Why venture capitalists do not invest in flying penguins

Functional focus helps animals excel and entrepreneurs succeed
George ILIEV

Seasoned venture capitalists are known to refuse to invest in entrepreneurs who are working on more than one project at a time. Focus is the key feature that a VC looks for in a startup, as focused ventures are less likely to fail.

In the world of birds, the same principle holds true, known as the "tradeoff hypothesis". Birds that are efficient in diving are mediocre at flying, as wings optimised for diving make flying possible only at a very high energy cost. Murres and cormorants are an example of excellent divers but terrible fliers: murres are able to fly but only by burning energy at 31 times their rate at rest, which is the highest known ratio in the ornitological world. Similarly, because of the inefficiency of being able to both fly and dive, penguins gave up and lost their flying skills 70 million years ago.

Flying has evolved independently at least four times in the history of life on Earth (insects, dinosaurs, birds and bats) but the loss of flying in birds has occurred independently at least five times.

Focus appears to be the key to success in both startups and animals.

(Photo: Walking penguin, Boulders penguin colony, Cape Town, Oct 2012. Source: George ILIEV)

Big Bang matter formation resembles education: Neither represents final stage

The Big Bang created a limited number of elements just like education develops a limited set of skills
George ILIEV

Matter was created in the Big Bang in the form of only three chemical elements: hydrogen, helium and lithium.  All other elements lighter than (and including) iron are born in nuclear reactions within stars in a process known as stellar nucleosynthesis. All the elements heavier than iron are created largely in supernova explosions.

This mode of matter formation resembles education and professional development. School and university education can teach a student only so much. The rest they can only learn in their job. The more stellar the company, the more the employees will learn.

(Photo: The supernova that exploded in 1054, Source: Wikipedia)

Bigger brains lead to divergence of species and spinouts of companies

Learning animals and learning organisations evolve faster
George ILIEV

Statistical research on birds proves the old hypothesis that species with bigger brains diversify and evolve into other species faster. An analysis of over 7,000 bird species (or 3/4 of all known avian species) shows that those with the bigger brains relative to body size are also the ones that have diversified most, e.g. parrots, crows, owls and woodpeckers. Bigger brains allow animals to adopt more easily the behavioural changes needed to gain access to new environments or new resources, which in turn puts selection pressure on the species and can lead to its divergence into two or more species. Big brains thus facilitate changes in behaviour that result in adaptive divergence.

In a similar way learning organisations (i.e. companies that facilitate the learning of their members) are in a state of continuous transformation and the top-ranked research-led universities are more likely to launch spinout companies. Big brains seem to lead to hiving off not only in bees.

(Photo: Macaw parrot, Wikipedia)