Newsletter #19: Be Radical

We’re convinced that having an idea and a vision isn’t enough. Ideas are a dime a dozen, and vision doesn’t amount to much unless it is radically implemented in all the layers of your company. Product, marketing, sales, design: they all should follow the guiding principles laid out in your vision. And they all should invest their time, energy, and resources to become 10 times better than anyone.

We’re constantly reminded of this simple truth. Especially this quarter: we’ve launched new companies with whom we work tirelessly to reach that radical improvement on a narrow segment, we’ve launched new solutions that are driven by a radical vision, and we’re looking ahead towards new projects and partnerships with the same desire to create something truly radical.

Start narrow

We recently launched the first half of our eF19 batch. Working on a new set of problems, we’re once again faced with a simple choice: what area does our product want to create a 10x improvement in? Once we’ve identified it, the rest follows.

For instance: Bonjour is a videoconferencing tool, for sales. Everything that’s broken about online meetings can’t be fixed — at least not at this stage. But it can when we radically focus our attention on one use case: sales.

Another example: Swan is a simple banking API to issue cards, wallets, and IBANs. Most banking APIs can do much more. But by focusing radically on these basic needs, Swan can hope to attract customers who need simplicity to ship the banking features they want.

Lastly: Chilli is a consultancy-software hybrid aiming to get SMEs back on track and to crack SaaS distribution to traditional businesses. By radically focusing on a population that has long been ignored by technology vendors, they can create a 10x improvement on the standard software buying experience.

Pick a fight

A vision is something your entire company should live by. As part of our eF18 batch, we launched Multis, the first Cryptobank for companies. Their team of crypto-dreamers are bullish about one thing: in 5 years time, they’re convinced that companies around the world will use crypto for their payments. And they’re building today the experience they want those companies to have tomorrow.

They launched publicly last week, showcasing what their product can do and — more importantly — why they think companies will end up using crypto. While Multis is a first step for us in the blockchain arena, it also embodies what we think all software should stand for: radical opinions backed by radical implementation.

Be bold

Being radical is also something we apply to our own mission as a startup studio. We’ve found our process-market fit, now we’re scaling our ambition: in addition to the three companies we announced this quarter, we’ll be announcing three more bringing our eF19 batch to a total of six new startups. We’ve also reached beyond our model, and formed a partnership that we’re eager to tell you more about… Stay tuned!

With each of these ventures, we do what any entrepreneur would do: we strive to avoid consensus. We aim for the radical. Entrepreneurs are outliers: it’s their secret weapon that naturally enables them to create radical businesses.

You’re eager to join something that challenges the consensus? You want to launch something radical? You’re ready to be part of the next big thing? Great, we’re hiring.

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