4 ms·

This article brings up a good point: if you just found some super-cool free web application that you love? Odds are the only thing you're doing when you use it

This article brings up a good point: if you just found some super-cool free web application that you love? Odds are the only thing you're doing when you use it and recommend it to your friends is creating a nice resume for some large company to do a "talent acquisition" Large companies love this -- they find a couple of guys who are able to identify and engage audiences and then they kill their product and stick them on some other product that the company wants pumped. Web apps are about eyeballs, right? Start-ups are about teams, right? Well what's the logical conclusion then? Startups that gain eyeballs with income-free business models only have themselves -- the team -- to sell. And from some of these sales, it looks like there's serious money in "pump and dump" entrepreneurialism. This also suggests that there is a pecking order. At the bottom we have start-ups that don't have traction. Then we have start-ups with traction but no income. Then start-ups who can mostly break even. Finally start-ups that have momentum (extra super bonus points for big momentum in a huge market) The more I look at this model, the better bootstrapping looks.

drhayes9 15y ago
Amy Hoy is a big proponent of bootstrapping. Her 30x500 class seems to rock (according to the sample materials she has out there), and she has some choice words on the subject: http://unicornfree.com/2011/fuck-glory-startups-are-one-long-con/ http://unicornfree.com/2011/fuck-glory-startups-are-one-long...
- joelhooks 15y ago
  I'm currently enjoying the 30x500 class. It certainly isn't free, but it is excellent.
- run4yourlives 15y ago
  Amy Hoy is a kick-ass writer.
- davidw 15y ago
  Rob Walling's "Start Small, Stay Small" is pretty good too, and has less gratuitous profanity.
  - mst 15y ago
    I think I'd argue that the profanity is for effect/emphasis, and to mark the post out as a rant - it's clearly (to me) being used intentionally as a writing technique. Which suggests 'gratuitous' is a harsher adjective than strictly requires, and may simply reflect that you aren't fond of profanity's use at all. I think either dropping the word entirely from your comment or perhaps replacing it with 'prolific', which would not only have been non-judegemental while still conveying the key point, but additionally alliterates nicely too. Or maybe I'm just overthinking this :)
    - davidw 15y ago
      "Gratuitous" is a judgment: profanity loses its shock value if you lace everything you say/write with it. I don't know if the rest of her writing is like that (my recollection is that it isn't), but this piece was too heavy on it. A well placed "fuck" can add a lot, if used judiciously, but it's the kind of thing where you only sit up and take notice of it due to its absence elsewhere.
jimbobimbo 15y ago
"Pump and dump" entrepreneurialism" - ah, beautiful! Thank you for this description!
bodegajed 15y ago
Well said and I completely agree. The tricky part here is that the large companies who do it announce it as "bought" or "acquired" whereas they just hire the team and kill the product. Good example recently was the Techcrunch headline "Facebook Has Acquired Gowalla" Which really doesn't sound right. Entrepreneurship is all about being profitable and getting customers and not to get acquired.
ahoyhere 15y ago
This is a really great way to divide up the ecosystem. And you're right, it's mostly eyeballs or teams for sale in "traditional" startups (if you can say there is such a thing). So few people in the startup ecosystem sit down and think hard, "Where WILL we make our money? What do we REALLY have to sell?" So many assume that they will get bought because "they have a great product" or "they are the best" or "they have traction," but honestly, that's not even why most bigco's acquire startups. As you pointed out.[1] This is not a disease of startups alone, of course. Most employees never sit down and ask themselves how & where they create value for their employer, much less how much, and whether they're then earning too little or too much. They just stab around in the dark for a number they think they deserve. But when an employee gets the value equation wrong, worst case scenario is he/she loses a job. A whole company, product, ecosystem doesn't go down the tubes. (Sidebar: It really warms my little bootstrapping heart to see this becoming a serious discussion topic lately!) [1] There are other factors I'd add -- sometimes, it seems like a bigco buys a startup because they have too much M&A budget and simply want to fill a slot, check a genre off their list. "Can't buy Twitter? OK, buy Jaiku and call it a day. tick" Or the ever-popular "this little company annoys us so we'll buy it and kill it so we can stop thinking about it" technique, which sure as hell seems to happen far more than startup cheerleaders will admit.

drhayes9 15y ago

Amy Hoy is a big proponent of bootstrapping. Her 30x500 class seems to rock (according to the sample materials she has out there), and she has some choice words on the subject: http://unicornfree.com/2011/fuck-glory-startups-are-one-long-con/ http://unicornfree.com/2011/fuck-glory-startups-are-one-long...

joelhooks 15y ago
I'm currently enjoying the 30x500 class. It certainly isn't free, but it is excellent.
run4yourlives 15y ago
Amy Hoy is a kick-ass writer.
davidw 15y ago
Rob Walling's "Start Small, Stay Small" is pretty good too, and has less gratuitous profanity.
- mst 15y ago
  I think I'd argue that the profanity is for effect/emphasis, and to mark the post out as a rant - it's clearly (to me) being used intentionally as a writing technique. Which suggests 'gratuitous' is a harsher adjective than strictly requires, and may simply reflect that you aren't fond of profanity's use at all. I think either dropping the word entirely from your comment or perhaps replacing it with 'prolific', which would not only have been non-judegemental while still conveying the key point, but additionally alliterates nicely too. Or maybe I'm just overthinking this :)
  - davidw 15y ago
    "Gratuitous" is a judgment: profanity loses its shock value if you lace everything you say/write with it. I don't know if the rest of her writing is like that (my recollection is that it isn't), but this piece was too heavy on it. A well placed "fuck" can add a lot, if used judiciously, but it's the kind of thing where you only sit up and take notice of it due to its absence elsewhere.

jimbobimbo 15y ago

"Pump and dump" entrepreneurialism" - ah, beautiful! Thank you for this description!

bodegajed 15y ago

Well said and I completely agree. The tricky part here is that the large companies who do it announce it as "bought" or "acquired" whereas they just hire the team and kill the product. Good example recently was the Techcrunch headline "Facebook Has Acquired Gowalla" Which really doesn't sound right. Entrepreneurship is all about being profitable and getting customers and not to get acquired.

ahoyhere 15y ago

This is a really great way to divide up the ecosystem. And you're right, it's mostly eyeballs or teams for sale in "traditional" startups (if you can say there is such a thing). So few people in the startup ecosystem sit down and think hard, "Where WILL we make our money? What do we REALLY have to sell?" So many assume that they will get bought because "they have a great product" or "they are the best" or "they have traction," but honestly, that's not even why most bigco's acquire startups. As you pointed out.[1] This is not a disease of startups alone, of course. Most employees never sit down and ask themselves how & where they create value for their employer, much less how much, and whether they're then earning too little or too much. They just stab around in the dark for a number they think they deserve. But when an employee gets the value equation wrong, worst case scenario is he/she loses a job. A whole company, product, ecosystem doesn't go down the tubes. (Sidebar: It really warms my little bootstrapping heart to see this becoming a serious discussion topic lately!) [1] There are other factors I'd add -- sometimes, it seems like a bigco buys a startup because they have too much M&A budget and simply want to fill a slot, check a genre off their list. "Can't buy Twitter? OK, buy Jaiku and call it a day. tick" Or the ever-popular "this little company annoys us so we'll buy it and kill it so we can stop thinking about it" technique, which sure as hell seems to happen far more than startup cheerleaders will admit.