Gurley describes Fidel reading a Rolling Stone article about Apple stars at General Magic.
“He read a Rolling Stone magazine article, which I just sent it. I found the copy on eBay and sent it to him that mentioned the, the stars of Apple.”
Gurley describes Fidel stalking General Magic for six months after reading Rolling Stone, passing up Apple offer.
“These were the individuals of Apple and they had all left to go to a company, General Magic. He didn't know what they did.”
“I could have, I think, fooled myself. And I went through this mental model when I was thinking about it and said, oh, I'll be the best venture capitalist in a the sixth VC city.”
Gurley argues going to an industry epicenter accelerates learning, networking and optionality through increased chance meetings.
“And so the ability to learn, the ability to network. I know I know that you're a big fan of the word optionality, which I love.”
Gurley argues moving to industry epicenters makes learning, mentoring, and finding peers dramatically easier.
“I would shorten it for this and say, all of the all of the previous principles we talked about get easier in the epicenter. Learning's easier. Mentoring's easier. Peers are easier.”
Gurley observes Silicon Valley has unusually high willingness to give advice to strangers, similar to Nashville songwriters.
“In Silicon Valley, if you walk up to somebody that you don't know and ask them for advice, the probability that they say yes and spend time is higher than you would ever expect.”
Gurley advises moving to your industry's epicenter because it amplifies learning, mentorship, peers, and optionality.
“If your industry has an epicenter, and we're sitting in an epicenter, but like if like, and you are confident this is your fascination lane, you should go.”
Gurley argues moving to an industry's epicenter amplifies all career advantages including learning, mentors, and peers.
“Because all the other principles in the book get better. So I talk about continuous learning, I talk about finding mentors, I talk about finding peers.”
Gurley says being at the industry epicenter amplifies all career principles because continuous learning, mentors, peers, and optionality happen naturally.
“all the other principles in the book get better. So I talk about continuous learning, I talk about finding mentors, I talk about finding peers. Like, all those things in the epicenter happen continuously.”