It's true that sexy technological leaps help us move forward too. But most progress occurs because talented people relentlessly focus on important, boring problems. And this stuff isn’t ever in the headlines. Most of the time it’s not even in the article. It just happens in the background.
That's what I care about. The boring problems. And the people who tackle them.
I’m not anti-hype. Hype is fun when it happens. Take supply chain, which has been a hyped area of startups and investing for a few years. But even that lasted only a couple years, has dissipated, and didn’t come close to matching the size of the need and opportunity.
Boring problems discourage tourists. They attract builders who have long lived in the neighborhood, and aren’t planning on going anywhere. And they need years of one-foot-in-front-of-the-other work before any solution works.
I love these people. People who are obsessed about the boring problem they’re solving. People who find them important, and exciting. Because I do too.
I’m a Partner at Ridge Ventures, where we back B2B software teams at Seed and Series A.