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Pretty much never Every successful startup was pitched at some point to some experienced startup person who thought it was a crap idea. Ideas change, and are

Pretty much never Every successful startup was pitched at some point to some experienced startup person who thought it was a crap idea. Ideas change, and are a very small indicator of success to start with. Successful startups are exceptional, just because you have seen 'yet another social image sharing site' fail 50 times doesnt mean the next one will. Pointing out challenges and not feeling personally excited by a startup is absolutely fine, but saying something sucks and shouldnt be pursued is generally arrogant and naive.

Mahn 14y ago
I agree, whether an idea sucks or not is a very subjective thing, and sometimes it can be naive to believe that what you think is going to apply to entire population of the planet. That being said, one should probably point out why in your opinion the idea is weak. Just stress the fact that this is just one opinion, not the ultimate truth.
joonix 14y ago
I would imagine if someone told me about a "microblogging" platform where people would submit posts via SMS to a shortcode I would have brushed it off as foolish.
- atwebb 14y ago
  A lot goes into to how the founders handle the "advice". Lots of items in this thread relate to how the commentor would explain something to someone else, but I think that the key is how you consume what you're told.
AVTizzle 14y ago
This needed to be said. Who are ANY of us to be THE ultimate judge of what will succeed and what will fail? I consider myself a discerning critic, but there are companies and products that have succeeded that still baffle me, and products that have failed that I would have betted on.
mindcrime 14y ago
This. There's a certain arrogance baked into the assumptions of the OP.. that he (or she) knows which ideas are "likely to succeed" and which ones aren't. But no matter how experienced an entrepreneur you are, or what you've done, you never really know what's going to catch on and what isn't. And one measure of a good startup founder, IMO, is the ability to balance taking advice from others, with "keeping your own counsel". And sometimes you just have to say "Hey, Mr. Uber-experienced mentor, serial entrepreneur, VC, former CEO, whatever, ya know, we just think you're wrong and we're doing this anyway". Even more to the point, sometimes you just have to go out and fail on your own terms, or you'll never be happy with yourself. Some things really can only be learned through direct experience.

Mahn 14y ago

I agree, whether an idea sucks or not is a very subjective thing, and sometimes it can be naive to believe that what you think is going to apply to entire population of the planet. That being said, one should probably point out why in your opinion the idea is weak. Just stress the fact that this is just one opinion, not the ultimate truth.

joonix 14y ago

I would imagine if someone told me about a "microblogging" platform where people would submit posts via SMS to a shortcode I would have brushed it off as foolish.

atwebb 14y ago
A lot goes into to how the founders handle the "advice". Lots of items in this thread relate to how the commentor would explain something to someone else, but I think that the key is how you consume what you're told.

AVTizzle 14y ago

This needed to be said. Who are ANY of us to be THE ultimate judge of what will succeed and what will fail? I consider myself a discerning critic, but there are companies and products that have succeeded that still baffle me, and products that have failed that I would have betted on.

mindcrime 14y ago

This. There's a certain arrogance baked into the assumptions of the OP.. that he (or she) knows which ideas are "likely to succeed" and which ones aren't. But no matter how experienced an entrepreneur you are, or what you've done, you never really know what's going to catch on and what isn't. And one measure of a good startup founder, IMO, is the ability to balance taking advice from others, with "keeping your own counsel". And sometimes you just have to say "Hey, Mr. Uber-experienced mentor, serial entrepreneur, VC, former CEO, whatever, ya know, we just think you're wrong and we're doing this anyway". Even more to the point, sometimes you just have to go out and fail on your own terms, or you'll never be happy with yourself. Some things really can only be learned through direct experience.