Stories of Startup Survival Mode - a16z Podcast  ## Metadata - Author: **a16z Podcast** - Full Title: Stories of Startup Survival Mode - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/644d910d-83e4-4d3b-a337-622fbea98717 ## Highlights - The Paranoid Survive the Decision Summary: Pivoted to micro processors. That was the legendary pivot that built the piecy industry. Antie grove does a beautiful job of describing this. And only the paranoid survive the decision isn't actually that heart. It's the courage to actually make the decision, which is nearly impossible. Transcript: Speaker 2 Un tell ous to be in the memory business. Pivoted to micro processors. That was the legendary pivot that built the piecy industry. Speaker 3 When i think of building start ups, i think of the sort of jobsan narrative of like, you have this vision and the product, and you won't have this incredible view of the future, and you're Going to build your company towards that, like next. Speaker 2 Oh. Speaker 3 Wl, i forgot about next. Speaker 2 All right. We te pivoted. And tarfl an wits wernt eon. Speaker 1 When jobs came back to apple, a t was that? That was 90, 90 ex they wasnt 97, right? I mean, the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. They had a ton of product that were all crop. As the story goes, jobs killed em all, except for one that became the imac. And that kind of sort of worked. And then from there came n of the new power books that worked a little bit better, and then o s x, and then the ipot, and then, and then, and the nd then. But what gives you the confidence do that? Do you have data? Speaker 3 Do you just have it wick up on the middle night? You have a realization, like, what drives it? Antie grove does a beautiful job of describing this. Speaker 2 And only the paranoid survive the decision isn't actually that heart. It's the courage to actually make the decision. That's nearly impossible. And why nobody ever does it, because you're basically, if you continue going on your current route, you know, particularly if the company has got some and momentum ([Time 0:02:28](https://share.snipd.com/snip/ee6c6eeb-38bd-44bd-9670-6ebde719f8b2))