3 ms·
Thanks. The point I was trying to make was that developing a philosophy behind building a company is not generally considered a strong requirement for most web
by dcurtis 18y ago
Thanks. The point I was trying to make was that developing a philosophy behind building a company is not generally considered a strong requirement for most web companies.
And if you develop a powerful enough theory for your market, and then build toward that theory rather than arbitrarily building a website with a function, you'll have a higher probably of eventual success.
I've seen a lot of companies just fail because there was real driving force behind the product more than "hey, that'd be cool, I think." That approach might work sometimes, but I think you can vastly improve your chances by having an underlying prediction for the market you're entering.
- swombat 18y agoSure, and I never criticise the noble aim of trying to figure out ways to increase our chances of success (we need all the help we can get). However, I think you'll find a stronger correlation between "being aware of a very pressing and important unmet need that people are willing to pay to resolve" and success than between "making a philosophical gamble on the future" and success...
- dcurtis 18y agoI think in many ways those are the same thing. It depends on how wide of a market you want to capture. If you're just solving a single problem, like web forms (wufoo), then it's easy as long as the problem is real. If you're trying to start a company that changes an industry, like Hulu or Tesla, your predictions need to be quite a bit wider in scope. I'm referring in the article to the latter kinds of companies.