#1: Be Narrow
Focus on the smallest possible problem you could solve that would potentially be useful. Most companies start out trying to do too many things, which makes life difficult and turns you into a me-too. Focusing on a small niche has so many advantages: With much less work, you can be the best at what you do. Small things, like a microscopic world, almost always turn out to be bigger than you think when you zoom in. You can much more easily position and market yourself when more focused. And when it comes to partnering, or being acquired, there's less chance for conflict. This is all so logical and, yet, there's a resistance to focusing. I think it comes from a fear of being trivial. Just remember: If you get to be #1 in your category, but your category is too small, then you can broaden your scope—and you can do so with leverage.
#2: Be Different
Ideas are in the air. There are lots of people thinking about—and probably working on—the same thing you are. And one of them is Google. Deal with it. How? First of all, realize that no sufficiently interesting space will be limited to one player. In a sense, competition actually is good—especially to legitimize new markets. Second, see #1—the specialist will almost always kick the generalist's ass. Third, consider doing something that's not so cutting edge. Many highly successful companies—the aforementioned big G being one—have thrived by taking on areas that everyone thought were done and redoing them right. Also? Get a good, non-generic name. Easier said than done, granted. But the most common mistake in naming is trying to be too descriptive, which leads to lots of hard-to-distinguish names. How many blogging companies have "blog" in their name, RSS companies "feed," or podcasting companies "pod" or "cast"? Rarely are they the ones that stand out.
evhead: Ten Rules for Web Startups
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Saved by 95 people (31 private), first by anonymouse user on 2006-03-02
- Crezard on 2008-09-27 - Tags Web , Startups , Rules
- Fazolet on 2008-09-01 - Tags no_tag
- Its_prashant on 2008-08-26 - Tags entrepreneurship , management , web , web2.0 , startups , webdesign , blog , startup
- Monkeyattack on 2008-05-03 - Tags dotcom , startup
- Luvnavi on 2008-04-29 - Tags COMPUTER , ARTICLES
Public Sticky notes
Focus on the smallest possible problem you could solve that would potentially be useful. Most companies start out trying to do too many things, which makes life difficult and turns you into a me-too.
Highlighted by techieme
#2: Be Different
Ideas are in the air. There are lots of people thinking about—and probably working on—the same thing you are. And one of them is Google. Deal with it. How? First of all, realize that no sufficiently interesting space will be limited to one player. In a sense, competition actually is good—especially to legitimize new markets. Second, see #1—the specialist will almost always kick the generalist's ass. Third, consider doing something that's not so cutting edge. Many highly successful companies—the aforementioned big G being one—have thrived by taking on areas that everyone thought were done and redoing them right. Also? Get a good, non-generic name. Easier said than done, granted. But the most common mistake in naming is trying to be too descriptive, which leads to lots of hard-to-distinguish names. How many blogging companies have "blog" in their name, RSS companies "feed," or podcasting companies "pod" or "cast"? Rarely are they the ones that stand out.
Ideas are in the air. There are lots of people thinking about—and probably working on—the same thing you are. And one of them is Google. Deal with it. How? First of all, realize that no sufficiently interesting space will be limited to one player. In a sense, competition actually is good—especially to legitimize new markets. Second, see #1—the specialist will almost always kick the generalist's ass. Third, consider doing something that's not so cutting edge. Many highly successful companies—the aforementioned big G being one—have thrived by taking on areas that everyone thought were done and redoing them right. Also? Get a good, non-generic name. Easier said than done, granted. But the most common mistake in naming is trying to be too descriptive, which leads to lots of hard-to-distinguish names. How many blogging companies have "blog" in their name, RSS companies "feed," or podcasting companies "pod" or "cast"? Rarely are they the ones that stand out.
Highlighted by loh_deepak
Ten Rules for Web Startups
Highlighted by beingz
Ten Rules for Web Startups
Highlighted by harjeet
#1: Be Narrow
Highlighted by lefty83
Focus on the smallest possible problem you could solve that would potentially be
useful. Most companies start out trying to do too many things, which makes life
difficult and turns you into a me-too. Focusing on a small niche has so many
advantages: With much less work, you can be the best at what you do. Small
things, like a microscopic world, almost always turn out to be bigger than you
think when you zoom in. You can much more easily position and market yourself
when more focused. And when it comes to partnering, or being acquired, there's
less chance for conflict.
Highlighted by lefty83
#2: Be Different
Highlighted by lefty83
First of all, realize that no sufficiently interesting space will be limited to
one player. In a sense, competition actually is good—especially to legitimize
new markets. Second, see #1—the specialist will almost always kick the
generalist's ass. Third, consider doing something that's not so cutting edge.
Many highly successful companies—the aforementioned big G being one—have thrived
by taking on areas that everyone thought were done and redoing them right.
