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A spreadsheet of the businesses I've started over the past 15 years

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Re: A spreadsheet of the businesses I've started over the past 15 years

#91

Post by sonnyblarney »

Shpigford wrote: post #70
sonnyblarney wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well your persistence is commendable.

Or a massive waste of time. Some days I'm not sure which. :P

There are very very few people who did it on their first run, it's like winning the lottery.

Bach wrote almost a piece every day. For most of his life. Most of it will never be played or heard.

The thing that's most common among the 'greats' is how prolific they were. They just kept doing. Just watching Jim Henson. Bio - he was doing Kermite for like 20 years before it remotely caught on. I worked at BlackBerry - the company started in 1982, about 20 years before the BB wars born. The other CEO started in 1992 about 10 years. So 30 man-years of combined CEO work before the BB came to be a product.

Re: A spreadsheet of the businesses I've started over the past 15 years

#93

Post by dedupely »

Haha, I love this list. I wish I remembered all the stuff I did. In the early days (2003) I was doing flash games on newgrounds. Later turned to a hockey card store. Then I tried a million-dollar-pixel ads clone (made nothing, big surprise).

I also wasted too much time on stupid shit I never even launched. Like 1yr on a flash game of my dog (never launched). Another year on a site for musicians that never had a name or domain. A year on a bike rental directory. Another on a CMS for mobile sites (yeah m.domain sites, my timing sucked). A year or more on a trello-like project management app that sucked but launched with 100 beta users.

I also did 10-20 launch pages for testing marketable ideas. Most didnt work, and a few that did I didnt want to do (stuff like automated browser testing).

All that before hitting a product I've spent the last 4 years taking to six figures. So yeah, results vary. But I love this list. Brings back my good memories of wondering when I'd make more then 5 bucks on something that wasn't freelancing.

Re: A spreadsheet of the businesses I've started over the past 15 years

#94

Post by dedupely »

dedupely wrote: post #93

Haha, I love this list. I wish I remembered all the stuff I did. In the early days (2003) I was doing flash games on newgrounds. Later turned to a hockey card store. Then I tried a million-dollar-pixel ads clone (made nothing, big surprise). I also wasted too much time on stupid shit I never even launched. Like 1yr on a flash game of my dog (never launched). Another year on a site for musicians that never had a name…

Oh I forgot. My "big break" product was actually from a mentor who needed the prduct. Had nothing to do with me hunting it down. Kind of funny actually. I can't really tell you what the secret to any success it accept seems that the more you work in the direction you want to go the closer you get. But some of it is just luck. Don't have any strong opinions for you.

Re: A spreadsheet of the businesses I've started over the past 15 years

#95

Post by lylecubed »

gumby wrote: post #88

This is inspiring: the dominant culture today is "oh yeah, it's going great". One quote that has stuck in my mind is from Chuck Jones, quoting his own prof at RISD: "You have 10,000 bad paintings in you. The sooner you get them out the sooner you'll get to the good ones." I eventually learned to just let that dumb idea (weld, program, drawing) get out. Some good ideas fail, and most bad ideas fail, but sometimes you…

And some bad ideas succeed. Flappy Bird and ship your enemies glitter come to mind.

Re: A spreadsheet of the businesses I've started over the past 15 years

#96

Post by bsder »

3pt14159 wrote: post #26
rasengan wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Working hard will not guarantee that you will be successful, but I guarantee you, that all successful people worked hard.” - Coach Kamogawa thru George Morikawa

Honestly, I'm not really sure if that's really true any more. I wasn't working hard when I bought Bitcoin at three bucks a coin. I was just intellectually curious. If anything when I was working hard was two years before that on a soon to be failed startup. We crawled the web for ads just before the ad business went hyper targeted. I made -$20k from working hard. I made a lot more from Bitcoin. I would have made way…

Pyramid schemes are very profitable if you get in at the beginning.

The problem is that, by definition, most people are in a pyramid scheme at the bottom.

Re: A spreadsheet of the businesses I've started over the past 15 years

#97

Post by patwalls »

zerr wrote: post #79
WilliamEdward wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is nothing wrong with working for others if it fulfills you. I envy people who can have comfortable lives with happy families and a simple desk job that pays for what they need. Something in my brain is telling me I need more or I won't be happy, so I have many startups I'm working on and have exclusively begun working for myself. The grass is always greener on the other side, that much I can say. Enjoy your co…

Yes, when I hear of those who "made it" and talk that 99% of what they are doing now are meetings, PowerPoint slides, pitching to VCs, public speaking, marketing, etc... I'm thinking - but are they happy? I can't imagine myself being happy while having to do all those things... :)

Those things sound boring, but when you are doing them for your own business - your own idea - it’s a lot of fun.

Re: A spreadsheet of the businesses I've started over the past 15 years

#98

Post by adventured »

dedupely wrote: post #94
dedupely wrote: post #93

Haha, I love this list. I wish I remembered all the stuff I did. In the early days (2003) I was doing flash games on newgrounds. Later turned to a hockey card store. Then I tried a million-dollar-pixel ads clone (made nothing, big surprise). I also wasted too much time on stupid shit I never even launched. Like 1yr on a flash game of my dog (never launched). Another year on a site for musicians that never had a name…

Oh I forgot. My "big break" product was actually from a mentor who needed the prduct. Had nothing to do with me hunting it down. Kind of funny actually. I can't really tell you what the secret to any success it accept seems that the more you work in the direction you want to go the closer you get. But some of it is just luck. Don't have any strong opinions for you.

> I can't really tell you what the secret to any success

You just did ;)

Right here:

> My "big break" product was actually from a mentor who needed the prduct. Had nothing to do with me hunting it down.

That's one of the great secrets to success right there, build something that you already know someone needs. Considerably reduces the role of the luck factor and guess-work.

Re: A spreadsheet of the businesses I've started over the past 15 years

#99

Post by cylinder »

hippich wrote: post #11
safgasCVS wrote: post #7

I don't understand this spray and pray approach to business - I'm not businessman so I may be talking out my ass - but I would have thought business is like a long term relationship. May as well have a spreadsheet of 50 failed marriages. If you aren't in it for the long haul what are you doing?

What he called "business" others (myself included) would call "side projects" until one of such projects would evolve into "business". You have to start somewhere and try things out to find a business bringing revenue. And yes, it is "spray and pray" in essence. And I see nothing wrong with it. (probably because I tried to launch a similar number if not more of such "businesses"/projects and continue doing so)

He made 50 websites.

Re: A spreadsheet of the businesses I've started over the past 15 years

#100

Post by cirgue »

rasengan wrote: post #13
mshenfield wrote: post #5

I'm jealous that he's made so many things, surprised by the small amount of money they've been sold for, and unsure whether this is someone I should emulate or someone I should view as a cautionary tale.

“Working hard will not guarantee that you will be successful, but I guarantee you, that all successful people worked hard.” - Coach Kamogawa thru George Morikawa

Also, hard work puts you in positions to get lucky, and it lets you leverage your opportunities more than others. There is no ladder to climb. You run around until you find the pay-dirt, and the people that run more find it quicker.
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