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I was really surprised to see this post from Jason; it seems to go against most things I've read from him in the past, including one of my favorite startup post
by arturadib 16y ago
I was really surprised to see this post from Jason; it seems to go against most things I've read from him in the past, including one of my favorite startup posts:
http://blog.asmartbear.com/your-idea-sucks-now-go-do-it-anyway.html http://blog.asmartbear.com/your-idea-sucks-now-go-do-it-anyw...
I was involved in the hiring process for faculty members in academia, and our approach has always been to invest primarily in individuals, rather than in ideas. Ideas are disposable, and competent individuals will quickly learn how to adjust their ideas to the circumstances.
Case in point: Jason's own product Code Historian (see blog post above).
I understand the difficulties that come with 100's of applications. The admission criteria always end up being far from ideal. In my former academic circle, we relied heavily on letters of recommendation; both who wrote them and what was said about the candidate mattered. Everything else the candidate wrote was only glanced over.
I would think something like that can be more effective than meticulously analyzing someone's pitch.
- rythie 16y agoIt seems from reading that post that PayPal's and Flickr's original ideas were ahead of their time. Paypal's original idea is still a problem for people and it's similar to what Square is doing now. Flickr's original idea is lot like the social MMOs we see now like FarmVille and many of the other Zynga games.
- arturadib 16y agoI don't get it: Are you agreeing or disagreeing with what I said? If you're right and the ideas were indeed ahead of their time, that means they were still a bad business proposition (at the time). The founders should take full credit for realizing this and adjusting accordingly.
- rythie 16y agoI was merely commenting on the link you posted. However, since they were ahead of their time so pivoting was the right thing for them at that time.
- edanm 16y agoThe important point is to understand what the person is and is not aware of, when they make the pitch. If someone pitches an idea, but clearly has no idea what makes them better, and has just as clearly never even thought about it, it tells you a lot.
- ebiester 16y agoI don't find it contradictory. Go do it anyway, but don't make these mistakes when trying to get someone else's money.
- arturadib 16y agoThat sounds kind of hypocritical. If you agree that ideas don't matter so much, why dissect a pitch like that?
- smartbear 16y agoHi Arturadib, Jason here. I think you'll find when reading the individual posts on each topic that it's not contradictory. Also there's a distinction between seeking things like competitive advantage -- which of course you have to do -- and going ahead and doing something regardless. That is, "just do it" is the prime mover, but of course you have to be seeking things like happy customers, competitive advantages, ability to describe what you do in 30 seconds, etc., as you go. Also remember this is in the context of pitching investors, at which point you do need some ideas -- you can't pitch "I'll just try stuff."