Highlighted by lefty83
Many highly successful companies—the aforementioned big G being one—have thrived by taking on areas that everyone thought were done and redoing them right. Also? Get a good, non-generic name. Easier said than done, granted. But the most common mistake in naming is trying to be too descriptive, which leads to lots of hard-to-distinguish names.
Highlighted by wade
We're moving into what I call the era of the "Casual Web" (and casual
content creation). This is much bigger than the hobbyist web or the
professional web. Why? Because people have lives. And now, people with lives
also have broadband. If you want to hit the really big home runs, create
services that fit in with—and, indeed, help—people's everyday lives without
requiring lots of commitment or identity change.
Highlighted by lefty83
they're just sharing pictures with friends and family, a casual activity. Casual
games are huge. Skype enables casual conversations.
Highlighted by lefty83
#4: Be Picky
Highlighted by lefty83
Another perennial business rule, and it applies to everything you do: features,
employees, investors, partners, press opportunities. Startups are often too
eager to accept people or ideas into their world. You can almost always afford
to wait if something doesn't feel just right, and false negatives are usually
better than false positives
Highlighted by lefty83
Another perennial business rule, and it applies to everything you do: features,
employees, investors, partners, press opportunities. Startups are often too
eager to accept people or ideas into their world. You can almost always afford
to wait if something doesn't feel just right
Highlighted by lefty83
#5: Be User-Centric
Highlighted by lefty83
User experience is everything. It always has been, but it's still undervalued
and under-invested in. If you don't know user-centered design, study it. Hire
people who know it. Obsess over it. Live and breathe it. Get your whole company
on board. Better to iterate a hundred times to get the right feature right than
to add a hundred more.
Highlighted by lefty83
One of Google's biggest strengths—and sources of frustration for outsiders—was their willingness to say no to opportunities, easy money, potential employees, and deals.
Highlighted by wade
Better to iterate a hundred times to get the right feature right than to add a hundred more.
Highlighted by wade
#6: Be Self-Centered
Highlighted by lefty83
Create something you want to exist in the world. Be a user of your own product.
Hire people who are users of your product. Make it better based on your own
desires. (But don't trick yourself into thinking you are your user, when it comes to usability.)
Highlighted by lefty83
Great products almost always come from someone scratching their own itch. Create
something you want to exist in the world. Be a user of your own product. Hire
people who are users of your product. Make it better based on your own desires.
(But don't trick yourself into thinking you are your user, when it comes to usability.)
Highlighted by lefty83
Great products almost always come from someone scratching their own itch. Create something you want to exist in the world. Be a user of your own product. Hire people who are users of your product. Make it better based on your own desires. (But don't trick yourself into thinking you are your user, when it comes to usability.)
Highlighted by wade
design something to charge for into your product and start taking money within 6
months (and do it with PayPal). Done right, charging money can actually
accelerate growth, not impede it, because then you have something to fuel
marketing costs with. More importantly, having money coming in the door puts you
in a much more powerful position when it comes to your next round of funding or
acquisition talks.
Highlighted by lefty83
#8: Be Tiny
Highlighted by lefty83
Acquisitions are much easier if they're small. And small acquisitions are
possible if valuations are kept low from the get go. And keeping valuations low
is possible because it doesn't cost much to start something anymore (especially
if you keep the scope narrow). Besides the obvious techniques, one way to do
this is to use turnkey services to lower your overhead—Administaff, ServerBeach, web
apps, maybe even Elance.
Highlighted by lefty83
Acquisitions are much easier if they're small. And small acquisitions are
possible if valuations are kept low from the get go. And keeping valuations low
is possible because it doesn't cost much to start something anymore
Highlighted by lefty83
one way to do this is to use turnkey services to lower your overhead—Administaff, ServerBeach, web
apps, maybe even Elance.
Highlighted by lefty83
Acquisitions are much easier if they're small. And small acquisitions are possible if valuations are kept low from the get go. And keeping valuations low is possible because it doesn't cost much to start something anymore (especially if you keep the scope narrow).
Highlighted by wade
Pyra was started to build a project-management app, not Blogger. Flickr's
company was building a game. Ebay was going to sell auction software. Initial
assumptions are almost always wrong. That's why the waterfall approach to
building software is obsolete in favor agile
techniques. The same philosophy should be applied to building a company.
Highlighted by lefty83
There is no better way to maintain balance and lower your stress that I've
found than David
Allen's GTD process. Learn it. Live it. Make it a part of your company, and
you'll have a secret weapon.
Highlighted by lefty83
Overgeneralized lists of business "rules" are not to be taken too literally.
There are exceptions to everything
Highlighted by lefty83
Public Comment
on 2006-07-24 by bocajuniors
on 2006-08-02 by garyburge
on 2006-09-19 by kazwell
on 2007-01-04 by edventures