What we can learn from Sequoia Capital and the 7 deadly sins

A few weeks ago my son, Jeff, mentioned in passing that Sequoia Capital didn’t invest in a startup company unless the founders could identify which of the 7 deadly sins the product or service was appealing to.  Their logic is simple: “We don’t want to invest in something people should want to do. We want to invest in things that people can’t stop doing.” We would do well to pay attention to Sequoia’s theology. As one of the top venture capital firms in the country, the companies they helped to launch[i] are collectively now worth over 20 percent of the NASDAQ stock exchange. Because they appeal to the 7 deadly sins doesn’t make them evil. Far from it. Since 2000, Sequoia has returned over $10 billion in stock and cash to non-profits and schools. They are not evil. They just understand human nature.

The 7 Deadly Sins

The 7 deadly sins are sometimes referred to as the 7 capital sins meaning that all sins / destructive behaviors originate from one or more of these sins. First categorized by a monk in the 4^th century they were codified in their present form by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) in his Divine Comedy.

• Lust: Inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body
• Gluttony: Over indulgence of anything to the extreme
• Greed: The desire and pursuit of material wealth or gain—the miserly
• Sloth: The avoidance of physical or spiritual work—a failure to do things that one should do
• Wrath: Extreme anger, rage, hatred or a need for vengeance or revenge
• Envy: The desire for others’ traits, status, abilities, or situation. Wanting what others have for yourself
• Pride: It is identified as believing that one is essentially better than others, failing to acknowledge the accomplishments of others

Successful product or app developers seem to have an intuitive sense of the primal gravitational pull of human nature that most of us ignore, deny, or dismiss. They understand the power and pull of human nature.

The lure of omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence

It seems that the successful technology platforms have figured out a piece of theology that goes back to Eden. What was the tempter’s enticement? “You can be like God…” (Genesis 3:5) Now look at the brand promises of a few of the more popular apps. Look how they bestow supernatural powers once only available to God himself:

• Google— “Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Brand promise: “You can know everything”
• Amazon— “to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online…” Brand promise: “You can have anything”
• Youtube—“YouTube’s mission is to provide fast and easy video access and the ability to share videos frequently.” Brand promise: You can view or broadcast anything…everywhere.”
• Skype—“Skype’s mission is to be the fabric of real-time communication on the Web.” Brand promise: You can be ever-present, anywhere in the world.

Power is particularly seductive. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, Satan lured him by showing him “all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. ‘All this I will give you if you will bow down and worship me.’”  Power means we are in control…that we don’t need permission…we can be the top dog. Look at the lure of power in brand promises:

• Facebook— “Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.” Brand promise: “You can connect with everyone”
• Twitter—“To give everyone the power to create and share ideas and information instantly without barriers.” Brand promise: “You can tell everyone.”

In the 80’s Apple’s tagline was “The power to be your best.” Today Dell’s tagline is “The power to do anything.” What do our smart phones give us? They give us power. We can pay bills while sitting by the pool, catching a football, or surfing. Smart phones tell us we never have to go to another human being to get what we want or need. I’m in control. I can know anything, do anything, have anything, and be anything—if not in actuality, through my online persona or through my avatars.

Understanding Steve Jobs’ theology

From an historical and theological perspective, the best sales job in the history of mankind took place in the Garden of Eden.[ii] The serpent was making the sales call and Ms. Eve was his mark. He presented to Eve the piece of forbidden fruit and gave her the brand promise and pitch: “When you eat this, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” That was enough to hook Eve’s interest. The passage continues: “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food (satisfying a craving) and pleasing to the eye (well-designed), and also desirable for gaining wisdom (giving God-like powers), she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it (the product went viral). Now think of Apple products… “good…pleasing to the eye…desirable to make one wise…” Is it possible that Steve Jobs, who was obsessed with beauty and design, had this scenario in mind when he created the Apple brand?[iii] He attended a Lutheran church until he was 13 so he was familiar with the story. Little wonder that the brand is called “Apple” and the Apple has a bite taken out of it. Absolutely brilliant. Steve understood our most primal human nature and we’ve all taken the bite out of the Apple..and loved it.

The problem of pain

When we are feeling down, lonely, bored, empty, undervalued, or in pain our antidote is rarely to pursue a virtue, rather we want to anesthetize—we want pain relief and we want it now. Nir Eyal points out that “our brains crave stimulation. Whenever an experience is more satisfying, more interesting, or more rewarding, we want more of it.” That’s where the appeal of the 7deadly sins come in. When we are in pain we want to binge-watch (gluttony); we want to shop; we want to prop ourselves up in front of others; we want to show off our status; we want forbidden fruits…and we want it now. Though, in our aspirational selves, we would hope we’d pray, or read the Bible, or connect with a supportive friend, or volunteer at the shelter, the human-natured truth is that we simply revert to Candy Crush, Angry Birds or binge-watch a season of Breaking Bad. The 7 deadly sins serve as pain killers more than vitamins.

