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This is not an example of someone following the advice of the smart people and failing. This is someone not following advice and making most of the common mista
by staunch 15y ago
This is not an example of someone following the advice of the smart people and failing. This is someone not following advice and making most of the common mistakes people warn about.
He's a sole founder, working part-time, in Colorado, on a problem he doesn't have, in enterprise software, for schools, with no distribution plan, no team, no domain expertise, in a niche market, and giving up after 1 year.
Of course, he still could have succeeded, but he definitely stacked the deck against himself.
- studiofellow 15y agoA couple of your points are narrow-minded. I have to live in the bay area, work on a team, and work on it full time to build a viable business? Come on, there are other paths to success. Your points about domain expertise, and working on a problem I don't have are right on. I learned the hard way it's way harder to build software to meet someone else's needs. (Even though 3 immediate family members are teachers, including my wife.)
- prawn 15y ago"Of course, he still could have succeeded, but he definitely stacked the deck against himself."
- chanux 15y agoAt least he apparently landed himself a job :). Being positive. (I don't deny that fact that yours are good points.)
- SemanticFog 15y agoThe real story might be that his product just isn't as good as the competition. It took 10 seconds of searching to find https://www.igradeplus.com/ https://www.igradeplus.com/, which on the surface looks like a much better offering. He seems critical of his customers and dismissive of his competitors, both of which are big red flags.
- hokua 15y agoYou are correct. Not as good + niche = death