Gurley contrasts Google, Skype, OpenTable, and LinkedIn as examples of organic growth versus companies renting customers through marketing.
“Skype never ran ads. OpenTable never ran ads. Linkedin doesn't run ads. People that are having to spend heavily on marketing are basically renting or borrowing customers.”
Gurley argues running Google ads is the least creative, most ignorant way to acquire customers.
“I've always felt that if you're starting a business, the easiest way you could possibly get a customer, the first way the most ignorant person would assume to go get a customer would be to run a Google ad.”
Gurley notes seven companies raised over $200M in coding and legal AI, making conservative approaches unviable.
“There's seven companies that have raised over $200,000,000 and they're all gonna mount customer acquisition strategies with those dollars.”