Latitude

Finding clarity in founder vision

Since joining the venture capital world, I'm often asked about my investment theses. Truthfully, I'm not yet smart enough to have strong, core theses that I believe in deeply. Most VCs excel at extrapolating the future, and a select few can genuinely predict it. As I'm still honing this skill, I focus on understanding and evaluating founders. In this realm, I do have one thesis I believe strongly in, shaped by a decade of working with and investing in founders: the concept of latitude.

Latitude, in this context, is a founder's ability to articulate both their vision for the near future and the concrete steps they're taking at the ground level to get there. Great founders seamlessly jump between explaining their high-level vision and delving into nitty-gritty execution details. They paint a vivid picture of what they foresee happening and how their current actions will lead to that future.

Most pitches I encounter fall into two categories: those pitching a point solution without clear foresight, and those with lofty visions but no concrete plan for the next few months. I'm drawn to founders deeply obsessed with their domain, who can take you on a journey through the intricacies of building a groundbreaking company, revealing the secrets they've uncovered to achieve this, starting with their initial wedge.

To identify these founders and gauge their latitude more precisely, I've developed a key question: "What are the second-order effects if what you build initially is successful?" This question pushes them to think about both immediate actions and broader implications of success. It reveals their ability to envision how current efforts will ripple through the market and what changes might occur with mass adoption.

When I share this approach with founder friends, they sometimes think it's a "low bar." It might seem that way, but I still pass on most founders since they can't answer this question effectively. Despite its simplicity, I've found this question to be a powerful tool for distinguishing those with both a clear vision and a practical plan from those who lack one.