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Don’t drink the startup Kool-Aid – just find a problem and try to solve it

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Re: Don’t drink the startup Kool-Aid – just find a problem and try to solve it

#31

Post by stcredzero »

nirvana wrote: post #19

The silicon valley Startup Kool-aid has a false dichotomy: You're either patio11[1], a "nobody" building a "lifestyle business" or you're making the next Instagram. Consequently we have a cargo cult mentality that has evolved. Lets compare these two: Location: "Obviously you need to be in Silicon Valley. This is where all the wannabe startup hipsters move to!" I mean, you can't go to a coffeeshop without hearing a ha…

> I've seen VCs force product direction based on fads, and force the use of inappropriate technologies (provided by a company they had a relationship with, naturally) which caused product delay and ultimately a significant reduction in the value of the company on exit.

Funny, but I've seen BigCo bosses force product direction based on fads, and force the use of inappropriate technologies (provided by a company they had a relationship with, naturally) which caused product delay and ultimately a significant reduction in the value of the product.

Pointy hair is as pointy hair does.

It's not just bosses, either. Here's part of a conversation I just had with someone "knowledgeable about design."

     "You've got to change the appearance of that by doing X, Y, and Z."

     "Really? Do you know what the functionality of those things are?"

     "...No."
There's fame and money here in SF. Where those two are, shallowness follows.

Re: Don’t drink the startup Kool-Aid – just find a problem and try to solve it

#32

Post by tylermauthe »

nirvana wrote: post #30
finnh wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This will come across as rude, but I don't think there's such a thing as an "ideas guy". Every person I know who says that is covering for a lack of attention to detail and a general inability to get shit done. Maybe there's a rarefied world of amazing CEOs who spin off amazing ideas every 10 minutes, and then legions of people go do them ... but I doubt it. And you're probably not going to get to that job without a…

Or, put another way, I'm an ideas guy. So is my co-founder. Both of us have really good ideas, pretty regularly. But that's not my job in our startup-- I'm in charge of engineering. My cofounder does design & marketing, and we split a lot of the CEO stuff. People say ideas are worthless, but that's not always true- I've seen worthless ideas and really valuable ones both. I think what you're reacting to, and what the…

"but they still don't yet know what they really want to do with their life" | -> exactly this. So until I do figure that bit out, I'm gonna keep my eyes open and make like a sponge.

Additionally, I used to think that being the "ideas guy" was valuable... I think there is a general understanding among average people that being first-to-market is THE driving force behind successful brands. After numerous business and entrepreneurship classes at university and reading many case studies of businesses; I have come to the realization that (of course) anybody can have an idea: it's the execution that matters.

I guess what I'm trying to acknowledge or convey is that we know not what we do. Us noobs, who are invading and "hipster"-izing this community.

So please, guide us! Love us, that we may love you back...

But posting articles detesting hipsters won't help, since a hipster never considers themselves a hipster. (and they will just agree with your article "Damn those hipsters!")

Re: Don’t drink the startup Kool-Aid – just find a problem and try to solve it

#33

Post by incision »

jackkinsella wrote: post #3

Small online business owner here, chiming in. I believe the overuse of the word startup comes from a certain kind of pretentiousness, a want to associate one's own small-business, small-market, technically trivial, mom-and-pop online business with world leaders like Facebook and Google. Making the linguistic link is good for the founder's ego, and even better for convincing naïve investors to fund barely viable visio…

"Let's get realistic here - building a web app or an Iphone app these days is no more high-tech than a mechanic fixing your broken car."

I think high-tech folks tend to underestimate what it takes to be a mechanic.

Re: Don’t drink the startup Kool-Aid – just find a problem and try to solve it

#34

Post by greenyoda »

josscrowcroft wrote: post #12

Fantastic writing style in this post - it somehow jumps out of the page, not sure how to describe it. Congrats. Only time I ever felt like giving up on my latest venture[1] was when I started trying to view it as a "startup" and thereby compared it to other "startups". I got really depressed for a week or so trying to be a "startup guy", which thankfully I didn't become. It was like the goals of the business (provide…

I looked at openexchangerates.org and it looks like a very useful service (real time exchange rates via a JSON API) that people would actually pay for. But there already seem to be other businesses competing in this space. I'm curious as to what advantages you provide compared to sites like xurrency.com or exchangerate-api.com.

Re: Don’t drink the startup Kool-Aid – just find a problem and try to solve it

#35

Post by dasil003 »

incision wrote: post #33
jackkinsella wrote: post #3

Small online business owner here, chiming in. I believe the overuse of the word startup comes from a certain kind of pretentiousness, a want to associate one's own small-business, small-market, technically trivial, mom-and-pop online business with world leaders like Facebook and Google. Making the linguistic link is good for the founder's ego, and even better for convincing naïve investors to fund barely viable visio…

"Let's get realistic here - building a web app or an Iphone app these days is no more high-tech than a mechanic fixing your broken car." I think high-tech folks tend to underestimate what it takes to be a mechanic.

