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I did a business plan competition at one point in College. And I didn't do well, and I realized later the reason I lost, was I was focusing too much on the prod
by xracy 3y ago
I did a business plan competition at one point in College. And I didn't do well, and I realized later the reason I lost, was I was focusing too much on the product, and not enough on the business plan.
The group that won third place beat us out by... not building a product that anyone could use (Their proposal was a DJ jukebox app for going to the club. Where you could pay money to have a chance to hear the song you want played at the club). I will eat my shorts if anyone has actually coded any part of that app since the competition (2016). But it didn't matter cause 3rd place walked away with like $5k, and that was the point of the competition.
- MarcoZavala 3y ago[dead]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- blackbear_ 3y agoThe idea is that the product itself will be judged by the market. A business plan is something that you present to investors (and the jury) to show them how you are going to reach that market in the first place. Investors only want to make a return on their investment, and thus do not really care what the product is, as long as they are convinced that there is a market of appropriate size and that you can reach that market.
- slowmovintarget 3y ago> Investors only want to make a return on their investment, and thus do not really care what the product is... Here, in a nutshell, is the entire problem of misaligned incentives in modern business. The product becomes the the shares of stock. Larian's success with Baldur's Gate 3 is because they obsessed about the product and their customer. Apple's success is because Steve Jobs obsessed about the product and the customer (despite being publicly traded) and Apple continues to do so. So many other companies are all about maximizing short-term extraction of shareholder value. They're not about the product or the customer anymore. This breaks the market mechanism, so few arguments of how the market will generate winners or fix the problem still make sense. The market is Wall Street, the stock market, not the market where customers buy goods. How do we incentivize good product and customer service in a VC / activist investor / private equity world?
- pirate787 3y agoIt's funny I've been hearing this trope for decades, and at the same time hearing nonstop complaints about the "insane" forward looking valuations for Tesla, Nvidia, etc. From a P/E standpoint, Wall Street is less about "short-term extraction" than at any time in history.
- ethanbond 3y agoI don’t think the high P/E is from a longer time horizon but from expectation of a steeper curve.
- jeezfrk 3y agoPut in required delays and taxes for purchase of securities as a slowdown.
- eru 3y agoInvestors come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. Yes, if you can provide a good return on investment, you can attract many investors. But eg ESG investment is a thing. And so is Elon Musk fans essentially buying some entertainment with their shares. (The same might apply to Game Stop and cryptocurrencies.)
- dehrmann 3y agoApparently it was a business plan competition and not a product competition...which a product person should know--know your customer. Your product is a business plan.
- ultrasaurus 3y agoI also got suckered into a business plan competition in College with the same mindset you had but I suspect they are actually recruiting events for consulting firms -- it's not the answer they are looking for, but the ability to make convincing slides and passion for the same :)