There are several ways how you can classify a company.

I like the following: Companies that jump on a trend or companies that create a trend.

Companies that jump on a trend are way more common. The founders get their ideas based on existing market data and literally, jump on the trend.

Example: Stats show people’s increasing crypto adoption as a store of value, international transfers and payments, digital collectibles, etc. Founders see this existing data and then execute a company that takes advantage of this trend (wallet, crypto exchange, defi protocol, etc.)

Then you have the more ambitious companies, those which create a new trend. These are built by those rare, bold and crazy founders who, against any market data, are brave enough to change how people behave.

Examples:

• Airbnb. How many people were staying in strangers’ houses? Close to 0.

• Microsoft’s dream was to put a computer on every desk in every home. How many people had a computer in their house? Close to 0.

The most fascinating aspect is that, deep inside them, people had the willingness to adopt these products, but they didn’t yet know it because there was no facilitator of this hidden behavior.

These companies have a smaller chance of becoming a Billion Dollar company, but are way more likely to become a Trillion Dollar company.

They are way harder to achieve because they change how people behave. They change how we interact with the world and our lives. They fundamentally change us.

I love being part of these crazy moonshots, either as an employee, founder, follower, user or probably as an investor in the future (got the crazyenough.vc domain just in case.)

I’m glad there are people willing to put their entire work lives into the Billion type companies because they do things that are extremely useful. They make our day to day easier. But I want to spend my limited time doing things that can alter how the world looks.

The result is, I think, a new level of competition. It’s not the traditional rivalry between companies for a particular market share. It’s a competition of different views of how the world should look — a clash of visions.

I believe that the hardest part in building the Trillion type of companies is that the initial journey feels like fumbling in the dark, because there is no place to look for confirmation. You can’t talk to users or perform market research, because people always will tell you their most common problems, which inevitably will take you to build a trend follower company.

As Henry Ford said, ‘If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.’