The difference between "distance travelled" and "position"

Issue 101 l Eka’s Weekly Roundup (10 December 2024)

Dec 10, 2024

At Eka, we’re privileged to partner with incredible founders who are solving some of the hardest problems in planetary & human health.

In order to find these incredible people, we often think about a framework called “distance travelled”. This was popularised by the Jeff Lawson (Twilio co-founder) in his book Ask Your Developer: How to Harness the Power of Software Developers and Win in the 21st Century (Christmas reading anyone?).

VCs have been using the distance travelled framework for some time - we dug out an “old” (2018!) Medium article written by life science investors, which informed much of the content below.

What do we mean by “distance travelled”? 🗞️

Headline success is often measured by outputs: how well has someone performed academically or in extracurriculars, how quickly did they get promoted in their early career, or how much value did they generate for their firm?

All of these factors are important. But, they can ignore how far a founder has had to travel in order to achieve these goals. We can apply the distance travelled framework to better understand exceptionalism in their achievements.

Distance travelled refers to someone’s progress from where they started to where they are today. Someone with a long distance travelled will have overcome more challenges than someone with a lower distance travelled. Unlike output success metrics, "distance travelled" places emphasis on persistence and resilience. We explore examples further down.

Jeff Lawson’s take on measuring “position” versus “distance travelled”

Jeff Lawson, one of the founders Twilio, wrote a book on the importance of software developers in technology businesses around creativity, problem-solving abilities, and technical expertise.

But he also introduces this distanced travelled concept:

“When we look at resumes, it’s common to measure a candidate’s postion in their career: did they attend a top-notch school, did they work at prestigious companies prior, and so on. These are measures of position, but they don’t measure distance travelled” - Jeff Lawson in Ask Your Developer.

You can also hear more from him on a 20VC podcast from a few years ago.

Five examples of “distance travelled”

Here are five stories of founders, athletes, and leaders who each a “distance travelled” element in their personal and professional stories.

Note that there are many different types of distance travelled. Some examples speak of people growing up in poverty, while others mention those who worked ‘hussle’ style jobs which they leveraged into their main career which they are now known for. There is no ‘set’ path to have high distance travelled, but all people who have high distance travelled will have some extraordinary element within their experience which makes them stand out.

1. Manny Pacquiao (Professional Boxer, Senator, and Philanthropist)

Manny Pacquiao was born in Kibawe, a rural town in the Philippines. Pacquiao grew up in extreme poverty. At 14, he left his family and moved to Manila, and discovered boxing as a way to make some money to buy rice: "just put the gloves there, and tape this time. I don't know boxing. But after that fight, I get 100 pesos. One hundred pesos. I can buy one kilo of rice only four pesos. One hundred pesos, big." (see this ESPN interview).

Today, Pacquiao is an eight-division world champion, something no other boxer has accomplished. Beyond the ring, he became a Philippine senator and a philanthropist through his foundation.

2. Sara Blakely (Founder & CEO, Spanx)

Sara Blakely started out selling fax machines door-to-door. She was promoted quickly to national sales trainer by the time she was 25. But, 24 years ago, she made a decision to start Spanx which she detailed in a recent instagram post.

24 years ago today I quit my job selling fax machines to start @spanx. I was so nervous, had absolutely no experience in fashion and $5,000 set aside of my savings, AND my headquarters was my apartment but I had BIG DREAMS. ❤️ When I launched, female owned businesses seemed few and far between. 16 Oct 2024

3. Oprah Winfrey (Media, Investor)

Oprah Winfrey was born in rural Mississippi. Oprah faced a difficult childhood which she recounts in her semi-autobiographical books (see link below). She excelled in high school, and earned a scholarship to Tennessee State University, a historically Black university, where she studied communications. Her career in media began as a news anchor, but she soon transitioned to hosting talk shows — a move that would change the course of television history.

In 1986, she launched The Oprah Winfrey Show, which ran for 25 seasons and became the highest-rated talk show in television history. There’s too much to write about in this short newsletter, but we’d recommend you dig more into her incredible background with her first book (here).

4. Howard Schultz (CEO, Stabucks)

Howard Schultz was born in the Canarsie public housing projects in Brooklyn. He studied at Northern Michigan University and played football at a high level but an injury ended up causing him to quit. He became a salesman for Xerox in New York, before being recruited by French private equity firm PAI Partners in 1979 to be general manager of a Swedish kitchenware manufacturer's U.S. subsidiary, Hammarplast.

There’s a lot more to his story before he becomes the CEO of Starbucks. I’ll let keen listeners & readers continue this theme with the Acquired podcast on Howard Schultz & Starbucks, which was released earlier in the summer.

5. Serena Williams (Athlete, Entrepreneur, Investor)

Serena Williams was born in Compton, California. She already had high potential from a young age. By the time she was 14, she was ranked number one in the United States Tennis Association (USTA) under-10 division. She rose to become the world's top-ranked tennis player, winning 23 Grand Slam singles titles.

Today, Williams is an influential venture capitalist, founding Serena Ventures and focusing on funding startups founded by women and ethnic minorities. Her evolution from elite athlete to boardroom investor is a prime example of "distance travelled." She leveraged her personal brand, hard-earned wealth, and competitive drive to create a new chapter in her story.