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Don't Start Big, Start a Little Snowball

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Re: Don't Start Big, Start a Little Snowball

#31

Post by anthonygore »

The problem with articles and discussions like this is that the "markers of success" pointed out may all be true, but incidental.

Take Slack as an example. Yes, it was a simple idea with low product surface area and easily protypeable etc etc. But other people had built Slack-like products before that met the all those same criteria and were not successful. The critical factors for Slack were the connections the founders had (or made), the VC money, and perhaps a whole bunch of other things.

As much as we'd like for there to be a nice, neat guides for successful businesses e.g. "build a little snowball", the truth is that the reasons for success are often totally unique, contradictory and unrepeatable.

Re: Don't Start Big, Start a Little Snowball

#32

Post by andy_ppp »

I have this magical formula for building a startup that is 100% guaranteed to work, but no-one discusses.

- Do something illegal, then lobby for your rights!

- DDOS your competition

- Be evil

- Ignore regulations designed to protect your workforce (often referred to as 'partners', hah!)

- Tell everyone you have a special insight in making successful startups - something to do with 'hustle' and 'product market fit'

- Burn investor money while shouting stuff about self driving cars

- Underpay your staff and/or take a huge cut of their value

- Take massive equity stakes in already existing/launched companies and call it seed funding

- Be Elon Musk

/snark

Re: Don't Start Big, Start a Little Snowball

#33

Post by xj9 »

rl3 wrote: post #28
jv22222 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's very interesting. Thanks so much for the answer. From all the work you've done on it, if you really think outside the box, is there some single facet that could potentially be turned into do-one-thing-well?

The product is ultimately n -facet, with each facet relying upon the same underlying core technology and principles. There's three conceptualized facets. Two of them are relatively easy to implement from a technical perspective, but are otherwise rendered very difficult by non-technical considerations. The facet I believe to have the widest appeal is paradoxically far harder to implement than the others in all respec…

What are you working on, if you don't mind me asking?

Re: Don't Start Big, Start a Little Snowball

#34

Post by thatcat »

andy_ppp wrote: post #32

I have this magical formula for building a startup that is 100% guaranteed to work, but no-one discusses. - Do something illegal, then lobby for your rights! - DDOS your competition - Be evil - Ignore regulations designed to protect your workforce (often referred to as 'partners', hah!) - Tell everyone you have a special insight in making successful startups - something to do with 'hustle' and 'product market fit' -…

>Take massive equity steaks

and over cook them

Re: Don't Start Big, Start a Little Snowball

#35

Post by Retra »

bbcbasic wrote: post #5
pjlegato wrote: post #4

This is somewhat interesting, but relies on the all too common tautological device of "hustle," a quasi-magical activity whose details are usually elided over. Start a small company. "Hustle" diligently for a while. Profit. Repeat. Now you have a large, successful company. What makes a successful company? "Hustle." What is "hustle"? Why, it just means "working hard at doing all the things that make a company successf…

Maybe Hustle is like a heuristic or genetic search. Trying random things picked up from other companies and mutating them and trying again until certain things seem to work based on metrics. Then doing more of those things.

You can sort a deck of cards by shuffling it if you have enough time.

Re: Don't Start Big, Start a Little Snowball

#36

Post by bbcbasic »

Retra wrote: post #35
bbcbasic wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe Hustle is like a heuristic or genetic search. Trying random things picked up from other companies and mutating them and trying again until certain things seem to work based on metrics. Then doing more of those things.

You can sort a deck of cards by shuffling it if you have enough time.

Your not trying to sort though. You are trying to optimise.

Re: Don't Start Big, Start a Little Snowball

#37

Post by cmillard »

andy_ppp wrote: post #32

I have this magical formula for building a startup that is 100% guaranteed to work, but no-one discusses. - Do something illegal, then lobby for your rights! - DDOS your competition - Be evil - Ignore regulations designed to protect your workforce (often referred to as 'partners', hah!) - Tell everyone you have a special insight in making successful startups - something to do with 'hustle' and 'product market fit' -…

I agree with your points- I can just see Elon Musk reading this from his Emperor Palpatine swivel chair- "Yes, let the hate flow through you!"

Re: Don't Start Big, Start a Little Snowball

#38

Post by bikamonki »

anthonygore wrote: post #31

The problem with articles and discussions like this is that the "markers of success" pointed out may all be true, but incidental. Take Slack as an example. Yes, it was a simple idea with low product surface area and easily protypeable etc etc. But other people had built Slack-like products before that met the all those same criteria and were not successful. The critical factors for Slack were the connections the foun…

Exactly. Timing is of utter importance. Yet, these packed formulas do help to increase the odds of success, don't you agree?

Re: Don't Start Big, Start a Little Snowball

#39

Post by cmillard »

While I don't know if my snow balls will go anywhere, one thing I've noticed is that many (most?) successful entrepreneurs have a high risk tolerance. I went to a meetup where Alan Grant (Hired) talked about his tolerance for risk- sometimes it even involved activities on his part that were a violation of TOS. The point is sometimes to do creative destruction you have to get your hands dirty. Try to maintain a "chaotic good" alignment if you will ;)

Re: Don't Start Big, Start a Little Snowball

#40

Post by bikamonki »

Sound and well written advice; however, I would add: don't expect your snowball to reach über size. There are tons of problems to solve/improve but the great majority of them have a small market size/potential. The big markets are too hard to disrupt.
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