Why A Clear Vision Matters More Than You Think
While walking the dog this morning, I stumbled on Kara Swisher’s interview with Yahoo’s newest CEO, Jim Lanzone, on her podcast “On with Kara Swisher”. The interview, titled “Can Yahoo Bring Back the “Good Internet?” was a trip down memory lane for me as a former Yahoo employee (2006 - 2012). But more importantly, it reminded me about a topic often overlooked: clear strategic positioning.
Yahoo! was a special place with a global reach and diverse products. We worked on impactful projects with amazing people, many of whom remain close friends. However, it was heartbreaking to witness this once high-flying internet darling lose its way. We had the talent, the technology (search, advertising, personalization!), and the content (News, Sports, Mail!). But a crucial question created tension and uncertainty: were we a tech company or a media company? This internal debate plagued every strategic decision, and CEOs came and went (5 in just two years!). No one could unify the company around a core identity.
Some might scoff and say a clear vision of the problem to solve is just marketing fluff. But let me tell you, from the trenches of a software company, it has a massive impact beyond brand perception. Imagine engineering, sales, marketing, and product teams constantly wrestling with misaligned priorities. What features to build? What messages to communicate? Without a clear vision, products take longer to ship, and goals remain elusive.
This is why, at Wedbush Ventures, we look for founders who can articulate the problem they solve with laser focus. Generic answers and market trends reveal a lack of deep understanding. As Mark Twain quipped, "I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead." The best founders boil down complex ideas into clear concepts. This clarity attracts investors, employees, and customers. Everyone understands the value proposition, and teams have a framework for decision-making, prioritization, and responding to feedback. This, in turn, leads to a higher chance of building a kick-ass product that users love, and attracts a high-performing team.
Getting the value proposition right is difficult and the founders we invest in are at the stage where they are iterating on the product, problem and customer to find product-market fit and hockey-stick growth curve. To be successful, I’ve found that every company and product owner needs to be able to answer 3 fundamental, yet illuminating questions:
What Problem Are You Solving? (Problem)
Who Are You Solving It For? (Persona)
Why Does it Matter To Them (and how much does it matter to them)? (Promise)
Sure, there’s more complexity to building a business, but the answers to these questions form the foundation of a successful company and give employees, investors, and customers a clear vision of who you are. With answers to these questions, you can shape an authentic identity that marries these 3 parts together into a tangible value proposition.
So, what's Jim Lanzone's answer to Yahoo's identity crisis? His vision is that Yahoo should be the trusted guide to the internet. I like how this statement transcends whether Yahoo is a tech or media company (who cares, really?) and focuses more on the problem it is trying to solve, for whom, and why it matters. This vision reignites my hope for Yahoo's future and serves as a powerful reminder: boiling down a company's essence into a clear vision is crucial for success. Whether or not it is authentic, I’m not close enough to the company anymore to judge, but I’ll be rooting from the sideline.