My guest today is Nico Wittenborn. Nico is the founder of Adjacent, a venture firm that looks for what he describes as the “adjacent possible” for their next investment. Nico has zoned in on the consumer subscription market as his ideal candidate, making early investments in Calm App, Photoroom, and Oura Ring. Nico does virtually all steps of the investing process on his own as he believes this allows him to be as close to finding the truth as possible. We discuss sharpening your intuition, evaluating the subscription business model, and exploring the adjacent possible. Please enjoy this conversation with Nico Wittenborn.
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For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.
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Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com).
Show Notes:
(00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best
(00:03:30) Intuition in Investment Decisions
(00:05:08) The Philosophy of Adjacency in Venture Capital
(00:12:51) Exploring Consumer Subscription Models
(00:18:16) Common Mistakes In Subscription Pricing
(00:22:41) Errors in Product Roll-Out Strategy
(00:28:50) The Sucess of BirdBuddy
(00:33:45) What It Means To Be a Great Product
(00:38:21) Solo Investing vs. Being Part of a Big Firm
(00:43:12) Building On Your Own Experience As a Founder
(00:44:49) The Rise of Individual Investors and Their Impact
(00:50:52) The Strategic Advantage of Staying Small in Venture Capital
(00:52:02) Deep Dive into Founder Questions and Consumer Subscription Insights
(00:54:09) Leveraging AI and Technological Advances for Growth
(00:59:13) Exploring Future Investments and Market Opportunities
(01:05:13) Areas to Explore On The Value Curve For Consumer Subscription
(01:12:32) Advice For Those Interest In Nico’s Path
(01:20:10) The Kindest Thing Anyone Has Ever Done for Nico
