221–230 of 243 posts
(This got published a little early because it got indexed. I'm still going through and fixing some typos and will maybe add a few other things.)
I wish there was a similar level and quality of resources for what I think are called lifestyle businesses. By that, I mean product-based businesses with at most a few million in revenue, a 5ish person team, a solid sustainable market position, and no desire to revolutionize any unicorns. I know a lot of people attempting this and they mostly seem to be flying under the radar, or at least have nowhere near the cachet…
That's my business. 2 partners (me: President and Founder, partner: CEO who I hired), 4 employees, and 2-3 at-will contractors for sporadic work. Revenue barely $1MM but growing, probably to $4-5MM in 3 years. Really love what I do and happy to be out of the BS VC silicon valley groupthink crap.
If you have a 6 man company with titles like "President and Founder" and "CEO", you're buying into the SV groupthink a little.
Outside of SV, in the world of small/medium business (for which I've consulted), I don't think I've ever heard the title "CEO". Meanwhile, I've gone to tech conferences and have seen sole-proprietors refer to themselves as the CEO.
Wow, thanks for the advice, why didn't I think of that.
I have a really hard time buying a lot of this about how novelty and monopoly are keys to a successful company. If you look at the really successful startups, especially unicorns, almost none of them are actually monopolies or new ideas. The vast, vast majority are old products done right, and almost all of them have very substantial competition. This attitude is, in fact, encompassed in the near footnote-like sectio…
Novel does not mean no competition--there's always competition, even for breakthrough technologies. Even the telephone had to compete with telegraphs or snail mail. The novelty comes in the way an existing need is met. From your list, Uber competes against taxis to transport people short distances. Airbnb competes against hotels to provide short term housing to travelers. Dropbox competed against flash drive to trans…
A monopoly has economic control of the supply of a good or service, no competition and hence pricing power.
Having "significant market share" and zero pricing power in an intensely competitive market is not a monopoly, regardless of how SV has decided to co-opt the word.
Okay, I've been researching and reaching out to various entities for, well, going on a couple years now regarding my "start-up" concept of a company that creates some inventions, brings to market, and licenses technology as another revenue stream. Yes, it's not a software-oriented business, but it's a viable entity with multiple prospects. Thus, the following line doesn't really ring true to me: > One important count…
This might sound harsh, but nothing you've said has indicated to me that you idea is actually one of those new and hard startups. Developing foo technology with a business model of licensing it is pretty derivative. The hard problems are in bringing technology products to market.
>The hard problems are in bringing technology products to market.
That's exactly my point - investors and the start-up community isn't interested in actual hard problems. It's more infatuated with SaaS or wearable devices, rather than actual products/inventions which have a traditional path of inception-growth-profit. Basically you've backed into making my point in a way.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's great. This has been my life, finding the easy wins, and when they stop working, moving on to the next. This is one of the points that characterize me as soft.
What do you mean by "characterize me as soft"?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sort of similar: micheleincalifornia.blogspot.in/2014/03/i-love-lucy-lifestyle-business-that.html
Interesting post, but I am not too sure that it is that similar to my post :)
I wish there was a similar level and quality of resources for what I think are called lifestyle businesses. By that, I mean product-based businesses with at most a few million in revenue, a 5ish person team, a solid sustainable market position, and no desire to revolutionize any unicorns. I know a lot of people attempting this and they mostly seem to be flying under the radar, or at least have nowhere near the cachet…
Self-belief in a crazy idea is not enough. Obviously Sam wouldn't disagree with this sentiment, but many entrepreneurs seem to omit the step of proving to themselves that their idea is not crazy, or they suffer from confirmation bias.