Perhaps, but the analogy is not all bad. After all, there's a lot to know about making web or iPhone apps. You might pick up the basics fast enough, but if you don't know what you're doing it's liable to blow up down the road.

Re: Don’t drink the startup Kool-Aid – just find a problem and try to solve it

#36

Post by finnh »

nirvana wrote: post #30
finnh wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This will come across as rude, but I don't think there's such a thing as an "ideas guy". Every person I know who says that is covering for a lack of attention to detail and a general inability to get shit done. Maybe there's a rarefied world of amazing CEOs who spin off amazing ideas every 10 minutes, and then legions of people go do them ... but I doubt it. And you're probably not going to get to that job without a…

Or, put another way, I'm an ideas guy. So is my co-founder. Both of us have really good ideas, pretty regularly. But that's not my job in our startup-- I'm in charge of engineering. My cofounder does design & marketing, and we split a lot of the CEO stuff. People say ideas are worthless, but that's not always true- I've seen worthless ideas and really valuable ones both. I think what you're reacting to, and what the…

Well said. I think that I would be shy of describing myself as an "ideas guy" simply because of the experience I've had with people who describe themselves that way.

But I appreciate your more nuanced interpretation of both the phrase and the parent's intention.

Looking back at the vantage point of my own 10 year old "startup" - oops, I mean "small SaaS software business" - I can certainly point to a couple good ideas that took about 5 years' execution apiece =)

To put it all another way:

If some young person said to me "I'm an ideas guy", that would probably be the end of my taking them seriously

If that same young person said to me "I've got a lot of good ideas - I think - but I'm not sure of my ability to make them happen", then I would respond very differently.

Re: Don’t drink the startup Kool-Aid – just find a problem and try to solve it

#38

Post by einhverfr »

nirvana wrote: post #19

The silicon valley Startup Kool-aid has a false dichotomy: You're either patio11[1], a "nobody" building a "lifestyle business" or you're making the next Instagram. Consequently we have a cargo cult mentality that has evolved. Lets compare these two: Location: "Obviously you need to be in Silicon Valley. This is where all the wannabe startup hipsters move to!" I mean, you can't go to a coffeeshop without hearing a ha…

One of the big things I have come to conclude is that the best idea is one which is both scalable and doesn't need VC funding to get going. One can then take one's time, think about the drawbacks and benefits of VC money, and decide which is the right way to go.

I consider my business to be moving from self-employment mode to start-up mode, but I am not at all sure that I want to be a "start-up" in VC terms because this has a very specific meaning there. The meaning is "this is the stage before acquisition or IPO" and therefore it locks you into the VC exit strategy. I would like to be a start-up in the sense that W. L. Gore and Associates was in 1958....

Re: Don’t drink the startup Kool-Aid – just find a problem and try to solve it

#39

Post by skyhook_mockups »

josscrowcroft wrote: post #12

Fantastic writing style in this post - it somehow jumps out of the page, not sure how to describe it. Congrats. Only time I ever felt like giving up on my latest venture[1] was when I started trying to view it as a "startup" and thereby compared it to other "startups". I got really depressed for a week or so trying to be a "startup guy", which thankfully I didn't become. It was like the goals of the business (provide…

ahhh please don't give up on openexchangerates.org, it's an awesome service which I'd be happy to pay for.

Re: Don’t drink the startup Kool-Aid – just find a problem and try to solve it

#40

Post by einhverfr »

finnh wrote: post #27
personlurking wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work for a 4 yr old startup. I'm an ideas guy but I didn't have the idea for the startup I work for, I merely do administrative projects for it. Nonetheless, I have to be careful how I word things. About a month ago, I was at a meetup which had nothing to do with technology or the internet but I ran into a guy who was throwing out some buzzwords. The point came early on when he asked me what I do, and I really didn…

This will come across as rude, but I don't think there's such a thing as an "ideas guy". Every person I know who says that is covering for a lack of attention to detail and a general inability to get shit done. Maybe there's a rarefied world of amazing CEOs who spin off amazing ideas every 10 minutes, and then legions of people go do them ... but I doubt it. And you're probably not going to get to that job without a…

I think real ideas guys get stuff done too. You can;t get good, practicable ideas without doing stuff. That;s the nature of the beast.

I get lots of good ideas because I do stuff. Many of those ideas I will never be able to follow up on and so I share them. After all, if my ideas help someone become successful, that is better than letting them die because I can;t get it done myself. Moreover maybe it helps build relationships with other businesses.

Ideas without hands-on experience invariably suck.

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