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"There are the ones where everybody thinks they don't know how they're going to make money but they actually know. There's this kind of Kabuki dance that someti
by larrys 13y ago
"There are the ones where everybody thinks they don't know how they're going to make money but they actually know. There's this kind of Kabuki dance that sometimes these companies put on where we're just a bunch of kids and we're just farting around and I don't know how we're going to make money. It's an act. They do it because they can. They don't let anyone else realize they have it figured out because that would just draw more competition."
In addition to the other example that Mark gave ("they don't know how they will make money") another way to keep the competition at bay is by the use of red herrings and by spreading disinformation that is believable.
- notahacker 13y agoIt's an interesting point, but you have to set that in the context of all the startups that Kabuki-dance themselves towards acqui-hires and product shutdown without ever revealing their secret money-generating sauce. There are also investors who don't know how a consumer startup is ever going to make significant revenue from it's impressive user base that have to do the "this is an Adwords-type revolution away from being the next Google" speeches whilst gearing up to offload their stock in a pre-significant revenue IPO.