My First Million
The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.
Deep Revenge Investment Framework
An investment heuristic that views companies started as revenge against perceived wrongs as strong investment opportunities
How It Works
Entrepreneurs with identity wounds or desire for revenge possess unshakeable motivation that drives them through obstacles that would stop others
Components
Identify if founder has experienced significant professional or personal setback
Assess if the business directly addresses or overcomes that setback
Evaluate if the revenge motivation aligns with market opportunity
Check if founder has channeled anger into productive business building
When to Use
When evaluating early-stage companies where founder motivation is critical to success
When Not to Use
When the revenge motivation is purely destructive rather than constructive, or when the target market doesn't align with the revenge narrative
Anti-Patterns to Avoid
Example
“Parker Conrad gets fired from Zenefits for cultural issues, starts Rippling to prove he can build a better HR platform - the revenge motivation drives him to outexecute competitors”
Related Knowledge
Build a multi-billion dollar international education empire through systematic school acquisition
Creating a global network of premium international schools serving wealthy families, achieving $1B+ revenue with strong
Create a prestigious content creation university that becomes the Harvard of digital media education
10,000 students paying $25K/year, graduates highly sought after by companies and successful as independent creators
suppressing_founder_psychology
Chips on Shoulders Framework
A principle that entrepreneurs with deep personal grievances or identity wounds often become the most financially succes
Pairing Metrics System
A framework for tracking two complementary metrics to prevent optimization of one metric from destroying overall value
Strategic Paranoia Creation
Deliberately creating a sense of existential threat within an organization to maintain urgency and performance, even whe