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It depends what you consider a 'home run'. I consider building a sustainable business that will generate revenue and create products for the next 10/20/30 years

It depends what you consider a 'home run'. I consider building a sustainable business that will generate revenue and create products for the next 10/20/30 years a home run. I would consider building an app, having no business model (admittedly Whatsapp app was generating revenue although I doubt it was much), and being lucky enough to get acquired by a company willing to pay stupid amounts of money to kill a competitor and keep you away from other competitors the furthest thing from a home run.

scg 13y ago
"the furthest"? :) Really, that's "the furthest thing" from a home run that you could think of?
monsterix 13y ago
Agreed. But a home run for most VCs would likely be 10X+ return stories than a revenue generating machine that would mature up in 10+ years.
shawabawa3 13y ago
> admittedly Whatsapp app was generating revenue although I doubt it was much I imagine they made ~$100m last year (400m active users, I'm guessing 100m of which using for more than a year), which is almost guaranteed to go up. For a company with ~50 employees how is that not sustainable?
dualogy 13y ago
> It depends what you consider a 'home run'. I consider building a sustainable business that will generate revenue and create products for the next 10/20/30 years a home run. 10/20/30 years? Look those aren't the days of Henry Ford or J.D.Rockefeller.. tech is changing ever-faster at an exponential rate. You wanna create products for 30 years, none of which will live on their own much longer than 3-4 years (if lucky/successful in their market) because everything is constantly changing? I agree: flipping a messenger toy to FB is a "lottery win", but "a sustainable business that will generate revenue" for 30 years, what is that supposed to be in today's environment? That's a bit of a pipe dream too, just the "nobler" one.

scg 13y ago

"the furthest"? :) Really, that's "the furthest thing" from a home run that you could think of?

monsterix 13y ago

Agreed. But a home run for most VCs would likely be 10X+ return stories than a revenue generating machine that would mature up in 10+ years.

shawabawa3 13y ago

> admittedly Whatsapp app was generating revenue although I doubt it was much I imagine they made ~$100m last year (400m active users, I'm guessing 100m of which using for more than a year), which is almost guaranteed to go up. For a company with ~50 employees how is that not sustainable?

dualogy 13y ago

> It depends what you consider a 'home run'. I consider building a sustainable business that will generate revenue and create products for the next 10/20/30 years a home run. 10/20/30 years? Look those aren't the days of Henry Ford or J.D.Rockefeller.. tech is changing ever-faster at an exponential rate. You wanna create products for 30 years, none of which will live on their own much longer than 3-4 years (if lucky/successful in their market) because everything is constantly changing? I agree: flipping a messenger toy to FB is a "lottery win", but "a sustainable business that will generate revenue" for 30 years, what is that supposed to be in today's environment? That's a bit of a pipe dream too, just the "nobler" one.