Insights on venture building, founder development, and innovation ecosystems.
Essays, research, reports, case studies, frameworks, toolkits, and commentary.
Five threads of work.
- C-01Venture Building
Lessons and insights on the company-building process.
- C-02Talent
Insights on the development, assessment, and support of startup talent.
- C-03Validation
Insights on what early validation looks like, how to conduct it, and why things go wrong.
- C-04The Studio
Insights on the operation of venture studios.
- C-05Ecosystems
Insights on the development, growth, and support of innovation ecosystems.
Editor's picks.
Why We Focus on Product
Product is the foundation every startup sits on. When it is flawed, everything built on top of it is flawed too.
Understanding Falsifiable Tests
A working definition of falsifiable tests, the components that make them rigorous, a template for structuring them, and a real-world example.
What Is Product-Market Fit
A working definition of product-market fit, the history behind it, and the six conditions every venture-scale company must satisfy.
- Article · Venture Building·2026-08-06·22 min read
Common Product Issues That Prevent Product-Market Fit (Part 1)
A catalog of the recurring product issues that keep pre-seed and seed startups from reaching product-market fit, starting with the first six.
- Article · The Studio·2026-07-27·8 min read
What Is Stage 0?
Why we run a hackathon where no one builds, how the two competition rounds work, and what the first two Manila cohorts produced.
- Commentary · Ecosystems·2026-07-27·11 min read
Acceleration Saturation
Accelerator-like programs have outgrown founder supply in many ecosystems, producing motion without progress and visibility without resilience.
- Article · Venture Building·2026-07-03·9 min read
Why We Focus on Product
A working definition of product, why it sits upstream of GTM, sales, and engineering, and why Zero Vector treats it as the core driver of startup success.
- Article · Validation·2026-06-30·10 min read
Understanding Falsifiable Tests
A working definition of falsifiable tests, the components that make them rigorous, a template for structuring them, and a real-world example.
- Article · Validation·2026-06-20·14 min read
What Is Product-Market Fit
A working definition of product-market fit, the history behind it, and the six conditions every venture-scale company must satisfy.
- Article · Venture Building·2026-06-07·22 min read
The Insurgent's Playbook for Startup Founders
Insurgency research is one of the clearest playbooks ever developed for how the weak beat the strong. Founders should pay attention.
- Article · Venture Building·2026-06-07·18 min read
The Nature and Character of War
Why founders and investors repeatedly prepare for an environment that no longer exists.