Why catching the next wave is better than trying to hop on the current one

It often happens that startups pitch or present their ideas [to me]. Very often the ideas are good but it's obvious what's happening because other startups are also telling me about it or I've already read about it.

Many entrepreneurs want to ride the wave. If a topic is fashionable at the moment, everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon. Meaning, by the time requests for investment reach me, they are often too late as others have already been working on the same idea for a while.

So, instead of jumping on the bandwagon and the current wave, people should start preparing for the next wave. This allows time to prepare, find financing and ride the wave before it breaks. This was exactly what we did with Amorana: At the time we launched the business e-commerce was not trendy and sex shops even less so.

In many cases successful businesses are led by entrepreneurs that have based their ideas on an genuine interest or problem they have wanted to solve through a product or service and not by following a trend. So their business is less dependent on current trends.

Simply said: Don't follow the hype as you will always be too late.