5 ms·

The Pmarca Guide to Startups, part 4: The only thing that matters (2007)

64 points by mobitar 9y ago

marcosdumay 9y ago
For people trying to navigate that page: Part 1: http://web.archive.org/web/20070704165700/http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/06/the_pmarca_guid_1.html http://web.archive.org/web/20070704165700/http://blog.pmarca... Part 2: http://web.archive.org/web/20070625210316/http://blog.pmarca.com:80/2007/06/the_pmarca_guid_2.html#comment-73277060 http://web.archive.org/web/20070625210316/http://blog.pmarca... Part 3: http://web.archive.org/web/20070702024023/http://blog.pmarca.com:80/2007/06/the-pmarca-gu-1.html http://web.archive.org/web/20070702024023/http://blog.pmarca... Part 4 (this): http://web.archive.org/web/20070701074943/http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/06/the-pmarca-gu-2.html http://web.archive.org/web/20070701074943/http://blog.pmarca... Part 5: http://web.archive.org/web/20070701154836/http://blog.pmarca.com:80/2007/06/the-pmarca-gu-3.html#comments http://web.archive.org/web/20070701154836/http://blog.pmarca...
packetslave 9y ago
For those who might be unaware, "pmarca" = Marc Andreessen, formerly of Netscape, now a heavyweight VC with A16Z.
- xiaoma 9y ago
  For those too young to remember Netscape, this means he was the guy who made the first two web browsers that made it outside of academia and into widespread use. As a result, there are web tags we use because he (or his employees) put them in. JavaScript was created at Netscape, too.
  - devnonymous 9y ago
    ehm... Also the guy to guise opposition to net neutrality as just being fervently anti-colonisim
- SkyMarshal 9y ago
  Not just a heavyweight VC with A16Z, but founder of it. A16Z = Andreesen Horowitz (A to Z with 16 chars in between).
frankstella 9y ago
This is a much better version: http://pmarchive.com/guide_to_startups_part4.html http://pmarchive.com/guide_to_startups_part4.html
- dang 9y ago
  Ok, we'll change to that from http://web.archive.org/web/20070701074943/http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/06/the-pmarca-gu-2.html http://web.archive.org/web/20070701074943/http://blog.pmarca.... Thanks!
neom 9y ago
I think this is totally true, and often consider it myself when thinking about the startup I work for. I use it as kind of a north star in decision making to make sure we don't lose our way. The way I think about it is solutions are for consultants, products are for problems. And if you're really lucky, you're solving a problem people don't know they have yet just before they become aware. When you build this way, you get sucked along by market inertia. I thought about this a lot when I worked at DigitalOcean. I think we did a great job because we cared, but in the back of my mind I always kinda wondered if we had to, the market was growing faster than we could have addressed it at.
adventured 9y ago
This: "Personally, I'll take the third position -- I'll assert that market is the most important factor in a startup's success or failure." seems to be at potential odds with what I've seen Marc say in a lot of recent interviews he has done. Over and over again, he'll very specifically focus on the people being the single most important thing, when he discusses what matters the most. For example, he reiterates this point about people again the other day ("most of what we do is evaluate people"), in this excellent Bloomberg interview podcast: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/audio/2017-05-19/interview-with-marc-andreessen-masters-in-business-audio https://www.bloomberg.com/news/audio/2017-05-19/interview-wi...
- nostrademons 9y ago
  He may be adjusting his message for the audience. When he wrote this blog series, he was writing for entrepreneurs, and specifically entrepreneurs that a16z might want to fund. When you're an entrepreneur, a.) you can't do anything about the people anyway, because it's you and you can't exactly get rid of yourself and b.) one way that you can improve the founding team if you are it is to make decisions that will put you in a big market that needs what you're making. And entrepreneurs that listen to that and heed it will be good candidates for the service that a16z is offering, which is support in scaling a company to take advantage of a big market. When you talk to the press, you always want to talk about people first, because you come across as callous and nerdy otherwise. Journalism is all about finding the human angle; if you frame what you do as "we find good people and support them", you get a lot more public support than if you frame it as "we find unexploited market opportunities and exploit them."
  - forgottenacc57 9y ago
    So basically say anything you think will give the right impression, not what you really believe. SAD
- thinkingkong 9y ago
  VC's are in a very good position to evaluate market opportunity. Once that bar is met, then the process of figuring out if the team is mediocre or great is critical. I'd argue that this second step is what they're discussing. Market opportunity is just table stakes.
blueyes 9y ago
What if they were all necessary conditions of success, and each insufficient by themselves? One of the main reason startups fail is founder conflict (lack of team), and many teams have trouble building something that actually works (lack of product). The market can't "pull the product out" of a dysfunctional group of incompetents.
andrewprock 9y ago
As one might expect, these sort of oversimplifications are make great headlines, but aren't usually actionable. Data and metrics which validate hypotheses like this should be the standard we strive to meet. See also: The only thing that matters is oxygen - unless, of course, you are anaerobic.
thebiglebrewski 9y ago
"There is one high-profile, highly successful software entrepreneur right now who is burning through something like $80 million in venture funding in his latest startup and has practically nothing to show for it except for some great press clippings and a couple of beta customers -- because there is virtually no market for what he is building." Anyone know who this was now?! hehe
ziszis 9y ago
Groupon is a great counter to consider in terms of the product-market fit theory. Few companies have ever had the product-market that Groupon had "Groupon is so effective that Mason claims Groupon now has 35,000 companies clamoring to be on its roster. Only one in eight applicants makes the cut." [0] Instead a better model is to think about having a great product in a great market has phase 1. But if the company can't create a moat it still dies. "One problem with the Groupon model: Anyone can replicate it. More than 200 copycat sites have sprung up in the U.S., with another 500 overseas, including 100 in China."[0] [0] https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0830/entrepreneurs-groupon-facebook-twitter-next-web-phenom.html https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0830/entrepreneurs-groupo...
andqok 9y ago
Striking similarity to Sun Tzu's advice: know enemy, and know youself. There's a special emphasis in "The Art of War" that you can't win, even in full strength, if the enemy doesn't expose some weakness. Here Marc rehashes this very idea, that your preparation isn't enough. Instead, to meet enemy's weakness is critical. This ancient idea doesn't require any exceptional intelligence to understand. The hard part is actually discern this weakness, or market.

