AMA - Co-Founder / CEO of Vidyard and GP of Garage Capital

@tyler_campaigne - great Q TC! As you know, all those categories you mentioned are how solutions are delivered (ie. business models, technology models, etc.) vs. opportunities in themselves. IMO, the key to creating value, is to help provide leverage to a particular user with a repeatable problem that's expensive for them to solve. And so, the biggest opportunities exist in industries that founders (often young / fairly inexperienced) don't have experience with. For example, many founders build social products because it's the world they know. When we were in YC, every 2nd startup was a music streaming service. :P The real opportunities exist in marrying things like sharing economy, blockchain, and GAI (for example) to give leverage in under-served spaces. Ie. Build a solution for a problem, vs. a solution in search of a problem. To be clear, we didn't invest in many crypto companies, because the founders had a very hard time articulating the problem they were solving. At the time, this made me feel stupid, but in retrospect, it's because the problem wasn't big or understandable enough. So, if I were founding a company today, I'd look at big and un-sexy industries where things are done very inefficiently and use GAI / blockchain to improve them. Vertical SaaS has been proven to build big value if the vertical is tall enough and founders are proving that sometimes you can traverse verticals with small changes to the way the tech works or is described. Get dirty with people in industries you don't know much about. Maybe you're already in an underserved industry that has a clear problem that you know how to solve - that's how we define founder / market fit.

@derek_jouppi1 - Thanks Derek - I do love a solid Vidyard :P. Where are you building Advite?

@michaellitt in Toronto. Happy to come down to KW - I just sent you a message on LinkedIn.

@carissajansen - I'll make sure to take a look. Congrats - big step with many more bigger steps to come!

@chikezie_sixtus - absolutely. Beyond relevant skill, I'm always looking for a certain level of autonomy as well as an ability to "handle hard" & communicate efficiently. During an interview, it's important to share stories of how you overcame a difficult objective as well as a learn fast / fail fast mentality. In this process, you prove that you can communicate efficiently. This one is an often overlooked skill, but so important in today's context. We all have time as a limited resource, so using it effectively while communicating is critical. As cliche as it is to say, Startups are hard and we find ourselves in difficult macro conditions at the moment. It's wartime (as they say) and so speed, autonomy and fast feedback loops are incredibly important for all roles.

@michaellitt Thanks

@laura_smith_owen - we do but it's not within our experience / wheelhouse and so we often look for validation from the syndicate or the network. Are you building in Canada?

@michaellitt Thank you! We are based outside of Kansas City but will launch in the US and Canada in December.