To the extent that people use the word startup to mean, "Er, I made some web pages, maybe a little glue code in Ruby, etc., and it has a purty design and single toy barely-a-feature feature", yes, the word startup is being devalued. Wake me when there's a real business there, making money, and it lasts for more than a few months. Investor money is also dangerous because it's much easier to create a sort of shake-and-bake business, out of nothing, purely on investor money, as opposed to bootstrapping and growing off of real customer revenue.
The thousands of startups today that are pitching...
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Re: The thousands of startups today that are pitching...
#12If you think that participating in a startup event is building a startup you're highly mistaken. The reason to join a startup event is primarily meeting great people, networking, and taking advantage of the PR inherent in the event. The point is not to 'win' the event, the point is to hustle, code, market, and pitch.
I'm doing startup bus right now, and my team is excellent. We are Answer in 30 if you're interested. We don't go into the pitches expecting an offer, we go into the pitches to spread the word in the community, increase awareness, and meet people we can use in the future when we're in a better position. Of course we wouldn't turn the right offer down. It's unrealistic to think that you'll get an offer after 48 hours. However, if you can generate interest you should take advantage of it. My co-founder Margaux and I remarked today how wonderful it was to get 4 hours of sleep. We're taking full advantage of Startup Bus and SXSW to promote, pitch, and generate interest. We've interviewed at least 50 people for our startup (video answers to questons in under 30 seconds) at any time in the day we're driving the startup forward. And we'll never stop.
Even this post has potential to raise awareness. I have a feeling your perspective of the individuals involved derives from media and not from being a part of a startup event. If you'd like to know what my co-founder and I think I'll try to make a point to respond to this thread. But we've got a busy schedule including 4 hours of rehearsal tomorrow for a 5 minute pitch. We're dedicated and realistic that we may not receive an offer, but we're going to try, and if we fail we will pick ourselves up and try again. Startups are an ethos not an event.
We're pitching with blue hair, we're both burners, we created a 2 person team when most had 4 to 5, and some 9. We're out and about talking to our userbase, the spirit of rebellion is alive and well. We believe in the idea and will see it through the entire lifecycle. Startups die when the founders give up.
There are just as many amazing startups out there as was X years ago, it's just the noise floor is higher now. When we interviewed every startup on startup bus we were surprised how many people said that whether they'd continue was dependent on what the judges thought. It never even factored into our decision.
Re: The thousands of startups today that are pitching...
#13Ha ha ha... isn't this the guy that deleted his AngelList account? Maybe the reason he's getting swamped with pre-revenue startups is because he's locked himself off from funding ones with actual revenues. You know... by people who think their high-growth businesses should be valued at more than 10x revenues. What Bryce doesn't seem to understand is that viable businesses no longer need his money. He wants entreprene…
As someone who has met and done business with Bryce...you couldn't be more wrong in your assessment.
Re: The thousands of startups today that are pitching...
#14There have always been startups whose first products seemed like quick hacks (including some that went on to be extremely successful). There have always been startups that seemed more derivative than inspired. (And a few of these turned out to be revolutionary, because even if 98% of the idea was a ripoff, the last 2% was based on a deep understanding of the product being 'copied' that nobody, especially pundits, und…
I'm not sure the author is questioning the quality of startups. He's just reminding everyone about the goal of starting a business, not a website.
You're absolutely right, the author is frustrated. It's because many startups have innovative technical visions but no clear business model. The stand outs have both, right?
Re: The thousands of startups today that are pitching...
#15Ha ha ha... isn't this the guy that deleted his AngelList account? Maybe the reason he's getting swamped with pre-revenue startups is because he's locked himself off from funding ones with actual revenues. You know... by people who think their high-growth businesses should be valued at more than 10x revenues. What Bryce doesn't seem to understand is that viable businesses no longer need his money. He wants entreprene…
As someone who has met and done business with Bryce...you couldn't be more wrong in your assessment.
I'm not assessing anyone's character. Just observing a guy take repeated potshots at AngelList/entrepreneurs and wonder why he's getting pitched crap. The blog speaks for itself. If you're his friend maybe you should stage an intervention and take away his keyboard for a week.
Re: The thousands of startups today that are pitching...
#16As a student interested in entrepreneurship, I get this feeling all the time. Teachers and profs will tell you if you have a good idea to pitch it at the University's Big Ideas/PowerPitch/NextBigThing program and see if you can get the approval of a board of investors mixed with business professors. Not a single teacher has ever straight up told me to go and start a business directly. I think something you will see i…
Couldn't agree more.
starting a company as part of an entrepreneurial class is not entrepreneurial. Why? Because you were told to innovate. You just followed orders. [1]
[1] http://blog.fairsoftware.net/2010/06/10/will-you-be-a-great-...
Re: The thousands of startups today that are pitching...
#17A startup weekend is just about startup ideas. There is more and more "startup ideas" competition but "startup" is about long term execution.