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He also said: > Value judgements require a value system. When he talks about research, he's valuing a certain kind of research: laboratory, explorative researc
by davmar 10y ago
He also said:
> Value judgements require a value system.
When he talks about research, he's valuing a certain kind of research: laboratory, explorative research that may or may not reach a market.
Startups are, from a certain point of view, research in that they try to discover ways to fulfill customer needs, whether customers know they have them or not.
A few examples just from YC: Airbnb, Twitch, Dropbox. In particular, Airbnb discovered a need that people really had. Is this not research? I think it is, depending on your value system.
- TeMPOraL 10y agoI think startups can be considered research, but one has to characterize it fairly. It is not technology research, it is not physics research. Your description of trying "to discover ways to fulfill customer needs, whether customers know they have them or not" is a fair research topic description. Though I personally disagree with it, IMO startups are doing research on how to get rich quick; discovering customer needs is only tangential to the issue and is not usually the best way to reach IPO/exit. Sometimes you get good products that don't suck (e.g. Dropbox), most of the times you get scams that try to capture as much users as possible to enable a good exit (and then product shuts down). So in a way, a lot of startups can be considered experiments in persuading users and investors.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]