191–200 of 239 posts
One thing I've noticed that has generated a ton of ideas, particularly within the hospital setting I'm in, is to listen to all the questions staff members ask one another. Who's doing that? When's this happening? How do I do that? etc. They're all seemingly mundane questions that get asked on a daily basis, but they give you great insight to the daily frustrations that people have come to accept (that's why they're b…
from the article, pg: "Whereas the activation energy required to switch to a new search engine is low. Which in turn is why search engines are so much better than enterprise software." is that last sentence a joke? if yes, i think it is too subtle, a lot of dry sponges would soak it up. if it's NOT a joke... ummmm... wtf?
I'm wondering if the reasoning that you should build a startup based on your own needs is applicable to ideas that have already been solved abroad and will not be imported in your country for some time. We don't live all in the Silicon Valley and people feel the same needs all over the world. Let's take the Stripe example. I live in Italy and I would use their product right now. Too bad they are not here and will not…
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/the-samwer-brot...
In 1999, they founded Alando, a German clone of the online auction house Ebay. Only 100 days later, they sold the company to Ebay for about $50 million (€38 million), making them legends early in their careers. Later on, they became involved with Jamba, StudiVZ, Citydeal, Groupon, Facebook, Parship, eDarling, MyVideo, Wimdu, HelloFresh, GlossyBox, Zalando and many other Internet up-and-comers.
Having exited earlier this year from the start up I co-founded, I've been thinking a lot about this lately as I weigh up what to do next. We arrived at our start-up idea 10 years ago in much the way pg says you should, which was more by accident and serendipity more than anything else. So, I can vouch for the veracity of his advice. I came across the following quote by William S. Burroughs recently: Happiness is a by…
With regard to serendipity, I like to point to the fact that you cannot win a game of chance if you are not playing.
Similar to the advice you read on "creating your own luck", you need to put yourself in situations where "serendipity" can happen more easily. In other words, if you want to become an actor, move to L.A. If you want to work in Finance, hang out in Wall Street, etc. There are of course no guarantees, and of course you can become an actor without living in L.A., and a financial analyst without being on wall street.
If you walk through a bad neighborhood by yourself late at night with a George Costanza like wallet bulging in your back pocket, you increase your chances of being mugged. It won't happen every time, but you are certainly "tempting fate".
So, "walk" in "neighborhoods" where you tempt fate in your favor. Go to meetups. Volunteer at organizations where people are trying to solve important problems. Ask people you find interesting to go for a coffee. Socialize with small business owners. Contribute to open source projects.
There is an interesting Forbes article on "The Four Essential Personality Traits Of Every Entrepreneur", one of which is "Luck-Dominant":
"...luck-dominant founders—which make up more than 25% of founders in the authors’ studies—are men and women whose positivity and intellectual curiosity create circumstances where a positive outcome is more likely. In other words, “they’re lucky by attitude, not by fate.”
(link to article: http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2012/10/11/the-fo...)
The comment about the social network for pet owners made me think of this, which actually turns out to be quite a good idea I think: http://abovethecrowd.com/2012/11/13/our-most-recent-marketpl... "DogVacay is an online marketplace that links dog owners with passionate dog care providers who open up their own home as an alternative to the traditional cage-oriented kennel."
DogVacay is not a social network for pet owners, nor do they seem to want to be one, thankfully. DogVacay is really good at one thing - finding me dog owners who can take care of my dog better than a random professional kennel (and usually for less money). They are a marketplace disrupting the unsexy kennel business by taking advantage of the subtle facts that almost no dog owner likes kennels, most of them would trust another dog owner more than one, and that many dog owners (and even people without pets) and their dogs would actually enjoy hosting someone else's pet for a few days. I don't even do it for the money.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not to be too adversarial, but what problem was incredibly painful to you? Couldn't choose a movie? Couldn't choose a suitable couples movie? Medical diagnostics, OTOH, could avoid a painpoint involving death - so that's an easier pitch.
See if you can follow this: Ratings are a form of feedback. Feedback helps people learn. Therefore, if we can build a better rating system that lets people share more and better feedback, then we can speed up learning and improve the flow and evolution of ideas. Also, this system wasn't designed for movies, it was designed for answers on Quora. Movies are just a better beachhead.
Listening to stories (or watching them, as the case may be) is a usually enjoyable experience - which is why we choose to listen and even pay for the opportunity to listen to a really good story from a really good storyteller. All of the "pain points" around this process have been thoroughly addressed: it's easy to discover movies, buy tickets, download to your computer, get reviews, write reviews. Even the watching experience itself has been improved with 3D (although this is open to debate) and better sound, even things like IMAX and more experimental experiences e.g. Star Tours at Disneyland. There are some places in the world where they even serve food and drink during the movie (or at least during an intermission).
The biggest pain people feel about movies is dealing with the proliferation of choice. It doesn't seem to me that there is an underserved market of people who would see more movies if only they knew about the good ones.
Imagine, if you will, your own personal Heaven. Presumably storytelling and movies are still happening. What is the heavenly, perfect movie-going experience? Does the movie take over your visual cortex? Are movies recommended by God - or indeed, created by Him to perfectly stimulate your mind in the way He knows you like? Does your reaction telepathically propagate to everyone else in Heaven? (Is telepathic propagation connectionless? I suppose that's another thread).
Are you all applying for YCombinator? There's so much effusive praise for Paul. ;)
He mentions 3 basic factors: the founders want it, they can build it, and it goes un-noticed.
"Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo, Google, and Facebook all began this way."
I agree with this premise, and he backs up the 1st point really well.
The 2nd point isn't really worth arguing. Ya, you've got to have product.
What was disconcerting to me was that he went after the pet websites. It made me laugh a bit.
As someone who used to work for Dogster.com and Catster.com which were both successful niche websites that were profitable and sold to "Say Media," I'd have to say no to this:
'The danger of an idea like this is that when you run it by your friends with pets, they don't say "I would never use this." ...Sum that reaction across the entire population, and you have zero users.'
Zero users is simply false. Dogster.com still has the kind of usage that isn't the home run Paul is looking for in his investments, but it is sustainable.
The 3rd point about not-noticing has two excpetions: Hegel and PayPal. Let's stick to the second. Elon Musk noticed it from the very start as a competitor running what was then also a payment system known as X.com. I think when he added his startup DNA into the mix, although it led to an employee revolt and his ouster, it made PayPal stronger. This is where Hegel comes in: the dialectic of history is a pattern that can be seen everywhere, even in startups, but that's another blog post.
This is a spectacular essay. PG is dead-on correct here. In fact, one of the strongest reactions I had while reading it just now was "Shhh Paul, you're giving away the secret!" :) And this doesn't just apply to tech startups... The business I currently run (an exotic car rental company) started out precisely as described -- it was an idea I had to solve a problem I was facing (I wanted to rent a super-fancy car to dr…