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Why have I failed?

blog.bahadir.io

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Re: Why have I failed?

#41

Post by tinco »

> do not write a 100 page business plan does not mean don't write it at all

Who advices against a 100 page business plan? Is there something wrong with it? (besides spending too much time on planning?) if you could write 100 pages about your domain, wouldn't that be a good thing?

As a foreigner looking at the US I sometimes get the feeling a lot of SV startups don't work with a business plan at all, is that customary?

Shouldn't any startup at least make an 8 section business plan? (summary, idea, team, marketing, business system / organization, schedule, risks, finance).

Re: Why have I failed?

#42

Post by ntkachov »

tinco wrote: post #41

> do not write a 100 page business plan does not mean don't write it at all Who advices against a 100 page business plan? Is there something wrong with it? (besides spending too much time on planning?) if you could write 100 pages about your domain, wouldn't that be a good thing? As a foreigner looking at the US I sometimes get the feeling a lot of SV startups don't work with a business plan at all, is that customary…

The idea, from what I understand, is that a 100 page business plan is ultimately wasted time as a good chunk of that will change very quickly. So rather than writing 100 pages of, what will inevitably become obsolete, you should write a shorter one and focus on actually creating the business.

Re: Why have I failed?

#43

Post by tinco »

ntkachov wrote: post #42
tinco wrote: post #41

> do not write a 100 page business plan does not mean don't write it at all Who advices against a 100 page business plan? Is there something wrong with it? (besides spending too much time on planning?) if you could write 100 pages about your domain, wouldn't that be a good thing? As a foreigner looking at the US I sometimes get the feeling a lot of SV startups don't work with a business plan at all, is that customary…

The idea, from what I understand, is that a 100 page business plan is ultimately wasted time as a good chunk of that will change very quickly. So rather than writing 100 pages of, what will inevitably become obsolete, you should write a shorter one and focus on actually creating the business.

Ofcourse the plan itself might not be the paper it is written on. But I think there is a lot of value to be had from having all your thoughts about what you are going to do written down at least once. There is so much to be thought about when starting a venture. I get the feeling some startups just deal with every problem when it hits them in the face, instead of anticipating and carefully maneuvering?

Re: Why have I failed?

#44

Post by RyanZAG »

"... Cemal started to convince me that Cashgenius is a really hard way to go. We have also spoken wtih a couple of prospects and realized that they are not using computer to manage their financial situation. I was in a situation where I wasted again my resources for a product where no customer exists to start up the engines of my business. My game plan was gone. I was falling apart."

Feels like this is as big an issue as any - you were working on a product you believed in, but when it became clear the product wouldn't work exactly how you wanted, you dumped the whole thing in the trash and went to chase the soul crushing social media wave. Better plan may have been to spend more time finding out how you could change Cashgenius to fit to a potential market?

I could be wrong here, but pivoting a product is nearly always better than trashing it at the first sign of difficulty and chasing the new hot fashion.

Re: Why have I failed?

#45

Post by zalambar »

tinco wrote: post #41

> do not write a 100 page business plan does not mean don't write it at all Who advices against a 100 page business plan? Is there something wrong with it? (besides spending too much time on planning?) if you could write 100 pages about your domain, wouldn't that be a good thing? As a foreigner looking at the US I sometimes get the feeling a lot of SV startups don't work with a business plan at all, is that customary…

The attitude I see is that detailed plans can be dangerous but that not having a plan does not mean you should not have a process. I think this often comes from Steve Blank's definition that "a startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model". In that context you cannot know what your business model should be. Instead you have a set of theories or assumptions about what might work and your process should be to validate (or invalidate) those as early and efficiently as possible. The lean startup process has a similar focus on working toward "validated learning" about the market and your product.

I think business plans are perceived as risky because they contain assumptions which may be treated as axioms instead of questions. Instead of leaning and reacting the business starts to try to conform to the "known" plan and it is very difficult to consistently resolve cognitive dissonance between the plan and reality in favor of reality.

How many pieces of that 8 step plan are actually relevant while searching for a business model?

Of course not businesses need to fit that definition. If you are not searching for a model then hopefully you have a very good plan.

Re: Why have I failed?

#46

Post by hef19898 »

Peroni wrote: post #2

did not listen people very well. I've heard them but did not actually listen. I kept on talking and talking. I couldn't care less if you're some guy with a fancy idea in his head with no clue on how to do anything about it or if you're Paul Graham himself, as soon as you stop listening to what others have to say, you're failing. My father rarely had anything insightful to say but one thing he did say that really stuc…

Somehow along pg's lines in one of latest essays, the thing about being the wave even you are not actually leading or luching the wave, but try to be part of the wave. That's were new ground is broken and new things happen.

My believe is that there are also personal waves that are not necessarily general waves. Once you out-learned, change the environment maybe to radical but gives at least a good direction.

Re: Why have I failed?

#48

Post by marshray »

> Scalability problems should be solved when there are scalability problems.

Preferably, before!

> I am a fool. A big one.

Nah, you're awesome. That's way better than all the dumb and pointless ways I've failed. Keep it up.

Re: Why have I failed?

#49

Post by outside1234 »

You have succeeded by merely trying.

When I look back at my "failed" companies, I see all of the experiences I needed for my current company and past jobs.

There are no failures in the startup world if you took good experiences away from it. It wasn't a failure, it was training.

Re: Why have I failed?

#50

Post by timwiseman »

edw519 wrote: post #22

Funny, had you been more successful (by any definition), most of these comments would still be true. Successful people make many of the same mistakes you're citing here. I hate to paraphrase and respond to your entire post, but it was such an interesting one, so here goes... did not take care myself; emotionally and physically Yes! This must always be #1. As Vince Lombardi said, "Fatigue makes cowards of us all." If…

A beautiful comment and I think you add a lot of good thoughts. I must respectfully disagree with one point though: "my job is not programming. My job is delivering value using programming.

Semantics."

I'm not sure. More than once I have gotten lost adding features no one wanted because the process of doing it interested me, or I spent hours optimizing a routine because I just knew it could be improved even when what my users wanted was a new feature and the performance was acceptable.

When time is limited, focus on adding value through programming, not programming for its own sake or because the problem is interesting.

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