The 80/20 Rule of Technical Founders
softwarebyrob.com
The 80/20 Rule of Technical Founders
1–10 of 28 posts
Re: The 80/20 Rule of Technical Founders
#2I'm printing this out and putting it up on my wall.
"Our best estimates put the number of developers in the world at around 5 million."
It would be nice to see how they got that estimate but for arguments sake, I still like where the breakdown is going.
Re: The 80/20 Rule of Technical Founders
#3Hmmm, I smell a general case...
Our best estimates put the number of x in the world at around y.
Applying the 80/20 rule you can estimate:
Of those, 20% (y(.2)) want to z
Of those, 20% (y(.2)(.2)) have enough motivation to start educating themselves about the process
Of those, 20% (y(.2)(.2)(.2)) will actually start building something
Of those, 20% (y(.2)(.2)(.2)(.2)) will actually finish building something
Of those, 20% (y(.2)(.2)(.2)(.2)(.2)) have prepared themselves enough to achieve some measure of success
Re: The 80/20 Rule of Technical Founders
#4well, i've made it to the 40,000 group
Re: The 80/20 Rule of Technical Founders
#5It would be great if some enterprising designer created a poster out of this concept with some cool graphic depicting a sequence of sieves. Going further I think that you could create an entire collection of Hacker News posters that would find a ready audience.
Re: The 80/20 Rule of Technical Founders
#6I wonder if the category you are really looking for is building something that people want and like. Seems like if you have something that people really like that making money from it will come with time.
Re: The 80/20 Rule of Technical Founders
#7Don't worry if you get 'filtered' out at any step along the way. You'll learn something new that will prepare you for your next attempt. Learning is progress and you'll probably be able to push through to the next barrier. Just keep going and push a little further each time.
When I look back, I see a very clear pattern of working my way through this funnel. A decade ago, I dropped an idea in an early stage because the consulting $ was too good. Five years ago I built a product, but was nervous to release it because it wasn't "perfect". Last week I launched a product at Startup Riot and had a blast. It was an awesome experience.
Remember Edison. With each attempt, you get closer to success.
Re: The 80/20 Rule of Technical Founders
#8Of those, 20% (8,000) will actually finish building something
Hey now, we can't all be Edsger Dijkstra.
Re: The 80/20 Rule of Technical Founders
#9I'm very skeptical. I see no reason why all these factors should be the same, nor a good method of measuring any of the variables mentioned. I doubt there's any evidence to suggest that such a ratio exists, or that its effects are visible against the small minority of entrepreneurs who succeed because they are "lucky".
Re: The 80/20 Rule of Technical Founders
#10In other words, the current economic system is a brutal primitive jungle where only a tiny minority like Tom Cruise and Dana White get an insanely unequal share. The only start up potential left is the biological equivalent of parasitism and the illegal like streaming movies without permission, using shady yard sign advertising, tricking people with viral advertising schemes and such. What am I supposed to do, take an existing product and put a clock in it? The market is saturated and the existing players compete for the shelf space while trying to buy laws that make reselling their stuff illegal. Any software I could make is already available free and open source. The masses get to work at the mini dictatorships of McDonald's and Walmart.