These Silicon Valley Titans Think You Probably Shouldn't Start a Company(wired.com)
wired.com
These Silicon Valley Titans Think You Probably Shouldn't Start a Company
http://www.wired.com/business/2013/08/moskovitz-entrepreneurship/
2 comments
I do not. Pick a market you think you can etch out a place in, then go for it. Sure, do some preliminary testing to ensure you're not wasting your time, but that's it. Every market is ripe for disruption, save the few that have "crime lords" at the top working overtime to destroy everything that tries to take their throne.
Sure, you probably won't be the next celebrity musician or television personality or Mark Zuckerberg or billion dollar startup founder, but that's what they tell everyone and then someone does it anyway. If you never try, then that someone will never be you.
The only trick is to find a market for the product you are offering (the market doesn't even have to exist, if you have tested the waters and are sure that when people see your product they'll think, "I didn't know I wanted that until I saw it"), then deliver what that market wants. Once the product is done and is what the market is looking for, it's all about getting the product in front of those users and making a compelling case for them needing what you are offering. And at that point, if you've done your job well, the product will sell itself.
Sure, you probably won't be the next celebrity musician or television personality or Mark Zuckerberg or billion dollar startup founder, but that's what they tell everyone and then someone does it anyway. If you never try, then that someone will never be you.
The only trick is to find a market for the product you are offering (the market doesn't even have to exist, if you have tested the waters and are sure that when people see your product they'll think, "I didn't know I wanted that until I saw it"), then deliver what that market wants. Once the product is done and is what the market is looking for, it's all about getting the product in front of those users and making a compelling case for them needing what you are offering. And at that point, if you've done your job well, the product will sell itself.
>Decide if somebody else is doing it, and if you think they’re doing it well, go help them do it
>Only if no one else has started to build that thing should someone head down the startup path
I think these are fair points. My only question to Moskovitz why did he start Facebook/Asana when similar products did existed? He could have helped Myspace instead.