Thread by @sanguit

Vehicle thinking.

A framework on creating scale and leverage with the assets and agency of others.

A thread 👇

What is vehicle thinking?

I borrow the term vehicle from 'investment vehicles' which create a mechanism to accumulate others' assets towards investment.

Funds, as investment vehicles, allow fund managers to benefit from an asset base contributed by others, and share in the returns of compounding on that asset base.

These principles can be extended quite powerfully beyond 'money' to think about scale and leverage at a much broader scale.

There are two broad ways
to create momentum and scale towards your goals,
by leveraging the assets and agency of others:
Funnel thinking and vehicle thinking

Funnels attract third party inputs for the sole purpose of converting them to output.

Vehicles attract third party inputs but create a larger goal and organizational architecture that all these inputs can be collaboratively leveraged towards.

Funnel thinking and vehicle thinking look deceptively similar in tactics but are fundamentally different in architecture.

Example:
Run a charity dinner vs start a foundation
Running a charity dinner is funnel thinking. You aggregate donations and you're done. Starting a foundation creates the organizational architecture for larger compounding.

Example:
Organise events vs start a subscription community
Events are funnels that convert external intent and $ into ticket sales. A subscription community is a vehicle that can compound by organising the same intent and $.

Funnel thinking funnels in demand and converts them to transactional goals.
Vehicle thinking creates a mechanism to organise the demand towards common goals and in doing so benefits from compounding through the accumulative effects of 3rd party agency and assets.

Traditionally, vehicle thinking was largely implemented by building organisations and accumulating employees and resources internally.

Today, anyone can engage in vehicle thinking. Organizational tools are democratised and individuals now benefit from the same leverage that organization traditionally benifited from.

A vehicle needs three components:
- A purpose to attract third party assets and agency
- A common goal to stimulate third party agency
- An organisational architecture comprising core tools and governance to organise the agency of these third parties

The creator economy is booming. But creators will miss out if they only apply funnel thinking. The creator economy delivers outsized returns if you leverage vehicle thinking.

Funnel thinking looks to harvest, vehicle thinking looks to organize and nurture

Funnel thinking looks to optimize lead acquisition and conversion cost, transactionally at the cost of a good experience
Vehicle thinking focuses on growing value through compounding instead

Eventually, funnel thinking is zero sum thinking. Your position in the funnel takes a % off someone downstream.
Vehicle thinking, instead, works to define a new pie. It does not simply redistribute the pie.

Funnel thinking thinks only in flows. Vehicle thinking looks to accumulate stocks - of third party assets and agency.

Whatever you're doing, you could look to switch from funnel thinking to vehicle thinking. In fact, look to build funnels are around your vehicle.

Example: Come for the event, stay for the club.

Clubs often use events to sell memberships. Events in themselves are funnels but when tied to a vehicle, they benefit from the compounding of the vehicle.

Charity dinners vs foundation memberships work in the same way

A cohort-based-course is a funnel. Ongoing community membership creates a vehicle.

Eventually, vehicles exist in many forms.
Investment funds act as vehicles to accumulate third party assets.
Not-for-profits act as vehicles to accumulate third party funding and agency.
Communities and clubs act as vehicles to accumulate third party assets and agency.