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Marc Andreessen: VCs Invest in Strength, Not Lack of Weakness

By Marc Andreessen · Investing · 1 min read

The companies that check every box rarely become outliers. The ones with serious flaws — but one extreme strength — win.

Key Points

Venture capital is 100% a game of outliers
Checkbox deals (good founder, good idea, good product) rarely produce giant winners
The biggest winners almost always have serious flaws alongside one extreme strength
If you only invest based on lack of weakness, you miss nearly every big winner

If you do not invest on the basis of serious flaws, you do not invest in most of the big winners.

The Outlier Game

Venture capital is 100% a game of outliers. Every criterion Andreessen looks at has the same characteristic.

You are looking for the extreme. Not good. Not great. Extreme.

The venture capital business is 100% a game of outliers. Extreme exceptions.

The Checkbox Trap

The default way to do VC: check boxes. Good founder. Good idea. Good product. Good customers.

These deals get done all the time. They are reasonable.

But they often lack something that makes them truly remarkable.

Invest in Strength

The companies with extreme strengths often have serious flaws.

If you refuse to invest because of flaws, you miss almost every big winner in history.

Andreessen aspires to find startups with one extreme strength along an important dimension — then tolerate the weaknesses.

If you do not invest on the basis of serious flaws, you miss most of the big winners.