Why you should choose an ambitious startup idea
gabrielweinberg.com
Why you should choose an ambitious startup idea
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Re: Why you should choose an ambitious startup idea
#2Based on a lot of data, I'd say he's right. It's harder to work on an ambitious idea, but not proportionately harder.
Re: Why you should choose an ambitious startup idea
#3Based on a lot of data, I'd say he's right. It's harder to work on an ambitious idea, but not proportionately harder.
I think he is somewhat right. I do not think you can go directly after large markets. Most successful companies have gone for small markets that then disrupted large markets. I'm (100M exits are not that great for the record!).
Re: Why you should choose an ambitious startup idea
#4Based on a lot of data, I'd say he's right. It's harder to work on an ambitious idea, but not proportionately harder.
Actually, once one proves herself with some success it becomes easier to dare to focus on harder ideas. I see the signs of that at PG or Google's Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Once having tasted success, they feel anything is doable and possible. For the majority of start-up entrepreneurs, just succeeding the first time is the hard problem and requires ambition.
Re: Why you should choose an ambitious startup idea
#5Based on a lot of data, I'd say he's right. It's harder to work on an ambitious idea, but not proportionately harder.
Actually, once one proves herself with some success it becomes easier to dare to focus on harder ideas. I see the signs of that at PG or Google's Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Once having tasted success, they feel anything is doable and possible. For the majority of start-up entrepreneurs, just succeeding the first time is the hard problem and requires ambition.
That's true, but external encouragement can speed up this process. That's a large part of the raison d'etre of YC in fact. We encourage founders and so do the other founders.
Re: Why you should choose an ambitious startup idea
#6It depends on your life circumstances.
I think it's easy to choose an ambitious startup once you have a success under your belt, and aren't worried about paying the bills (ie. have a small exit/cushion already).
On the other hand, if you still got to pay the bills, and have a family, it makes sense to pursue a smaller idea that doesn't require $10 million in venture capital, or a team of 20 people.
You say that you can start small, and go big.. but I'm not so sure many people here have the luxury on working on any project for 2+ years, and still not have any profit to show for it. It makes more sense once you have some cushion as OP does with his first success.
Re: Why you should choose an ambitious startup idea
#7Based on a lot of data, I'd say he's right. It's harder to work on an ambitious idea, but not proportionately harder.
Where can that data be found if it is publicly available?
Re: Why you should choose an ambitious startup idea
#8Based on a lot of data, I'd say he's right. It's harder to work on an ambitious idea, but not proportionately harder.
Where can that data be found if it is publicly available?
you could infer it from the number of employees and the size of the exit, adjusted by the age of the company. This will roughly give you a dollar earned per person-year, assuming that person-years are fungible (they aren't) and will not tell you about chance of success -- but would be interesting nonetheless.
Re: Why you should choose an ambitious startup idea
#9It depends on your life circumstances. I think it's easy to choose an ambitious startup once you have a success under your belt, and aren't worried about paying the bills (ie. have a small exit/cushion already). On the other hand, if you still got to pay the bills, and have a family, it makes sense to pursue a smaller idea that doesn't require $10 million in venture capital, or a team of 20 people. You say that you c…
That's true, and also brings in the question why rich people don't (typically) start ambitious startups with all their money. Elon Musk is an opposite example however; all his projects being something really big and ambitious on blue ocean markets. There would be so much to explore beyond making the next twitter, but it seems that people aren't just crazy enough.
Re: Why you should choose an ambitious startup idea
#10It depends on your life circumstances. I think it's easy to choose an ambitious startup once you have a success under your belt, and aren't worried about paying the bills (ie. have a small exit/cushion already). On the other hand, if you still got to pay the bills, and have a family, it makes sense to pursue a smaller idea that doesn't require $10 million in venture capital, or a team of 20 people. You say that you c…
Exactly, would Gabriel have been able to start DDG without the money from selling NamesDatabase (or other private money)? I think a lot of these guys who have "made it" forget how difficult resources can be for the rest of us, especially when talking about webscale projects.