Essay

Regulatory Entrepreneurship

Elizabeth Pollman and Jordan M. Barry · Southern California Law Review Free Advanced

This is the serious study behind the buzzwords, documenting how Uber, Airbnb, and Tesla treated changing the law as part of the business plan. It gives you the tactics and, just as importantly, the risks and ethics, so you go in with eyes open rather than copying headlines. Read it when your opportunity depends on a rule that is still being written.

  • Some companies make changing the law an explicit part of the plan.
  • Common tactics include legal grey areas, scale, and mobilised users.
  • The approach carries real legal and reputational risk, so weigh it honestly.
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The question it answers

  1. A regulation or policy just changed in my sector. How do I read it as an opportunity instead of just a headache?

Read with it

  1. A YC partner turns 'how do I get an idea' into a concrete checklist you can run today, plus the traps (tarpit ideas) that sink... YC Startup Library Video · ~50 min How to Get and Evaluate Startup Ideas Jared Friedman (Y Combinator)
  2. Entering an unfamiliar industry means you cannot see the walls and dead ends that veterans already know. Dixon explains that a... cdixon.org Essay · short read The Idea Maze Chris Dixon
  3. Video 2,851 Miles (regulatory capture and startups) Bill Gurley
  4. This is the closest thing to a playbook for building where government sets the rules, drawn from real cases like 23andMe,... Penguin Random House Book Regulatory Hacking: A Playbook for Startups Evan Burfield with J.D. Harrison
  5. A tighter, spoken version of Burfield's thinking, useful if you want the core ideas in an hour instead of a full book. It walks... a16z Podcast Podcast The Art of the Regulatory Hack Andreessen Horowitz
  6. Omojola built inside two of the most regulated spaces there are, payments (Cash App) and healthcare (Carbon Health), and here... First Round Review Article Finding Startup Ideas and Building in Heavily-Regulated Spaces Ayo Omojola (First Round Review)
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