they mostly knew it. The second best companies had fantastic political alliances and an okay product / traction." Political alliances with whom exactly? "Every guy has thought about starting a dating site." That one cracked me up. "If there is no competition you’re probably screwed." Maybe, but if the second best will be close in quality to the best one in your vertical, you won't have a very valuable company. See Peter Thiel's comments in his PandoMonthly interview. "It gets harder, not easier" Can you give some examples? Being able to build a team should make things easier on the founders, as they no longer have to be great at everything. I've seen founders get more relaxed as the business matured. "All the technology heavy startups wanted to try to somehow outsource their marketing or customer acquisition" I've seen this a lot and guilty of it myself.