Building products and apps for health and growth

Succumbing to the seven deadly sins is the most natural thing in the world. But healthy people want a better life for themselves. They don’t want to be ruled by lust, anger, greed, gluttony, sloth, envy, or pride. That’s where good apps could help. Each of the 7 deadly sins has an opposite life-giving antidote found in the 7 life-giving virtues.

• The antidote for lust is chastity
• The antidote for gluttony is temperance or moderation (Augustine (354-430AD) said “complete abstinence is easier that perfect moderation.”)
• The antidote to greed and stinginess is charity and generosity
• The antidote to sloth is conscientious diligence
• The antidote to wrath is forgiveness or resolving conflicts peacefully
• The antidote to envy is admiration
• The antidote to pride is humility, selflessness and giving credit where credit is due

So, any app that promotes a structure for increasing chastity, moderation, generosity, diligence, conflict resolution, admiration and credit-sharing has some real potential. Behavior-based change models work off the assumption that it is through repetition of new behaviors that changes our mindsets and values. B.J. Fogg, who teaches “The Facebook Class” at Stanford, tells us that behavior is a product of our motivation + ability + a trigger (an internal or external invitation to act), all at the same time. If you want to change a behavior, you need to remove the motivation, the ability, or the trigger if you want to successfully break a bad habit. Fogg is a proponent of what he calls “Tiny Habits.” So if there were an app that could help eliminate the motivation, ability or triggers toward a destructive behavior, that might actually work. Moreover, if that app could help build tiny habits around the 7 virtues to replace the 7 deadly sins we might just have something that could help change our lives.  Could we build tiny habits around chastity, moderation, generosity, diligence, conflict resolution, forgiveness, admiration and credit-sharing?

Why would Sequoia Capital invest in virtue-building products?

Just as the lunar launches used the gravitational pull of the moon to create a positive “gravitational slingshot” to send the craft back toward earth, virtuous apps and products can take advantage of the laws of the vices to promote virtue. Bible publishers know how to advertise the seductive qualities of “genuine leather” over “bonded leather” or paperback. The packaging, the box, the smell, the gold leaf around the edges tells me that I’m something special and maybe that I deserve this. Virtue-building apps help build a sense of “I’m in control of my life.” Being in control appeals to self-sufficiency and our pride. No matter how spiritual we are when we are rewarded with badges or level up from 101 to 201 to 301, we feel something of accomplishment… something that separates us from the undisciplined masses. Apps that allow us to get church content without having to attend church have a certain appeal of sloth. Getting unlimited spiritual content may appeal to our propensity towards gluttony—though we’d never call it that. I’ve never met with an app developer who is working on a Bible or prayer app that could not build a case why his (they’ve all been men) app is “better than anything that is currently out there.” The drive to be better…or the best is what drives change and human progress.

In the 9^th century, the Celtic theologian, John Scotus Erigena observed, “No vice is found but in the shadow of some virtue.” Maybe the flipside is also true; “No virtue is found but in the shadow of some vice.” So we can actually harness the power of sin to build virtue. How? First by seeing the temptation as a “trigger,” not to succumb to the temptation but to positively practice the opposite. B.J. Fogg tells us that we need to use a current behavior as a trigger to the new behavior. So feeling greedy might trigger purposeful generosity or making a donation; feeling envious could trigger writing a note expressing admiration; feeling angry and vengeful could trigger suggestions on conflict resolution or forgiveness; feeling prideful could trigger recommendations for credit sharing and gratefulness to others. Nir Eyal, through his “Hooked” model tells us that new habits are formed we “invest” in the new behavior. So, making a donation, writing that note, talking with that person is what helps make behavioral change (more) permanent.

Second we can use the animating power of sin for good by changing the motive. “I want to be great” (pride) “for God” (missionary hero). “I want to make a ton of money (greed) so that I can create a different future for 100 children through Compassion Int’l (generosity). “We want to be the best church IN the community” (pride). “We want to be the best church FOR the community” (servant-heart). “I hunger and thirst” (gluttony) “for righteousness” (godliness). “I’m really, really angry” (wrath) with the injustice of our legal system for people of color” (righteousness). “I don’t want to do any productive work today” (sloth) because I’m trying to “remember the Sabbath to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:6).

To be a successful product / app developer, be a good theologian…and a good student of human nature

Steve Jobs believed, “It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough — it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our heart sing and nowhere is that more true than in these post-PC devices.” The key to building a good product of good app is found in psychology and theology as much as it is in great technology. App developers turn to Maslow and his hierarchy of needs to create to understand our need to belong or to self-actualize. They turn to anthropologists to understand the hunter-gatherer nature of our species. They think deeply about B.F. Skinner’s work on the power of variant rewards when building habit-forming products. They study the work of Albert Bandura whose work on efficacy[iv] is critical to creating brand promises and product features. More recently the aforementioned human behavior specialists B.J. Fogg and Nir Eyal are identifying the ground rules for why people repeatedly do what they do. If we want to create products that make “the heart to sing” we need to understand the deepest truths about people.