64 points by mobitar 9y ago

For people trying to navigate that page: Part 1: http://web.archive.org/web/20070704165700/http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/06/the_pmarca_guid_1.html http://web.archive.org/web/20070704165700/http://blog.pmarca... Part 2: http://web.archive.org/web/20070625210316/http://blog.pmarca.com:80/2007/06/the_pmarca_guid_2.html#comment-73277060 http://web.archive.org/web/20070625210316/http://blog.pmarca... Part 3: http://web.archive.org/web/20070702024023/http://blog.pmarca.com:80/2007/06/the-pmarca-gu-1.html http://web.archive.org/web/20070702024023/http://blog.pmarca... Part 4 (this): http://web.archive.org/web/20070701074943/http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/06/the-pmarca-gu-2.html http://web.archive.org/web/20070701074943/http://blog.pmarca... Part 5: http://web.archive.org/web/20070701154836/http://blog.pmarca.com:80/2007/06/the-pmarca-gu-3.html#comments http://web.archive.org/web/20070701154836/http://blog.pmarca...

packetslave 9y ago

For those who might be unaware, "pmarca" = Marc Andreessen, formerly of Netscape, now a heavyweight VC with A16Z.

xiaoma 9y ago
For those too young to remember Netscape, this means he was the guy who made the first two web browsers that made it outside of academia and into widespread use. As a result, there are web tags we use because he (or his employees) put them in. JavaScript was created at Netscape, too.
- devnonymous 9y ago
  ehm... Also the guy to guise opposition to net neutrality as just being fervently anti-colonisim
SkyMarshal 9y ago
Not just a heavyweight VC with A16Z, but founder of it. A16Z = Andreesen Horowitz (A to Z with 16 chars in between).

frankstella 9y ago

This is a much better version: http://pmarchive.com/guide_to_startups_part4.html http://pmarchive.com/guide_to_startups_part4.html

dang 9y ago
Ok, we'll change to that from http://web.archive.org/web/20070701074943/http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/06/the-pmarca-gu-2.html http://web.archive.org/web/20070701074943/http://blog.pmarca.... Thanks!

