Airbnb and Tesla surely looked at other business models for success and modified or adapted it to their own. These theories can provide a framework to help people think through the problems without reinventing the wheel. On to the irony of the post: this post is giving advice “ignore advice think for yourself”. Bs.
Most startup theory is ex-post, therefore bs
161–170 of 171 posts
Re: Most startup theory is ex-post, therefore bs
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Whereas the prior on the validity of something like "early-stage founders should live with their customers" is much weaker. There's a pretty strong theoretical reason for that as well: startups succeed because they make something customers want; the more time the person making product decisions spends with times with customers, the more information they can gather about what the customers want; and the more the cus…
That’s an overly wide definition of living with your customers to be useful. Apple for example was selling people kit computers at the start, they did not really have much interaction with or feedback from their customers. Nor could they do much to adapt their product with customer feedback. I mean if all you mean is have even a tiny amount feedback from a few of your customers. That’s going to include almost every c…
Their first customers were microcomputer enthusiasts and both Steves were members of the Homebrew Computer club, and Woz built Apple I with continuous feedback from the club meetings.
I would argue that it's moving to the Apple II (were they suddenly lost this direct feedback because of the vast expansion of their customer base well beyond their reach.
Re: Most startup theory is ex-post, therefore bs
#163> 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.
He has an economics and physics degree, not business. Did he take business classes and read business books? Probably. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk
Wharton is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania. He went to business school and got and completed all the same business requirements everyone else has to take. I studied accounting at university along side finance, business administration, supply chain, and economics students. I'm sure there are plenty of schools who offer a degree just called "business," but most people have a specific business degree. I'm looking at the degree requirements right now, it's all the same stuff everyone has to take: marketing, management, logistics, stats, finance. Unless things were really different back then, an economics degree from Wharton is definitely a business degree.
Re: Most startup theory is ex-post, therefore bs
#164I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the QUT CAUSEE study. They actually did follow a group of early-stage startups, interviewing them each year and then afterwards looked at what factors predicted success or failure. Some of their results: - changing direction as a result of customer feedback (very, very good, one of the best predictors of success) - having an accountant (good) - having one parent born overseas (helpf…
...the only difference is that they got to success or failure faster.
To be fair though, that's a big difference. Wasting time on an idea that didn't work is one of my biggest regrets about my first startup. I'd like it to have failed much earlier.
Re: Most startup theory is ex-post, therefore bs
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
> "Slamming hands in drawers hurts; one should not do it." This is a fact and don't think this is what the author is trying to say. I guess he's more focused on the kind of theories which people throw around as some sort of self-evident truth, when in fact it's a personal truth which they learned through trial and error. But I guess there's a point in learning from some of these "self-evident" truths (this is more ra…
slamming your hands in drawers is also a personal experiment. I might be wearing a good set of gloves, and it won't hurt
There always has to be a balance between learning from other people's mistakes and making your own. However learning from the right people is important.
You wouldn't use avocadoes when a recipe asks for flour but in the start-up world, everyone seems to think that what works for the well-known successes will automatically work for them.
What really frustrates me (rant, rant... :)) is the notion that if I build, they will come. So so many of the start-ups I work with think that. What happened to people understanding basic business theory? Basic marketing theory would be useful but I don't hold out much hope for that!
Re: Most startup theory is ex-post, therefore bs
#166History is written by the victors.
Re: Most startup theory is ex-post, therefore bs
#167Don’t study success. The people who double their money by betting it all on black didn’t have some divine insight that you can copy, they just got lucky. But do study failure. The people who lose everything by betting it all on red did have a fatal flaw in their approach to risk that will be valuable for you to avoid or at least be well aware of.
One of the obvious faliures to study is that many great teams with great ideas failed to get any funding because they didn’t walk the startup walk or talk the startup talk with potential investors, which is exactly why you should talk about copying Tesla and about growth hacking.
Re: Most startup theory is ex-post, therefore bs
#168> 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.
He has an economics and physics degree, not business. Did he take business classes and read business books? Probably. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk
Economics falls under the business umbrella at most US universities. An Economics degree will almost certainly have included finance, accounting, and marketing classes. Some schools, like my own, don't even differentiate between majors on the granted degree - any students in any of those majors just get a BSBA despite the different focus.
Wharton is similar in that all undergrad degrees are in "economics" even though students still select a major.
Re: Most startup theory is ex-post, therefore bs
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'm surprised this blog post made the first page of HN given its lack of sources or analysis. Sometimes people will upvote articles not for the quality but for the discussion they will trigger.
This 100%. I sometimes upvote posts without even reading them because the comments are very interesting.
I guess the parent comment isn't very interesting...
Re: Most startup theory is ex-post, therefore bs
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why cut the writer so much slack? Musk went to business school period. Undergraduate, graduate doesn't matter. Doesn't matter what classes he took either. That is not what is talked about in the statement. Curious why it even matters what is written by the OP given such a glaring and easy to figure out wrong mistake.
According to the OPs response to one of my comments in this thread, this is just his opinion in a short blog post, so we should "deal with it." Doesnt particularly incline me to cut him any slack or to trust that his arguments are made with any sort of rigor at all - it's like there's no sound foundation to even start a debate or engage with what he wrote.
And that is even more remarkable considering what he is trying to do (K12 ed) read this:
What is really strange to me is how HN feasts on blog posts as if they were more special than a simple HN comment. And I do mean 'feast'.
And saying that in reply to you (just read the comments) shows no pride at all in what you are saying ie 'deal with it'.