6 ms·

Ten Rules for Web Startups (2005)

143 points by bitsweet 12y ago

skrebbel 12y ago
Wow, nine years old! I like how some of these ideas have become completely commonplace since then. It's cool that we as a community are progressing. Also I'm impressed at how some of these ideas are still neglected, or controversial at best. Think about how much of the startup world, leading thinkers like Paul Graham and Sam Altman included, still haven't figured out #10 on this list.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- pjgomez 12y ago
  You took your words right of my mouth, well my keyboard. It is surprisingly true almost nine years later, it is probably more true now than it was then, or at least it has been proven to be more true, if that is even possible.
  - meowface 12y ago
    Makes you wonder which of the blog posts giving advice today will ring as surprisingly true in 9 years from now.
- j45 12y ago
  I think #10 comes with business experience of knowing what to focus on when, and why. Until then the bleary eyed all out approach substitutes trying to cover all possibilities. Great article either way.
prottmann 12y ago
Take the Top 100 Startups since 2005 and explain me, compared to this list, why they were successful.
- pjgomez 12y ago
  Well, 100 is a lot of work, but I think some of the YC top startups fit quite well: let's say Dropbox, Disqus or Stripe.
gtzi 12y ago
Meaningful stuff always remains such - a classic.
jdawg77 12y ago
Take money in six months - and do it with Paypal, rule #7, I think is very accurate to a degree. However, it also depends on if you're doing a media startup or a Saas startup. Most of the bootstrapped businesses I've done were professional services or (a few times) download software. In both cases, we took money but in the media business, it was always indirectly - eg, CJ sales, Adsense, etc. Rule #10 I've seen tossed out the window too many times, as a consultant, to admit it. Thing is though, when I review my own performance, it's always when well balanced with actual life that I get the most work done, even if I'm putting in a paltry ~50 or less hours per week of work. As an employer and manager, I've also seen the difference between people's engagement and output at peak and at "overclocked performance," where they put in an extreme amount of overtime. Perhaps I'm missing an instance, but I've yet to see the team win where they gave up everything that meant something in their lives in an effort to somehow make the business better.
jickmagger 12y ago
Write article in 2014. Edit post date. Instant visionary. PS. And this article is just a bunch of generic small business advice where grocery store was replaced by web startup.
- nedwin 12y ago
  This was written by Ev Williams of Bloggers / Twitter / Medium fame. Not sure visionary is the right word but it's close enough. I don't think he has much reason to back date his posts but you would think he'd at least put it on Medium versus Blogger.
sebastianconcpt 12y ago
Great rules. I'd spread the advice except that I cannot stand that it advices to be greedy. Greedy is self-serving and it will block things sooner or later. Way more interesting is to advice Ambition. Positive ambition. Possibilities-expanding-for-all kind of ambition. Subtle you might say. Yet greedy and ambition have different ethos in the long term.

143 points by bitsweet 12y ago

Wow, nine years old! I like how some of these ideas have become completely commonplace since then. It's cool that we as a community are progressing. Also I'm impressed at how some of these ideas are still neglected, or controversial at best. Think about how much of the startup world, leading thinkers like Paul Graham and Sam Altman included, still haven't figured out #10 on this list.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
pjgomez 12y ago
You took your words right of my mouth, well my keyboard. It is surprisingly true almost nine years later, it is probably more true now than it was then, or at least it has been proven to be more true, if that is even possible.
- meowface 12y ago
  Makes you wonder which of the blog posts giving advice today will ring as surprisingly true in 9 years from now.
j45 12y ago
I think #10 comes with business experience of knowing what to focus on when, and why. Until then the bleary eyed all out approach substitutes trying to cover all possibilities. Great article either way.

prottmann 12y ago

Take the Top 100 Startups since 2005 and explain me, compared to this list, why they were successful.

pjgomez 12y ago
Well, 100 is a lot of work, but I think some of the YC top startups fit quite well: let's say Dropbox, Disqus or Stripe.

gtzi 12y ago

Meaningful stuff always remains such - a classic.

jdawg77 12y ago

Take money in six months - and do it with Paypal, rule #7, I think is very accurate to a degree. However, it also depends on if you're doing a media startup or a Saas startup. Most of the bootstrapped businesses I've done were professional services or (a few times) download software. In both cases, we took money but in the media business, it was always indirectly - eg, CJ sales, Adsense, etc. Rule #10 I've seen tossed out the window too many times, as a consultant, to admit it. Thing is though, when I review my own performance, it's always when well balanced with actual life that I get the most work done, even if I'm putting in a paltry ~50 or less hours per week of work. As an employer and manager, I've also seen the difference between people's engagement and output at peak and at "overclocked performance," where they put in an extreme amount of overtime. Perhaps I'm missing an instance, but I've yet to see the team win where they gave up everything that meant something in their lives in an effort to somehow make the business better.

jickmagger 12y ago

Write article in 2014. Edit post date. Instant visionary. PS. And this article is just a bunch of generic small business advice where grocery store was replaced by web startup.

nedwin 12y ago
This was written by Ev Williams of Bloggers / Twitter / Medium fame. Not sure visionary is the right word but it's close enough. I don't think he has much reason to back date his posts but you would think he'd at least put it on Medium versus Blogger.

sebastianconcpt 12y ago

Great rules. I'd spread the advice except that I cannot stand that it advices to be greedy. Greedy is self-serving and it will block things sooner or later. Way more interesting is to advice Ambition. Positive ambition. Possibilities-expanding-for-all kind of ambition. Subtle you might say. Yet greedy and ambition have different ethos in the long term.