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Billion Dollar Startup Ideas [video]

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Re: Billion Dollar Startup Ideas [video]

#51

just a friendly reminder that you do not need to build a billion dollar startup to achieve wealth & status. sometimes building something that makes 1-2mn a year is the right move.

I made this video and agree with this comment! Not everyone needs to make a billion dollar startup.

Re: Billion Dollar Startup Ideas [video]

#52

Can anyone recommend one of these local event apps he was talking about? Been looking for one for a while, i actually considered making one.

I think most local newspapers have about as good as one as any. Facebook Events also has largely filled this.

As a Y Combinator partner for five years, it never failed that some hundreds of applications every single time were for local events startups.

Re: Billion Dollar Startup Ideas [video]

#53

[dead]

Oh you are super right about customer acquisition. That matters a ton! You should see some of my other videos that touch on that.

But I do think picking an idea from direct experience seems to work extra well, having funded hundreds of startups and seen what works and what doesn't.

Re: Billion Dollar Startup Ideas [video]

#54
post #17

Haven't watched the whole thing yet, but I will push back on some of the popular mythology that everyone thought successful startups we're just toys or would fail in their early days. IMO that's mostly bullshit. Amazon, Google, Uber, Facebook (despite some cherry picked article from the video about it never being able to hit profitability) were all hugely popular right off the bat, and indeed, many people saw them as…

MySpace was massive when Facebook was a year or two old. I had accounts on both and MySpace looked way more attractive compared to FB (it had the feel of Instagram). So no, FB did not take over overnight. And even a few years into FB, no one (yes, no one) knew that FB will go past MySpace and there will simply be no comparison between the two 10 or 15 years down the road. When FB took over MySpace a full FOUR years i…

Hm, I think it's pretty well known why Facebook won. Far deeper networks, far better engagement. Look up the work the Facebook Growth team did.

Re: Billion Dollar Startup Ideas [video]

#55
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly!! I always wondered why it took so many years for someone to figure out a revenue model for couchsurfing ('couchsurfing' website started in 2003 and AirBnB in 2008). AirBnB is just that (atleast at start)

Actually there is no fundamental difference between VRBO.com and Airbnb.com, with VRBO predating Airbnb by a lot, except for a more slick execution. Edit: Per Wikipedia VRBO was launched in 1995.

If you looked at the user experiences of the two sites, they couldn't be more different.

User experience and design matters a lot.

Re: Billion Dollar Startup Ideas [video]

#57

I'd like to offer a counterpoint to starting a billion dollar startup, instead of trying your best to be a billionaire - you can pursue multiple small bets that can pay you better than your current full time job. That way you don't have to sacrifice your interests for financial independence. I spent the last 2 years working on a research heavy startup that I felt would change game development forever, it was hard fro…

Exactly this, I have no interest in starting and running a billion dollar company (assuming it was something I was able to do), the stress involved must be incredible and the odds of success, tiny. I have a small saas company that nets me a little over a 1k / month and has done so for the last 5 years. The only work I have to do is send an invoice each month. So maybe an hour of work per year. I wish I had 5 or 6 of these and I would just live and do whatever I felt like each day.

Re: Billion Dollar Startup Ideas [video]

#58
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually there is no fundamental difference between VRBO.com and Airbnb.com, with VRBO predating Airbnb by a lot, except for a more slick execution. Edit: Per Wikipedia VRBO was launched in 1995.

Same with stackoverflow. I remember thinking when reading Joel saying they were doing this "what's the point, I can find answers on the web already"

Joel said from the beginning that their goal was to kill Experts Exchange, which at the time was a scammy site that used dark patterns to lure people into paying for answers, but still popped up all the time on Google. And although I often found my question posted on other forums, I swear that half the time the only response was "Never mind I figured it out" or "Just Google it."

Re: Billion Dollar Startup Ideas [video]

#59

Haven't watched the whole thing yet, but I will push back on some of the popular mythology that everyone thought successful startups we're just toys or would fail in their early days. IMO that's mostly bullshit. Amazon, Google, Uber, Facebook (despite some cherry picked article from the video about it never being able to hit profitability) were all hugely popular right off the bat, and indeed, many people saw them as…

All this hoo haa about startup ideas - Just make products that excel at every aspect of what it does and make sure there is a demand for such a product. I see people making a better soap dispenser, the hardware equivalent of what most SaaS startups are working on. You need to invent a new kind of soap that is better than anything else out there. It should take the grime off of everything from kitchen to bathroom scum…

I've actually funded 9 unicorns in the past 8 years and work with startups at the earliest possible stage, writing checks of $1M to $5M. And I give this advice away for free, because I find those "get rich quick" guides to be totally misleading.

I'm doing YouTube mainly to directly get the things I think work for founders out to people, just to help. So, I'm with you— but you have to understand my intention for the videos is to be something very different than those millionaire books.

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