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I don't understand this spray and pray approach to business - I'm not businessman so I may be talking out my ass - but I would have thought business is like a l

I don't understand this spray and pray approach to business - I'm not businessman so I may be talking out my ass - but I would have thought business is like a long term relationship. May as well have a spreadsheet of 50 failed marriages. If you aren't in it for the long haul what are you doing?

hippich 8y ago
What he called "business" others (myself included) would call "side projects" until one of such projects would evolve into "business". You have to start somewhere and try things out to find a business bringing revenue. And yes, it is "spray and pray" in essence. And I see nothing wrong with it. (probably because I tried to launch a similar number if not more of such "businesses"/projects and continue doing so)
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- cylinder 8y ago
  He made 50 websites.
myth_drannon 8y ago
Some people see it as a lottery. But in the case you loose (99.9% of the times) at least you learned something in the process.
- xellisx 8y ago
  What can you learn from the lottery...
  - xky 8y ago
    I think this person meant you can learn from the "lottery" that is startups unlike a regular lottery.
bluedino 8y ago
What about dates instead of marriages?
mbrameld 8y ago
In your scenario would one date around before committing to a marriage or would one just commit to the first interesting person that came along and hope for the best?
- keiferski 8y ago
  Presumably if your relationship was extremely successful (if it were a business, it’d be making millions), then you’d be a fool to throw it away.
learnstats2 8y ago
Business has a bit of luck and a bit of skill - as you learn more (for example, you learn that your Amazon affiliate made you $0.50 at its peak), you may choose to throw the dice again with a bit more force. Formalise it as a new business, or pivot, or don't tell people about your experiments. This is what the long haul looks like.
sampl 8y ago
Think of it more like dating--it's normal to have 50 "failed" dates before you tie the knot. You don't commit until you find a great match. In business, this means the market actually cares about what you're making. Predicting which software businesses will find this fit is extremely hard. VCs know this, and diversify their investments among many founders (knowing one big payday can make up for 10-100 failures). Looks like this founder diversified by himself and launched small things faster. And eventually found something worth "marrying".
- sonnyblarney 8y ago
  "Predicting which software businesses will find this fit is extremely hard." Often a business is about the team, not the concept. Given any talented team, they an take any concept and evolve it to fit the market. Also, there's no way he was able to take any of those concepts far enough given the numbers and time frame. It can often take a small team several months to a couple of years to find out if it's going to really work or not.
  - Shpigford 8y ago
    I also wasn’t trying to do that. The large majority of these were me just trying things out to see what would happen. It’s how I learn. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
    - sonnyblarney 8y ago
      Well your persistence is commendable.
      - Shpigford 8y ago
        Or a massive waste of time. Some days I'm not sure which. :P
        sonnyblarney 8y ago
        There are very very few people who did it on their first run, it's like winning the lottery. Bach wrote almost a piece every day. For most of his life. Most of it will never be played or heard. The thing that's most common among the 'greats' is how prolific they were. They just kept doing. Just watching Jim Henson. Bio - he was doing Kermite for like 20 years before it remotely caught on. I worked at BlackBerry - the company started in 1982, about 20 years before the BB wars born. The other CEO started in 1992 about 10 years. So 30 man-years of combined CEO work before the BB came to be a product.
rainbowmverse 8y ago
No one really knows a general "right" thing to do. Even someone who's found a right thing can't be much help if they just say what they did right. The best you can do is avoid doing the wrong things while probing around for a right thing. It's a way of thinking called inversion. Try 100 things while avoiding common pitfalls. One of them will probably pan out.
matchagaucho 8y ago
Human relationships and projects are not mutually exclusive. The people you meet along the way ("marriages") often carry forward into future projects.
segmondy 8y ago
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_portfolio_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_portfolio_theory

hippich 8y ago

What he called "business" others (myself included) would call "side projects" until one of such projects would evolve into "business". You have to start somewhere and try things out to find a business bringing revenue. And yes, it is "spray and pray" in essence. And I see nothing wrong with it. (probably because I tried to launch a similar number if not more of such "businesses"/projects and continue doing so)

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
cylinder 8y ago
He made 50 websites.

myth_drannon 8y ago

Some people see it as a lottery. But in the case you loose (99.9% of the times) at least you learned something in the process.

xellisx 8y ago
What can you learn from the lottery...
- xky 8y ago
  I think this person meant you can learn from the "lottery" that is startups unlike a regular lottery.

bluedino 8y ago

What about dates instead of marriages?

mbrameld 8y ago

In your scenario would one date around before committing to a marriage or would one just commit to the first interesting person that came along and hope for the best?

keiferski 8y ago
Presumably if your relationship was extremely successful (if it were a business, it’d be making millions), then you’d be a fool to throw it away.

learnstats2 8y ago

Business has a bit of luck and a bit of skill - as you learn more (for example, you learn that your Amazon affiliate made you $0.50 at its peak), you may choose to throw the dice again with a bit more force. Formalise it as a new business, or pivot, or don't tell people about your experiments. This is what the long haul looks like.

sampl 8y ago

Think of it more like dating--it's normal to have 50 "failed" dates before you tie the knot. You don't commit until you find a great match. In business, this means the market actually cares about what you're making. Predicting which software businesses will find this fit is extremely hard. VCs know this, and diversify their investments among many founders (knowing one big payday can make up for 10-100 failures). Looks like this founder diversified by himself and launched small things faster. And eventually found something worth "marrying".

sonnyblarney 8y ago
"Predicting which software businesses will find this fit is extremely hard." Often a business is about the team, not the concept. Given any talented team, they an take any concept and evolve it to fit the market. Also, there's no way he was able to take any of those concepts far enough given the numbers and time frame. It can often take a small team several months to a couple of years to find out if it's going to really work or not.
- Shpigford 8y ago
  I also wasn’t trying to do that. The large majority of these were me just trying things out to see what would happen. It’s how I learn. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  - sonnyblarney 8y ago
    Well your persistence is commendable.
    - Shpigford 8y ago
      Or a massive waste of time. Some days I'm not sure which. :P
      - sonnyblarney 8y ago
        There are very very few people who did it on their first run, it's like winning the lottery. Bach wrote almost a piece every day. For most of his life. Most of it will never be played or heard. The thing that's most common among the 'greats' is how prolific they were. They just kept doing. Just watching Jim Henson. Bio - he was doing Kermite for like 20 years before it remotely caught on. I worked at BlackBerry - the company started in 1982, about 20 years before the BB wars born. The other CEO started in 1992 about 10 years. So 30 man-years of combined CEO work before the BB came to be a product.

rainbowmverse 8y ago

No one really knows a general "right" thing to do. Even someone who's found a right thing can't be much help if they just say what they did right. The best you can do is avoid doing the wrong things while probing around for a right thing. It's a way of thinking called inversion. Try 100 things while avoiding common pitfalls. One of them will probably pan out.

matchagaucho 8y ago

Human relationships and projects are not mutually exclusive. The people you meet along the way ("marriages") often carry forward into future projects.

segmondy 8y ago

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_portfolio_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_portfolio_theory