We're going through one of the biggest shifts in the history of the world:

The businesses of yesterday consolidated power.

The businesses of tomorrow distributes power.

Understand this and the future is yours.

Need help? Let's dive in with examples 👇👇👇
7 years ago, @balajis was my professor at Stanford.

He developed an insight nearly a decade ago which looks more obvious by the day.

"Unlocking individual potential is the key to unlocking the world's potential."

This is playing out in real time across every industry.
1: Entertainment

Yesterday, you had to be chosen by the kings of Hollywood to make it.

Gate keepers, ladder climbing, politics just to get a chance.

Today anyone can get millions of followers via TikTok, Insta, YouTube.

The kicker? You can do it on a shoestring budget.
2: Finance

Finance used to be powered by the "good ol boy" network.

Let's be honest: it still is - but it's changing.

Reddit, Robinhood & Coinbase give main street a voice.

The cool part is this is shifting how businesses act.

More focus on stakeholders vs shareholders.
3: Print

Everyone is on the watch out for fake news.

The institutional news outlets are seen as politicized.

Therefore, writers are branching out on their own.

And, instead of following untrusted organizations, readers are following trusted people.

Twitter & Substack ftw
4. Transportation

Transportation was monopolized by major medallion corporations.

Or it was a public utility.

Today, Uber and Lyft have put millions of drivers to work.

Drivers can use their own cars at their own times.

Ready, set, go.
5. Food

Autism, Chrons, Diabetes, Cancer, Insomnia.

All at all time highs.

More people than ever are questioning their mass-produced, processed food.

Many are realizing that by going to a local farmer’s market,

They can get better food, higher quality, and lower cost.
6. Commerce

Want economies of scale and access to millions of shoppers?

Since 1999, Amazon was the only choice.

Now it’s all changing.

From Shopify to Bolt, the fastest growing fintechs are breaking down the barriers to effortless commerce.
7. Health

Our healthcare system has failed us.

It prioritizes expensive solutions to symptoms rather than helping the root problem.

The world is waking up as people flock to alternative medicine and healers.

People are taking health back into their own hands.
8. Books

Getting a publisher for a book is a two year process and costs hundreds of thousands of dollars.

You can have an enormously successful book these days, fully self-published.

Publishing my book Fundraising took weeks and minimal budget.

It was a huge success.
9. Art

There once was a day where being an artist required being sponsored by an aristocrat.

With web 2.0, artists gained more power through social.

Rising the ranks still was no easy task.

With web 3.0, artists are now the kings and queens of the Metaverse.
10. Governance

Government is inefficient, problem-prone, and ineffective.

It is hard to know what goes on behind closed doors. And, it costs a lot of money to run.

Decentralized autonomous organizations can govern efficiently and transparently.

No more black boxes.
11. Money

In most countries, inflation is an enormous problem.

You work your whole life to accumulate X dollars, and then one day your purchasing power is 1/10 of what it was.

In the US, this seems to be the inevitable path.

As with governance, the people want protection.
12. Community

Clubs and societies used to be run through secrets and power.

Now they can be run through tokens.

Used to represent membership, own a token and get access to the club.

Use services like Discord to open up your club to the world.
And that’s it!

Looking for the next business to start?

I recommend deeply thinking through these trends.

If you come up with a business idea that helps accelerate one of them,

You might just be onto something truly generational.
And if you work in one of these established industries,

You are doing amazing work. I thank you for that.

For instance, doctors are doing heroic work within our medical system.

I’m critiquing the “system”, not the people inside the system.

The people keep the lights on.
If you liked this thread, give me a follow at @ryantakesoff.

I am 27 and have built 2 unicorns. My mission is to get the world dancing & fix corporate culture.

Twitter is where I share my learnings.

Let’s take off together! 🚀

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More from @ryantakesoff

29 Oct
10 more mega trends that are about to change our future 👇👇👇
Education

Gone are the days of placement exams and useless memorization.