neom 9y ago

I think this is totally true, and often consider it myself when thinking about the startup I work for. I use it as kind of a north star in decision making to make sure we don't lose our way. The way I think about it is solutions are for consultants, products are for problems. And if you're really lucky, you're solving a problem people don't know they have yet just before they become aware. When you build this way, you get sucked along by market inertia. I thought about this a lot when I worked at DigitalOcean. I think we did a great job because we cared, but in the back of my mind I always kinda wondered if we had to, the market was growing faster than we could have addressed it at.

adventured 9y ago

This: "Personally, I'll take the third position -- I'll assert that market is the most important factor in a startup's success or failure." seems to be at potential odds with what I've seen Marc say in a lot of recent interviews he has done. Over and over again, he'll very specifically focus on the people being the single most important thing, when he discusses what matters the most. For example, he reiterates this point about people again the other day ("most of what we do is evaluate people"), in this excellent Bloomberg interview podcast: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/audio/2017-05-19/interview-with-marc-andreessen-masters-in-business-audio https://www.bloomberg.com/news/audio/2017-05-19/interview-wi...

nostrademons 9y ago
He may be adjusting his message for the audience. When he wrote this blog series, he was writing for entrepreneurs, and specifically entrepreneurs that a16z might want to fund. When you're an entrepreneur, a.) you can't do anything about the people anyway, because it's you and you can't exactly get rid of yourself and b.) one way that you can improve the founding team if you are it is to make decisions that will put you in a big market that needs what you're making. And entrepreneurs that listen to that and heed it will be good candidates for the service that a16z is offering, which is support in scaling a company to take advantage of a big market. When you talk to the press, you always want to talk about people first, because you come across as callous and nerdy otherwise. Journalism is all about finding the human angle; if you frame what you do as "we find good people and support them", you get a lot more public support than if you frame it as "we find unexploited market opportunities and exploit them."
- forgottenacc57 9y ago
  So basically say anything you think will give the right impression, not what you really believe. SAD
thinkingkong 9y ago
VC's are in a very good position to evaluate market opportunity. Once that bar is met, then the process of figuring out if the team is mediocre or great is critical. I'd argue that this second step is what they're discussing. Market opportunity is just table stakes.

blueyes 9y ago

What if they were all necessary conditions of success, and each insufficient by themselves? One of the main reason startups fail is founder conflict (lack of team), and many teams have trouble building something that actually works (lack of product). The market can't "pull the product out" of a dysfunctional group of incompetents.

andrewprock 9y ago

As one might expect, these sort of oversimplifications are make great headlines, but aren't usually actionable. Data and metrics which validate hypotheses like this should be the standard we strive to meet. See also: The only thing that matters is oxygen - unless, of course, you are anaerobic.

thebiglebrewski 9y ago

"There is one high-profile, highly successful software entrepreneur right now who is burning through something like $80 million in venture funding in his latest startup and has practically nothing to show for it except for some great press clippings and a couple of beta customers -- because there is virtually no market for what he is building." Anyone know who this was now?! hehe

ziszis 9y ago

Groupon is a great counter to consider in terms of the product-market fit theory. Few companies have ever had the product-market that Groupon had "Groupon is so effective that Mason claims Groupon now has 35,000 companies clamoring to be on its roster. Only one in eight applicants makes the cut." [0] Instead a better model is to think about having a great product in a great market has phase 1. But if the company can't create a moat it still dies. "One problem with the Groupon model: Anyone can replicate it. More than 200 copycat sites have sprung up in the U.S., with another 500 overseas, including 100 in China."[0] [0] https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0830/entrepreneurs-groupon-facebook-twitter-next-web-phenom.html https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0830/entrepreneurs-groupo...

andqok 9y ago

Striking similarity to Sun Tzu's advice: know enemy, and know youself. There's a special emphasis in "The Art of War" that you can't win, even in full strength, if the enemy doesn't expose some weakness. Here Marc rehashes this very idea, that your preparation isn't enough. Instead, to meet enemy's weakness is critical. This ancient idea doesn't require any exceptional intelligence to understand. The hard part is actually discern this weakness, or market.