Business Breakdowns: The rise and fall of “Blackberry” with Lon Harris | E1773
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.2 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 7 July 2023
⏱️ 75 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This Week in Startups is presented by:
Vanta. Compliance and security shouldn't be a deal-breaker for startups to win new business. Vanta makes it easy for companies to get a SOC 2 report fast. TWiST listeners can get $1,000 off for a limited time at vanta.com/twist
Embroker. The Embroker Startup Insurance Program helps startups secure the most important types of insurance at a lower cost and with less hassle. Save up to 20% off of traditional insurance today at Embroker.com/twist. While you’re there, get an extra 10% off using offer code TWIST.
House of Macadamias is the next big health trend! Get 20% off your first purchase and a free box of Namibian Sea Salted Macadamia Nuts at houseofmacadamias.com/twist by using code twist20!
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Today’s show:
Lon joins Jason to extract the business lessons from the film Blackberry (2:19). The two discuss the company’s rise and fall, the benefits of having multiple co-founders (9:11), the psychology of framing (23:05), knowing when to "fake it 'til you make it" (56:19) and much more!
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Time stamps:
(0:00) Cold open! “What got us here won’t get us there.”
(2:19) Jason and Lon intro Business Breakdowns - a new series!
(5:51) Blackberry cast breakdown
(9:11) Lessons: Importance of having multiple, complementary co-founders and market pull
(13:25) Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://vanta.com/twist
(14:32) Lessons: “Burn the boats,” importance of diligence, product velocity
(21:51) Embroker - Use code TWIST to get an extra 10% off insurance at https://Embroker.com/twist
(23:05) Lesson: Framing the product or pitch
(26:11) Lesson: Importance of riding and recognizing paradigm shifts
(31:04) Lessons: Marketing as a status symbol, real-world virality, being of action, “bend don’t break”
(36:50) Lesson: What got you here won’t get you there
(40:53) House of Macadamias - Get 20% off and a free box of Namibian Sea Salted Macadamia Nuts at https://houseofmacadamias.com/twist by using code TWIST20
(42:12) Lessons: Blackberry’s downfall, importance of focus, product association
(53:13) Lesson: Knowing when to cash in your chips
(56:19) Lesson: Know when to “fake it ‘til you make it”
(59:51) Business Breakdown Awards, presented by Jason and Lon
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | this is another important point. What got you here won't get you there is one of these credos, |
| 0:07.9 | it's one of these heuristics, one of these best practices here in the valley. And so if what got |
| 0:14.4 | you here was a bunch of folks who come up with great ideas and who have great culture, will work |
| 0:20.3 | for small amounts of money, they're new to the business, they got fresh ideas, but then you start |
| 0:25.0 | having millions of people and servers and contracts, you need people who've done this before. And this |
| 0:31.6 | is one of the hardest things and Mike goes through this where he's like, hey, this guy is my best friend, |
| 0:37.6 | right? Multiple times we when he wants to take him to New York. But he's my best friend and this |
| 0:42.8 | is one of the hardest things in business. I see it over and over again, where three great |
| 0:46.7 | friends build the company and then all of a sudden one of them was charged a product, one of them |
| 0:50.8 | was charged of sales, one of them was the CEO. And then all of a sudden the person who's doing |
| 0:55.4 | sales, they don't hit their numbers, they've never done sales before and then you got to bring in |
| 0:59.1 | somebody who's a VP of sales who's done it before, who's had 50 people working from this person's |
| 1:03.3 | never had anybody working for them, they got 12 people working for them and those people hate them |
| 1:06.8 | because they don't know how to you know run the department. And this is that moment where the |
| 1:11.2 | company moves from trying to figure out product market fit and then becomes an at scale company. |
| 1:18.0 | The people who run an at scale company lawn are very different people than the people who |
| 1:24.1 | create products. This weekend startups is brought to you by Vanta. Compliance and security |
| 1:30.0 | shouldn't be a deal breaker for startups to win new business. Vanta makes it easy for companies |
| 1:34.7 | to get a sock to report fast. Twist listeners can get $1,000 off for a limited time, |
| 1:40.5 | Advanta.com slash twist. Embroker startup insurance program helps start up secure the most |
| 1:46.6 | important types of insurance at a lower cost and with less hassle. Save up to 20% off of |
| 1:52.8 | traditional insurance today at Embroker.com slash twist. While you're there, get an extra 10% off |
... |
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