4 ms·

4 Startups + 4 Months + 4 People = Mayhem

11 points by jasonb05 18y ago

wheels 18y ago
First the good: sounds like a lot of fun and a good way to generate ideas and see how they stick. Then the crotchety: website != startup. Building a business is a lot harder than hacking together a website (wonderfully groovy or otherwise). Paul's mantra of "build something people want" is a precondition, not the endpoint. It's next to impossible to build a business in a month.
- jasonb05 18y ago
  cheers wheels your "crotchety" point's a good one. in fact, it's a frequent point of discussion within the team. the website!=business comment is a common rebuke for us. my position is agreement with your statement. "something people want" is a starting point, a primer for the business. rather than four business in four months, I argue 4 seeds, some of which may grow into viable business, and most that won't. Further, trying to grow 4 business at a time (come November) is equally insane. The niches are small (we call them micro startups - one month to address the core need, the "one thing"), and the end of the year might be a good time to weed. nevertheless, we are learning a tremendous amount about the process, about users, and about how much we truly don't know. and damn it's better than working in an office!
  - mmilo 18y ago
    My only addition to this is that we hope to be doing more pruning as opposed to weeding come end of the year :)
  - wheels 18y ago
    Hey Jason -- I'd really recommend taking one of the ideas at the end of the four months and seeing how far you can run with it. The trials and errors of building a business have really been the eye-opening part of our own startup experience. There's nothing quite like that first flopped investor pitch or learning how to incorporate or doing semi-long-term planning to really change your outlook. Best of luck. :-)
    - mace 18y ago
      Agreed. It might be worthwhile to work on a project longer than a month to build a user base and accumulate enough useful feedback that might lead you into building what people want. Project Mayhem is an interesting experiment. I bet some of your products might turn out to be better than more well-funded products.

11 points by jasonb05 18y ago

First the good: sounds like a lot of fun and a good way to generate ideas and see how they stick. Then the crotchety: website != startup. Building a business is a lot harder than hacking together a website (wonderfully groovy or otherwise). Paul's mantra of "build something people want" is a precondition, not the endpoint. It's next to impossible to build a business in a month.

jasonb05 18y ago
cheers wheels your "crotchety" point's a good one. in fact, it's a frequent point of discussion within the team. the website!=business comment is a common rebuke for us. my position is agreement with your statement. "something people want" is a starting point, a primer for the business. rather than four business in four months, I argue 4 seeds, some of which may grow into viable business, and most that won't. Further, trying to grow 4 business at a time (come November) is equally insane. The niches are small (we call them micro startups - one month to address the core need, the "one thing"), and the end of the year might be a good time to weed. nevertheless, we are learning a tremendous amount about the process, about users, and about how much we truly don't know. and damn it's better than working in an office!
- mmilo 18y ago
  My only addition to this is that we hope to be doing more pruning as opposed to weeding come end of the year :)
- wheels 18y ago
  Hey Jason -- I'd really recommend taking one of the ideas at the end of the four months and seeing how far you can run with it. The trials and errors of building a business have really been the eye-opening part of our own startup experience. There's nothing quite like that first flopped investor pitch or learning how to incorporate or doing semi-long-term planning to really change your outlook. Best of luck. :-)
  - mace 18y ago
    Agreed. It might be worthwhile to work on a project longer than a month to build a user base and accumulate enough useful feedback that might lead you into building what people want. Project Mayhem is an interesting experiment. I bet some of your products might turn out to be better than more well-funded products.