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I think maybe the fundamental hard thing about startups is that you can’t ignore the problem space or the solution space. It’s not like Bezos was passionate abo

by choxi 4y ago

I think maybe the fundamental hard thing about startups is that you can’t ignore the problem space or the solution space. It’s not like Bezos was passionate about selling cheap books for years before Amazon, he saw that this new Internet thing was going mainstream and building on top of this new tech was the premise of the business more than selling books cheaply and quickly was. Most of the startup opportunities in the last couple decades were built off the back of several deeper tech breakthroughs like mass mobile phone adoption and virtualization. I think more founders have been successful just riding these tech waves than sticking to a problem space. Brian Chesky didn’t work in hotel management and Travis Kalanack didn’t work in transportation. They were just familiar with cutting edge consumer tech and applied it to problems they had no familiar with before they started.

pyinstallwoes 4y ago
Bezos built Amazon to solve the traveling salesman problem.
- doitLP 4y ago
  But that spawned the traveling delivery truck problem.
  - Qem 4y ago
    That was solved by making employees pee in bottles. Need a restroom? Think outside the box, pee inside the bottle.
  - xcambar 4y ago
    Then to be shadowed by the traveling delivery drone problem.
bmitc 4y ago
I think this also points out the timing aspect. The big "breakthrough" companies (breakthrough in terms of capitalistic successes) happened since people were in the proverbial right place and time with the right idea.
- kikokikokiko 4y ago
  It's a falacy. Most of the time, what defines the "right time" is our post event bias. Apple launched the iPhone in 2007(?), so from our 2022 perspective, "they were just the first to do it but in 2007 everything that was needed to build an iPhone was already there". The fact that Apple succeded in creating an easy to use, touch screen based, infinitely expandable via software general purpose computing device is 100% their merit. Many companies had tried before, but noone were able to get it right. After you see it done, this concepr of " right time" arises, not before it. It's the same with the age of discoveries. Boats capable of crossing thr ocean had existed for centuries, but only around 1500 it became "the right time".
pjdesno 4y ago
Note that choice of starter product is important. Amazon started with books - you know exactly what you're getting, they always fit, they're hard to damage, they have pretty high markups and low shipping costs. People were willing to risk buying books online, back when online e-commerce basically consisted of the USENET misc.forsale groups. Tesla and many other EV companies started with low-volume expensive sports cars, with high margins so they could be basically hand-crafted. (Tesla actually bought the chassis/body/interior from Lotus) If they had started with the Model 3, they'd have gone bankrupt long before they sold any.
- koonsolo 4y ago
  I think Bezos also mentioned that he started with books because no single physical shop could have all the books, but Amazon could. It is a product with so many variations that Amazon had a clear competitive advantage.
  - bsder 4y ago
    Amazon's competitive advantage was not paying any tax. Amazon's selection in technical books was quite poor for quite a while. However, the tax discount drove ALL the small, local technical booksellers out of business. It might have happened anyway since local sellers had to pay retail rent and so Amazon had a structural advantage. However, Amazon also gained a straight 8% advantage for not having to pay tax.
    - indymike 4y ago
      > Amazon's competitive advantage was not paying any tax. I'm assuming you are saying "not paying sales tax". Amazon was operating like every other mail order bookseller that did not operate stores at the time. Retailers have complained for a century about mail order catalogs not collecting local sales tax. This was not new, or novel. > the tax discount drove ALL the small, local technical booksellers out of business Demand aggregation is a real thing. Localized, there's not a lot of demand for any specific niche technical book, and that leads to sub-optimal inventory. Why carry something you'll only turn once a year? You'd be better off putting that floor-plan money into gum, mints or batteries at the cash register. Quick access to product is why I shifted to buying technical documentation online. The local electronics store or bookshop could order books and it would often take 4-6 weeks for the book to arrive. Even early Amazon did 3-4 days. Demand aggregation is how Amazon won.

by choxi 4y ago

pyinstallwoes 4y ago

Bezos built Amazon to solve the traveling salesman problem.

doitLP 4y ago
But that spawned the traveling delivery truck problem.
- Qem 4y ago
  That was solved by making employees pee in bottles. Need a restroom? Think outside the box, pee inside the bottle.
- xcambar 4y ago
  Then to be shadowed by the traveling delivery drone problem.

bmitc 4y ago

I think this also points out the timing aspect. The big "breakthrough" companies (breakthrough in terms of capitalistic successes) happened since people were in the proverbial right place and time with the right idea.

kikokikokiko 4y ago
It's a falacy. Most of the time, what defines the "right time" is our post event bias. Apple launched the iPhone in 2007(?), so from our 2022 perspective, "they were just the first to do it but in 2007 everything that was needed to build an iPhone was already there". The fact that Apple succeded in creating an easy to use, touch screen based, infinitely expandable via software general purpose computing device is 100% their merit. Many companies had tried before, but noone were able to get it right. After you see it done, this concepr of " right time" arises, not before it. It's the same with the age of discoveries. Boats capable of crossing thr ocean had existed for centuries, but only around 1500 it became "the right time".

pjdesno 4y ago

Note that choice of starter product is important. Amazon started with books - you know exactly what you're getting, they always fit, they're hard to damage, they have pretty high markups and low shipping costs. People were willing to risk buying books online, back when online e-commerce basically consisted of the USENET misc.forsale groups. Tesla and many other EV companies started with low-volume expensive sports cars, with high margins so they could be basically hand-crafted. (Tesla actually bought the chassis/body/interior from Lotus) If they had started with the Model 3, they'd have gone bankrupt long before they sold any.

koonsolo 4y ago
I think Bezos also mentioned that he started with books because no single physical shop could have all the books, but Amazon could. It is a product with so many variations that Amazon had a clear competitive advantage.
- bsder 4y ago
  Amazon's competitive advantage was not paying any tax. Amazon's selection in technical books was quite poor for quite a while. However, the tax discount drove ALL the small, local technical booksellers out of business. It might have happened anyway since local sellers had to pay retail rent and so Amazon had a structural advantage. However, Amazon also gained a straight 8% advantage for not having to pay tax.
  - indymike 4y ago
    > Amazon's competitive advantage was not paying any tax. I'm assuming you are saying "not paying sales tax". Amazon was operating like every other mail order bookseller that did not operate stores at the time. Retailers have complained for a century about mail order catalogs not collecting local sales tax. This was not new, or novel. > the tax discount drove ALL the small, local technical booksellers out of business Demand aggregation is a real thing. Localized, there's not a lot of demand for any specific niche technical book, and that leads to sub-optimal inventory. Why carry something you'll only turn once a year? You'd be better off putting that floor-plan money into gum, mints or batteries at the cash register. Quick access to product is why I shifted to buying technical documentation online. The local electronics store or bookshop could order books and it would often take 4-6 weeks for the book to arrive. Even early Amazon did 3-4 days. Demand aggregation is how Amazon won.