Blake Hall

It's like what PayPal was for the early days of the internet with payments, that we could be this identity utility. And if we're spending three-fourths of our time on identity and login trying to build an app, if we could build this utility, then all these other developers that might want to create experiences based on trust could just use us and then build on top of that.

It's like what PayPal was for the early days of the internet with payments, that we could be this identity utility. And if we're spending three-fourths of our time on identity and login trying to build an app, if we could build this utility, then all these other developers that might want to create experiences based on trust could just use us and then build on top of that.

And that's actually the right thing to do. So there are some key moments in terms of how we did the pivot that I could talk about, but that was the learning.

And that's actually the right thing to do. So there are some key moments in terms of how we did the pivot that I could talk about, but that was the learning.

Yeah, so the four steps, just really quick, so maybe I can give you the cliff notes. The first one is just pure scientific method. Form a hypothesis that there's a problem worth solving and what that is. And then the way that you validate the hypothesis is that people are willing to pay you for the solution to solve it.

Yeah, so the four steps, just really quick, so maybe I can give you the cliff notes. The first one is just pure scientific method. Form a hypothesis that there's a problem worth solving and what that is. And then the way that you validate the hypothesis is that people are willing to pay you for the solution to solve it.

And so until you've done that, you don't earn the right to even figure out if you've got a scalable company. So this constant iteration, this is what most founders struggle with. Am I even working on a problem that matters?

And so until you've done that, you don't earn the right to even figure out if you've got a scalable company. So this constant iteration, this is what most founders struggle with. Am I even working on a problem that matters?

You could convince yourself that your baby's not ugly and like every day, but the only way to really validate the problem is meaningful and your solution is the right one is to get people to pay you. And then Jeff Moore has written all this other literature around what part of the market's target. So the first two steps are, I have a hypothesis about a problem and my solution for it.

You could convince yourself that your baby's not ugly and like every day, but the only way to really validate the problem is meaningful and your solution is the right one is to get people to pay you. And then Jeff Moore has written all this other literature around what part of the market's target. So the first two steps are, I have a hypothesis about a problem and my solution for it.

And then step two is I validated it because somebody paid me to solve it for them. Now, once you've passed step two, it's four steps, the epiphany. Step three is how much revenue do I get from that customer when they pay me and for how long? And then how much does it cost me to acquire them? And those are your unit economics. You can see companies that skip the stage from two to three.

And then step two is I validated it because somebody paid me to solve it for them. Now, once you've passed step two, it's four steps, the epiphany. Step three is how much revenue do I get from that customer when they pay me and for how long? And then how much does it cost me to acquire them? And those are your unit economics. You can see companies that skip the stage from two to three.

This is living social. Raised a billion dollars here in the DC market, went to zero. Because if you violate the four steps, the epiphany, if your unit economics are upside down, you're just going to set money on fire. Groupon pivots from daily deals to e-commerce, takes a haircut from 20 billion to five, but survives and is still around today because you can't violate the steps.

This is living social. Raised a billion dollars here in the DC market, went to zero. Because if you violate the four steps, the epiphany, if your unit economics are upside down, you're just going to set money on fire. Groupon pivots from daily deals to e-commerce, takes a haircut from 20 billion to five, but survives and is still around today because you can't violate the steps.

And then if your unit economics are good, step four is really culture and it's the Jim Collins good to great, great team, great retention, focus, alignment, all the things that help you capture hopefully a And so what's really amazing is you can't skip stages. This is why you raise a ton of money from investors in Silicon Valley. Congratulations. You've just ratcheted up expectations.

And then if your unit economics are good, step four is really culture and it's the Jim Collins good to great, great team, great retention, focus, alignment, all the things that help you capture hopefully a And so what's really amazing is you can't skip stages. This is why you raise a ton of money from investors in Silicon Valley. Congratulations. You've just ratcheted up expectations.

And if you don't fundamentally know your sort of ideal customer profile and whether you have product market fit or not, you can get really perverse incentives where folks try to move the revenue line up, even though the underlying unit economics are toxic.

And if you don't fundamentally know your sort of ideal customer profile and whether you have product market fit or not, you can get really perverse incentives where folks try to move the revenue line up, even though the underlying unit economics are toxic.

Identity is how you make life safer and easier, and here's why it matters. So in April, the Government Accountability Office released a report on fraud in federal spending. It's just federal benefits at the federal level does not include federal dollars at the state or tribal level. They estimated that the government loses $233 billion to $521 billion per year to fraud. To put this in context,

Identity is how you make life safer and easier, and here's why it matters. So in April, the Government Accountability Office released a report on fraud in federal spending. It's just federal benefits at the federal level does not include federal dollars at the state or tribal level. They estimated that the government loses $233 billion to $521 billion per year to fraud. To put this in context,