What we're good at

If I stop and think for a minute about the things that I’m really good at, it gives me a valuable insight about how to succeed in startup land. I’ve generally spent countless hours failing again and again. The two things I do well (Surfing and Public speaking) I’ve invested thousands of hours into – I’ve had wipe outs galore…. been hurt (Surfing) and embarrassed (public speaking) but took the lessons and tried again – from the start. Each learning involved a new event to iterate from – rather than fixing the broken one in action.

The problem with startups is that we don’t fail as quick. A quick failure might take a year or two. So our learning curve is very slow. The more I think about it, the more I think we need to have the guts to shut up shop and start again. It feels like we should think in weeks or months rather than years. Or maybe have 3 month windows to determine startup traction. Especially the web based ones, where the world moves in triple time.

I’m not saying this is true for all startups, it’s just what I’m thinking lately. It reminds me of some of the real big winners in web land. And they all won very very quickly…. This blog post isn’t so much an answer… but more a postulation that staying the course might not be the right path in technology fields.

Over to you.

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11 thoughts on “What we're good at

  1. Hahaha. I can identify Steve. Yeah, been involved in some less-than-successful web/internet endeavors and probably even more painful surfing experiences — even though I’ve been trying to improve the latter for even longer than the former, I think surfing is still harder! At least the web experiences, while financially painful aren’t as bloody as the epic fails on the rocks at Dee Why Point!

    Start-ups are ALWAYS hard. You never really know where the whim of market demand will swing and you never know when things out of your control can bring you crashing down (e.g., dot.com crash, GFC, etc)

    In retrospect, I think if we’d had any idea what was coming down the track on those start-ups, we’d never have set off on most of them. The glitter of opportunities always seems to out-shine the unforeseen obstacles though. Probably a good thing or no one would ever take on anything new that breaks current barriers!

    On most start-ups, the wisest time to quit when thing don’t seem to be working seems usually to be about two years after you THINK it’s time to quit. Unfortunately, by then, you’re usually broke or someone else has taken over your company! The wisdom of experience is knowing how long to hang on before pulling the plug and how to negotiate the appropriate amount of ownership and how much is prudent to trade for cash or equity. Sometimes the plug is pulled for you. Sometimes you get to do it yourself. Sometimes you pick winners, sometimes you don’t.

    Hopefully, you eventually get at least one good one that will pull you through!

  2. You’ve nailed it. The hard part is never as fun as the idea.

    But as time goes by I’m starting to believe that web based startups tend to succeed quickly if they are every going to succeed: Some examples (including very famous ones) include:

    Youtube
    Facebook
    Myspace
    Groupon
    Ebay
    Google
    Yahoo
    Spreet (less than a year to sellout!)
    Scoopon
    Airbnb

    I can’t really think of any that took 5years+ to get real traction before succeeding… maybe there are some, but I don’t know of any ‘long lead time web successes’

    Steve.

  3. I’m with Rob. This post has been popping about in my head all afternoon, and rekon it’s worth a comment.

    It takes time to do things well, it also takes 3 years of practice generally before a skill is mastered to a point where it can start to be economically beneficial. Let’s not lose perspective of that, and lets not consider the bigger picture.

    Sure, if you are building the next photo sharing, group discount or social douchebag app, then 3 months is about right, and some of these fall into your list. Others which have actually added, and accumulated real value (there are examples on this list) took a lot longer. Some on this list are eroding value for their customers, and I believe will likely fail soon.

    From my experience with Smart Energy Groups, I am just starting to know where the business is heading after 4 years, and I don’t feel like it’s time to quit. It’s not easy, in fact its very very hard, but it’s rewarding and working, albiet slowly.

    3 months is for wimps, of for those who just strike it lucky, however building a real business using the internet is something that doesn’t often get seen in TechCrunch, which is somebody else’s circus.

    I really subscribe to @stevehopkins slow projects point of view, there are three constraints, pick any two:
    – fast
    – awesome
    – cheap

    http://thesquigglyline.com/blog/uncategorized/slow-projects/

    Sam,
    @samotage

  4. None of those startups succeeded quickly – they were all the result of years of work. The only exception could technically be Spreets in that they went from conception to a sale in 12 months but Dean had been working his arse off for years in startupland to get to the point where he could raise to build Spreets, let alone support from the veterans at Pollenizor.

    Definitely I agree you need to be prepared to pivot, to drop an idea if it’s not working – I’ve done that a lot – but know that it’s going to take years to build something of genuine value.

  5. One of the factors that can unnecessarily prolong the life of a meandering web starup is ironically one of it’s best features: low barrier to entry.

    Outsourced labour is cheap and plentiful. A startup can be built and maintained as a side project without sacrificing your regular gig.

    This is great. But the danger is that without there being enough at stake, and enough to lose, a startup can stagnate or devolve into a hobby of sorts.

    And the risk, greater than what money you stand to lose, is the loss of time that you could have spent growing something else.

    Some startups may require many years of slow and patient growth. But, to use your examples, they also demand placing yourself in front of bigger waves and tougher audiences.

  6. The point is a good one, but (as is often the case), the hard part is finding the appropriate feedback loop:

    Who’s to say when you’ve “failed”?
    Should you listen to the doubters? Or the eternal optimists?

  7. I’m totally struggling with it personally at the moment. And for the longest time, I’ve been with you Sam. Just got a lot of self doubt just now…

    Steve.

  8. Ned, your point on people like Dean from Spreets is a good one. But I’m not counting our ‘time doing startup stuff’ – we’ve all done plenty of years trying. I’m just the lead time of startup X from launch to success.

    There is a chance I’m suffering from worrying about keeping up with the startup Jones’s. Especially with a few of the ‘retail hacking’ sites that have spawned so quickly….

    I’m glad you guys are all adding point of view here.

    thanks.
    Steve.

  9. I think it also depends on your definition of success. Getting a user base in the millions? Getting a large round of funding? Attaining profitability? Sometimes these go hand in hand but more often, they do not.

    Instagram is a “huge success” as they hit 2 million users pretty quickly, but are they profitable? I doubt it. Testflightapp (for iOS app beta testing) is building a huge dedicated user base but have yet to offer a single paid product. Facebook was losing money hand over fist for years as did youtube and I believe Groupon is still in that category.

    just sayin…

    @mrjhandel

  10. Self doubt is part of the wonder of the journey – something they don’t talk about in wantrepreneur school.

    The hard part I suppose is understanding a clear signal between the self doubt and wether or not the endeavor is going to work.

    I know with having lots of children, there often isn’t the time to reflect as there was before kid, however that’s part of out lot, and for me the children were the reason to get busy and do something trying to make a difference.

    I suppose you will need to consider, and ask yourself these kinds of questions, it’s always Ok to stop, same as to go on – just do it for the right reasons.

    Sam.
    @samotage

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