4 ms·

Personally, that strikes me as a bit too generic for a tech startup. The value of the startup stems from the value of the technology it produces, not the value

by mroman 18y ago

Personally, that strikes me as a bit too generic for a tech startup. The value of the startup stems from the value of the technology it produces, not the value of the network of contacts one of the founders has built. While networking can be valuable, allocating resources to networking BEFORE there is a working product is a huge mistake.

incomethax 18y ago
I can agree from personal experience. Premature networking can kill a startup. Edit: What I mean by this is networking at the expense of product/technology building.
orianmarx 18y ago
Well, that really depends on what you define as value. There are plenty of tech companies out there that created tons of "valuable" code but were not successful because somebody else got the attention or was able to strike one critical deal. As for allocating resources to networking before there is a working product, check out www.path101.com. I met these guys when they did an open brainstorming session with nothing but a preliminary pitch deck and not a line of code. Being open from very early on enabled them to find angel investors and their first employees, and when it came time to doing an alpha launch they had tons of people that had been eager to try the thing out for months.
- mroman 18y ago
  I agree that vaporware has been successfully marketed before, however, that is not my idea of creating value, so I agree that it depends on how one defines value, and I would not want that - marketing non-existent products - to become the meaning of value within the context of a tech startup, that is best left to a marketing/publicity outfit if you ask me. I also think it is wrong to conduct market studies under the guise of a real product offer. What happens when it turns out that the bullet points with features cannot be implemented, or are simply not the best solution for the users? I find pg's thoughts on the subject of how problems may end up being redefined as they are being worked on to be very wise advice.

by mroman 18y ago

incomethax 18y ago

I can agree from personal experience. Premature networking can kill a startup. Edit: What I mean by this is networking at the expense of product/technology building.

orianmarx 18y ago

Well, that really depends on what you define as value. There are plenty of tech companies out there that created tons of "valuable" code but were not successful because somebody else got the attention or was able to strike one critical deal. As for allocating resources to networking before there is a working product, check out www.path101.com. I met these guys when they did an open brainstorming session with nothing but a preliminary pitch deck and not a line of code. Being open from very early on enabled them to find angel investors and their first employees, and when it came time to doing an alpha launch they had tons of people that had been eager to try the thing out for months.

mroman 18y ago
I agree that vaporware has been successfully marketed before, however, that is not my idea of creating value, so I agree that it depends on how one defines value, and I would not want that - marketing non-existent products - to become the meaning of value within the context of a tech startup, that is best left to a marketing/publicity outfit if you ask me. I also think it is wrong to conduct market studies under the guise of a real product offer. What happens when it turns out that the bullet points with features cannot be implemented, or are simply not the best solution for the users? I find pg's thoughts on the subject of how problems may end up being redefined as they are being worked on to be very wise advice.