It's not all b.s. but it's hard to sort the good from the bad. It's impossible to test out theories so you have to try lots of possibilities and hope for the best.
There are 2 basics that are part of every successful projects: hard work and luck. Anything else you have to evaluate and decide whether it's worth the risk in time and resources.
Most startup theory is ex-post, therefore bs
11–20 of 171 posts
Re: Most startup theory is ex-post, therefore bs
#12> Do you think Musk copied that strategy from the business school he never went to.
Elon Musk did his undergrad at Wharton.
I guess the statement might be true if you mean "business school" to strictly mean a graduate MBA program. But Musk definitely took business classes that would have been nearly identical to those taken by MBAs.
Re: Most startup theory is ex-post, therefore bs
#13> Or “Airbnb growth hacked Craigslist to link to their own website. And did you know that the founders lived with their users. You should do that, too!””
I was told by a founder that I was a first time founder (I am not) because I didn’t believe this strategy works anymore. He was basically mocking me for being so stupid to not know now growth hacking like this works.
And all the time I was thinking at the back of my head about how dogmatic his thinking was. What works 10 years ago doesn’t mean it still works today.
Copying other people’s strategy is the worst way to run a startup. By the time you have heard it, another 100 people probably heard it too and doing the same thing.
I agree with the post. Think for yourself. And definitely don’t talk down to other founders thinking you know better. Especially if you haven’t succeeded.
Re: Most startup theory is ex-post, therefore bs
#14Not all ex-post theories are BS. For example, I slam my hand in the drawer and theorize, "Slamming hands in drawers hurts; one should not do it." That theory is pretty solid. It doesn't cover all the edge cases, but following it is better than not following it. There are lots of startup theories that are equally solid, despite being ex-post. I know a startup that didn't pay payroll tax for a couple years, and it ende…
Not taking sides, but your example is a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man
fallacy.
Re: Most startup theory is ex-post, therefore bs
#15So true. Everyone and her grandmother is an armchair startup expert these days. WTF is a startup anyway. I’m building a new for-profit business enterprise, not a social i-have-one-too startup. Call it what it is.
Re: Most startup theory is ex-post, therefore bs
#16I'd agree that it's rarely a good idea to directly copy any other startup. It's probably good to hear many of their stories of success - maybe a few pieces of one or two will give you a great idea, or at least tend to make you think in the best ways.
Re: Most startup theory is ex-post, therefore bs
#17> Do you think Brian Chesky of Airbnb heard that strategy from a friend? I'm pretty sure he heard it from Paul Graham.
I'd be more interested in learning of what other startups used the same strategy and failed anyway.
Ultimately luck is a large portion of success.
Re: Most startup theory is ex-post, therefore bs
#18I'd agree that it's rarely a good idea to directly copy any other startup. It's probably good to hear many of their stories of success - maybe a few pieces of one or two will give you a great idea, or at least tend to make you think in the best ways.
That's exactly the point of my post!
Re: Most startup theory is ex-post, therefore bs
#19It's hard to test theories when the underlying system constantly changes like it does in economics. Something that works today might not work tomorrow. A theory that looks sound when applied to yesteryears data might stop working before the sun rises. When many others try to apply the same tricks that made you successful the cake on that table might suddenly be divided into so many pieces that everybody will go home hungry. You must find a new table with a new cake but old data and old theory doesn't help much with that because someone else is already there. You need to think fresh and unconventional or you need to squeeze blood out of stones harder than anybody else.
Physicists have it easy in comparison. One of the basic truths of natural science is that the laws of nature are independent of the observer and time and experiments can be repeated as many times as you like with the same results.
Re: Most startup theory is ex-post, therefore bs
#20> Or “Airbnb growth hacked Craigslist to link to their own website. And did you know that the founders lived with their users. You should do that, too!”” I was told by a founder that I was a first time founder (I am not) because I didn’t believe this strategy works anymore. He was basically mocking me for being so stupid to not know now growth hacking like this works. And all the time I was thinking at the back of my…
Agree. Recently listened to a podcast with Jason Fried where he made this point exactly. It's this IndieHacker episode here: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/105-jason-fried-of-base...
Edit: Corrected link