3 ms·
Not that it characterizes all startups or fully negates this critique, but scale is an important component of utility. Solving a small problem for a billion pe
by ethanbond 4y ago
Not that it characterizes all startups or fully negates this critique, but scale is an important component of utility.
Solving a small problem for a billion people will produce more utility (and therefore value) than solving a big problem for 10 people (obviously there are specific tens of people for whom this would be false).
FWIW though pretty much all startup advice, and YC’s in particular, is to solve the big thing for 10 people before scaling up.
- shanebellone 4y agoAs admittedly pedantic as it is... any product that scales to billions of users is really a commodity in disguise. Take social media as an example: It's essentially "attention arbitrage." The raw material is our attention, and the output is their profit. They've built an economic engine by piping excess attention directly to the highest bidder. Also, can you really compare utility in terms of scale? Is it better to improve 1,000,000 lives 50% or 1,000,000,000 lives 1%?