CIRCLES Building In Public Strategy
Circles is introducing our new building in public strategy: To keep content private, we’ll need a reason for it. We are a company dedicated to expanding access to the world’s knowledge for every professional. Leading us is an army (currently small but fierce) of industry influencers dedicated to sharing their knowledge with others. They know that future professionals won’t replace them, they’ll stand on their shoulders.
By sharing institutional knowledge externally, we are trading product leverage for distribution leverage. In startup land, distribution is king. Charlie Munger said: “The company that needs a new machine tool, and hasn’t bought it, is already paying for it.” When we don’t share institutional knowledge, the cost is distribution.
Today, we can trade knowledge with virtually anyone. In the last 5 years, 2.6 billion high-performance smartphones hit the market. Every single one had a selfie-camera capable of recording HD video and a developer SDK so apps could run AI-enabled programs on device. Over Covid, companies implemented infrastructure for more than two thirds of U.S. white collar workers to remain remote. Companies have more to gain from building in public than ever before.
Building in public is still a new concept. Many of the champions of building in public return to radio silence once they find product-market fit. Levels at Series A is a noteable exception. Sam Corcos, the CEO, outlined Levels’ approach to building in public, with a recognition that rising tides raise all boats. Still, Levels default approach is to publish content internally. Investors have said Levels is more transparent than necessary. CIRCLES is going farther.
I spoke with Sander Daniels this past week about building in public. He shared with me that he started sharing substantive videos while building Thumbtack by video. He would share honest learnings through Snapchat, packaged with his warm, relatable, and funny personality. Thumbtack’s legal and HR asked that he (one of the founders!) give it up. Sharing instituional knowledge externally felt orthogonal to the core drivers of the business to them, so the risks that came with his experiment outweight the benefits to them.
At shabbat dinner last week the big question I got asked was: how can you protect your users from liability? We can give creators the tools to share knowledge, but we can’t change their employers policies for confidentiality. They are right: most professionals are currently barred from sharing meaningful content related to their jobs. We know that to change the world we first need to change ourselves. At CIRCLES, professionals are free to share meaningful content related to their jobs unless there is a reason not to.