Soon we’ll realize that real world skills taught by real world experts matter more.

We’ll enable our kids to pursue their passions, not the next chapter in a textbook.

We’ll re-learn how to learn.
Venture Capital

VC will be so good at funding disruption, that it will disrupt itself.

Raising from the public means raising from your customers

It can lead to higher valuations and more flexible control provisions.

And the company builds an army of supporters!
Read 13 tweets
22 Oct
At Bolt we've done 10,000+ reference checks.

Crazy right?

Not really. We’ve found them to be the most powerful tool in our talent arsenal.

Here’s the playbook on how to do an A+ reference check 👇👇👇
Why are references important? 3 reasons:

1. Evaluation: It provides us with critical information
2. Alignment: It creates a tighter hiring process
3. Communication: It gets the candidate excited about the company

#3 is counterintuitive. Here’s what I mean:
Depth of a reference call makes all the difference.

A simple checklist of questions? Annoying, bland, cumbersome.

Thoughtful two way questions? Candidates step back and say “Wow. If the company cares about me this much now, imagine when I’m there.”

This is big.
Read 18 tweets
20 Oct
Startups are all about momentum.

Period.

The best founders know how to take momentum and turn it into lightning in a bottle.

Over the last 18 months, we have done that at Bolt - our valuation has gone up by 1600%.

Here are 10 practical tips on how to multiply your momentum 👇
Tip 1: Turn money into more money

Fundraising is the ultimate game of momentum.

If your round is full, that’s the time to double down and build even more momentum.

Bolt has raised a B, B1, C, C1, D, D1, etc.

Much of this was from over-committed primary rounds.
Tip 2: Turn investors into more investors

When an investor is committed and has wired their money,

Ask them who else they recommend.

Sit down with them and go through specific names.

Turn 1 investor into 3, those 3 into 9, and so on.

This works great with SAFEs and Notes.
Read 13 tweets
19 Oct
Over the last 7 years I’ve built 2 multi-billion dollar companies.

It’s been grueling. We don’t share these lessons enough.

So I decided to do that over the last month.

The feedback has been awesome - 25k new followers in 1 month.

Here’s a roundup of all of the threads 👇
Why Bolt is the first tech unicorn to shift to a 4 day work week.
I’ve built both a $4B company and a $1B company over the last 7 years.

Here are the 12 mindset rules that got me here.
Read 11 tweets
13 Oct
🚨Big announcement today: Bolt raises $393M.

Wow.

A couple years ago, I didn’t know if we were going to make it.

Now we have $500M+ on the balance sheet.

I wanted to share a bit more about where we've been, but more importantly where we're going 👇👇👇
To put this fundraise into context, our valuation has gone up 18x in the last 18 months.

This wasn’t an accident, but it also wasn’t a given.

There were 4 big pillars that allowed us to hit this milestone and set up our foundation for future growth from here:
Pillar 1: A relentless focus on culture.

At Bolt we pioneered the Conscious Culture movement.

The equation is simple:

Potential = Execution + Humanity.

Implementation of this equation is anything but simple.

We work on this every day at Bolt.
Read 12 tweets
7 Oct
Fundraising

I have helped 100+ founders collectively raise $5B.

The biggest insight: fundraising is a game.

If you know how to play, you can do well.

Here are the 10 most common mistakes founders make 👇👇👇
Mistake 1: Complicated Pitch

The average VC spends 3 minutes on a pitch deck.

Crazy right?

Attention spans are shorter than ever, but consideration spans are still long.

People lean in if they're hooked.

So how do you hook them?

Keep the pitch simple.
Mistake 2: Building Relationships Late

It's hard to build a relationship with someone AND ask them for money at the same time.

Instead, develop relationships early.

Meet VCs, discuss your startup, share your progress.

When you need to fundraise, hit the ground running.
Read 13 tweets

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