Great teams and lousy markets

"When a great team meets a lousy market, market wins. When a lousy team meets a great market, market wins. When a great team meets a great market, something special happens." "If you address a market that really wants your product, if the dogs are eating the dog food, you can screw up everything in the company and you will succeed. Conversely, if you're really good at execution but the dogs don't want to eat the dog food, you have no chance of winning." A great product in a great market can make an executive look great, regardless of skill. Similarly, when a talented executive tries to achieve success with an offering that is lousy or the market is lousy, the result is inevitably lousy. Warren Buffet has expressed a similar thought: "When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact." Andy wants great management and a great market when he invests. One big difference between Andy Rachleff and Warren Buffett is that as a venture capitalist and entrepreneur, Andy builds new moats.  Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger make it clear that they only buy existing moats. Building new moats and buying existing moats are very different objectives, involving very different skills and talents.

via: 25iq