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I really empathize with you Danielle, but this: "If you stop working on your startup, it dies." Is certainly not applicable to certain types of startups. If y

by mkrecny 13y ago

I really empathize with you Danielle, but this: "If you stop working on your startup, it dies." Is certainly not applicable to certain types of startups. If you provide a valuable tool, such as one that positively impacts a businesses' bottom line, they'll keep using it (and keep paying you) regardless of whether or not you update your site or email them.

dmor 13y ago
Maybe I should say it dies eventually?
- obviouslygreen 13y ago
  Maybe you should avoid generalizations that need to be carefully qualified just to become less wrong. This is such a broad statement about a type of business that can be almost any business that even before you try to make a statement about it you've almost certainly made yourself incorrect. You have an experience that's valuable and you're presenting it to people; that's good and helpful. Stick with that. There's no need to try and apply it to a much wider audience than is actually relevant.
  - GuiA 13y ago
    >Maybe you should avoid generalizations that need to be carefully qualified just to become less wrong. But that's what 90% of startup blogging is about! :)
- diego 13y ago
  Everything dies eventually, whether you work on it or not. That statement would carry no information. In contrast, it is possible to build businesses that scale and work for a long time without much intervention on the part of the founder.
unclebucknasty 13y ago
I think the keyword here is startup. Having a significant number of enterprise/business customers whose bottom line is impacted by your product/service would probably mean you're out of the startup phase. At a minimum, it's at least out of the early startup phase to which the OP is likely referring.
- ahoyhere 13y ago
  We neglected our new, just-a-few-months-old SaaS for a few (3? 4?) months at a time and it was fine until we came back to it. We lost opportunities to grow faster but it kept making money, it still grew (albeit slower), etc. By any stretch of the imagination, that was a "startup". In the early phase. It's not about age, or stage, it's about durability of your business / value delivered.
  - unclebucknasty 13y ago
    Give it a little more time and ramp up the "degree of neglect". You'll find the point where yours begins to die. You just haven't tried hard / long enough. It's not just about the durability of your business / value delivered. It's also about the number of people who know or can learn about your offering, competition, etc. Neglect can make you very vulnerable in those areas. But, on second thought, I do agree about it not being about age or stage for different reasons. That is, neglect at any stage can ruin your business. It just tends to evidence itself more harshly and more quickly in startups--particularly those that have yet to gain traction.
    - ahoyhere 13y ago
      Of course, a certain extreme degree of neglect can kill anything at any time. But that wasn't the author's point. And I've been running this business for the better part of 5 years now so if it was going to die from months of total neglect, it would have already.
      - unclebucknasty 13y ago
        If--before gaining any traction and in the very early stages--your startup continued to grow through total neglect, then I would say that it is a very rare exception indeed. Rare enough that the author's point holds. But, congratulations to you.
        ahoyhere 13y ago

by mkrecny 13y ago

dmor 13y ago

Maybe I should say it dies eventually?

obviouslygreen 13y ago
Maybe you should avoid generalizations that need to be carefully qualified just to become less wrong. This is such a broad statement about a type of business that can be almost any business that even before you try to make a statement about it you've almost certainly made yourself incorrect. You have an experience that's valuable and you're presenting it to people; that's good and helpful. Stick with that. There's no need to try and apply it to a much wider audience than is actually relevant.
- GuiA 13y ago
  >Maybe you should avoid generalizations that need to be carefully qualified just to become less wrong. But that's what 90% of startup blogging is about! :)
diego 13y ago
Everything dies eventually, whether you work on it or not. That statement would carry no information. In contrast, it is possible to build businesses that scale and work for a long time without much intervention on the part of the founder.

unclebucknasty 13y ago

I think the keyword here is startup. Having a significant number of enterprise/business customers whose bottom line is impacted by your product/service would probably mean you're out of the startup phase. At a minimum, it's at least out of the early startup phase to which the OP is likely referring.

ahoyhere 13y ago
We neglected our new, just-a-few-months-old SaaS for a few (3? 4?) months at a time and it was fine until we came back to it. We lost opportunities to grow faster but it kept making money, it still grew (albeit slower), etc. By any stretch of the imagination, that was a "startup". In the early phase. It's not about age, or stage, it's about durability of your business / value delivered.
- unclebucknasty 13y ago
  Give it a little more time and ramp up the "degree of neglect". You'll find the point where yours begins to die. You just haven't tried hard / long enough. It's not just about the durability of your business / value delivered. It's also about the number of people who know or can learn about your offering, competition, etc. Neglect can make you very vulnerable in those areas. But, on second thought, I do agree about it not being about age or stage for different reasons. That is, neglect at any stage can ruin your business. It just tends to evidence itself more harshly and more quickly in startups--particularly those that have yet to gain traction.
  - ahoyhere 13y ago
    Of course, a certain extreme degree of neglect can kill anything at any time. But that wasn't the author's point. And I've been running this business for the better part of 5 years now so if it was going to die from months of total neglect, it would have already.
    - unclebucknasty 13y ago
      If--before gaining any traction and in the very early stages--your startup continued to grow through total neglect, then I would say that it is a very rare exception indeed. Rare enough that the author's point holds. But, congratulations to you.
      - ahoyhere 13y ago