Let go
Did you know that Aspirin, Trampoline and even Heroin were all originally trademarks, legally protected in certain countries around the world? They subsequently became global standards. But did they start out with that vision? Where was the tipping point?
This year I’ve been thinking more and more, can the investment opportunity I’m looking at become the global standard for what they’re doing?
Do the Hoovering
People grab an Uber, even when it’s not. We Google something, we don’t Bing it. When we want to buy something it seems stupid not to look on Amazon first.
Will what3words be the universal addressing standard for the world? Can Coconut be the standard for sorting out freelancers’ taxes? Can Unplugged own ‘unplugging’ and the digital detox space? I certainly hope so.
Standards worth setting
One way to find potential new standards emerge is to look in places where current technology is so new it seems like a gimmick or the wild west, where current solutions are highly fragmented or where satisfaction is very low with no clear leader. In 2022 and beyond this could be startups emerging as the standard in crypto, IoT, alternative foods, space travel or space manufacturing, and [proper] AI.
In the past I think I’ve been guilty of not narrowing in on the startups that can truly become globally dominant and the standard in their field, bar none.
It’s amongst the very highest ambition for a startup to be a global standard and leave behind certain protections (guardrails?) that others may hang onto. This is something I am giving higher priority to on my potential-investment checklist in 2022.
Happy New Year.
Important: None of these posts are investment advice. If you are thinking about investing you should seek the advice of a suitably qualified independent advisor.
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