Larry Chiang’s core defense of copying a format is blunt: nobody owns a business model, only specific trademarks and content are protected. He calls this the External API, plugging your venture into something that already works instead of inventing a new mechanism from zero. His own example is changing one word, Harvard to Stanford, and calling the result a franchise of the original idea.
That one substitution turns someone else’s proven structure into your own venture without touching anything actually owned by them. Larry’s mentor was Mark McCormack of IMG, and Larry has said he built his approach by studying and adapting what McCormack already proved worked. The book that shaped him, What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School, is itself a format he later adapted rather than avoided.
His shorthand for this move is DJ two things that exist, pulling two proven ideas together into a new combination. He also says sell it first, then go make it, which only works if the underlying format is already trusted by the buyer.
None of this requires deception, only knowing exactly where the legal line sits between a format and a protected asset. Tutors who prep students for the SAT are running the same play, riding the College Board’s exam instead of inventing their own test.
The lesson for anyone chasing a high-ticket close is to stop trying to be first and start trying to be legally, obviously derivative in a useful way. Watch Larry walk through where that line actually sits so you copy the right half of the format and none of the wrong half.
Details: Watch Larry explain the legal line
#ExternalAPI #CopyTheFormat #Web12