4 ms·

Like all grandiose sayings, this one is demonstrably false. Consider the startup we all love to hate, Groupon. Groupon was founded solely on a Big Idea. I thin

Like all grandiose sayings, this one is demonstrably false. Consider the startup we all love to hate, Groupon. Groupon was founded solely on a Big Idea. I think thats why it got so much hate in the beginning, because all it took was that fucking idea and any one of us could have had it. Without Lightbank to hyper-fuel its growth, one of the million knockoffs run by a larger company would have pushed to the fore and destroyed them. Every bit of stealth was essential.

api 14y ago
Relevant: http://jackealtman.com/2013/01/10/startup-knowledge-decays-quickly/ http://jackealtman.com/2013/01/10/startup-knowledge-decays-q...
moens 14y ago
yup, gotta agree. Ideas are like any other valuable thing: a rare few are amazing, some are good, most are meh, and some are wtf? For those people that are good at idea generation, being tacit can be one useful means to getting paid on delivery.
- deleted 14y ago
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gz5 14y ago
i will blame the headline there. is it now mandatory for every headline to be either none, all, always, never, best or worst? headline aside, nice article, like "collaboration is the winning strategy — fear is the innovation-killer"
- moens 14y ago
  I still disagree. Collaboration is the winning strategy? For whom? The writer forgot to add, "for the strongest player." For the weaker player, collaboration usually means assimilation. This is not always bad, but it must be addressed plainly.
neilk 14y ago
Groupon was not founded on the idea that propelled them to success (assuming Groupon still counts as a success). The site grew out of ThePoint.com, a group fundraising site. They took the expertise they had building that platform - for years - and then applied it to coupons. There have been a zillion iterations on coupon sites. Some of them probably came close to Groupon's basic model. The idea was not really the main thing.

api 14y ago

Relevant: http://jackealtman.com/2013/01/10/startup-knowledge-decays-quickly/ http://jackealtman.com/2013/01/10/startup-knowledge-decays-q...

moens 14y ago

yup, gotta agree. Ideas are like any other valuable thing: a rare few are amazing, some are good, most are meh, and some are wtf? For those people that are good at idea generation, being tacit can be one useful means to getting paid on delivery.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

gz5 14y ago

i will blame the headline there. is it now mandatory for every headline to be either none, all, always, never, best or worst? headline aside, nice article, like "collaboration is the winning strategy — fear is the innovation-killer"

moens 14y ago
I still disagree. Collaboration is the winning strategy? For whom? The writer forgot to add, "for the strongest player." For the weaker player, collaboration usually means assimilation. This is not always bad, but it must be addressed plainly.

neilk 14y ago

Groupon was not founded on the idea that propelled them to success (assuming Groupon still counts as a success). The site grew out of ThePoint.com, a group fundraising site. They took the expertise they had building that platform - for years - and then applied it to coupons. There have been a zillion iterations on coupon sites. Some of them probably came close to Groupon's basic model. The idea was not really the main thing.