5 Strategies
M. Dana Baldwin:
[…] there are five basic strategies one may pursue: Expand, Maintain, Contract, Milk or Withdraw.
Is There a Business Model for Open Source?
A New York Times article questioning the business model for open source. MySQL, RedHat, SpringSource are some of the company names mentioned in the article.
There’s only one company making real money out of open source, and that’s Red Hat
— Simon Crosby, CTO Citrix Systems
Makes you think twice in case you were planning to go with the open source business model.
Startups, You Need to Find Your Niche
Dare Obasanjo has an interesting post about identifying ☞ underserved markets and focus your startup efforts towards these. He goes on and writes that even if some will feel like
Finding an underserved market sounds like getting the winning ticket in a lottery
, still the signs are out there and you just need to pay attention to them.
The first pattern is looking for activities people like doing where the technology has been stagnant for a while.
Another patterns is looking for an activity or task that people hate doing but assume is a fact of life or a necessary aspect of using a product.
Now if you agree with his points (and if you don’t) go and read the whole ☞ article.
Starting Your Own Business Does Not Have To Be Risky
A little bit of optimism is good for the time you are preparing to create your startup.
People looking for VC funding instead of bootstrapping might disagree though with advise like: You don’t have to hit a home run or Don’t Quit Your Job Until You Are Ready, but others ☞ will still agree.
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The process of producing a film, especially an independent one, is by its nature very entrepreneurial. You have to create the script, which is like the business plan, you have to hire the directors and producers, who are like your staff, you have to actually produce the film, which is like execution and all the operations, you have to raise the money and make a budget, and then you have to market it. You have to get it out there in festivals and get people to see it. Literally everything we learned in film school we could apply to launching a business.
There’s another thing we discovered, and this almost gave us a psychological advantage going in. When you are producing a movie, you don’t ever just say, “Oh, this script is bad. Let’s stop and pack up.” You just don’t have the luxury to do that. When something goes wrong, which something always will, you try to save it in post-production, redo the shoot, or rewrite the script or do something else. As a [filmmaker], you’re actually built and trained to constantly problem solve and invent.
☞ David Liu, the co-founder and CEO of The Knot""
You must treat delegation of authority as an investment.
If You Want Something Done, Practice Your Patience"London VC: European Startups Need To Work Much Harder
BS
The things mentioned in the article are just effects and not causes. Plus it is completely wrong to compare an area (or some distinct spots) with the culture of a continent.
On the other hand, I do agree that Europe should change quite a few things before being too late.
Your Startup: Bootstrapping or Venture Funding?
In some parts of the world (f.e. Silicon Valley, London, Israel, etc.) the question of bootstrapping or venture funding comes up pretty soon in the life cycle of a startup. Anyway, answering this question is one of the most important decisions that entrepreneurs must make and as the startup environment is expanding fast the same question will have to be answered by entrepreneurs in areas with a younger startup culture.
As a SeedMoney adviser, people might expect me to explain why and how getting venture funding will benefit their startup. But, as others, I don’t think that VC funding is always the answer. I was really happy to find a ☞ post by Mark Peter Davis in which he provides a very simple algorithm for determining the financing strategy:
I couldn’t probably say it better than Mark:
Picking the right fundraising strategy is often as significant of an indicator of the founder’s payout as selecting the right business strategy. Take the time to understand what type of company you are building and finance it properly.
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My lesson: don’t take your superstars for granted. Find ways to Roll out the Red Carpet while they’re still in the castle.
— Mark Suster in Don’t Roll out the Red Carpet on the Way out the Door"On Facebook Philosophy and Culture
I have found a couple of extremely inspiring fragments from an interview with Mark Zuckerberg (via ☞ Business Insider ) on which are covered subjects like: how is Facebook environment different from Google (by being focused, quick and bold), getting user feedback the Facebook style, what means to be quick nowadays, etc.
On Facebook Culture
[…] combined with boldness to try new things. Our goal is to move fast and the other half of our mission is to break stuff. We have a willingness to try stuff out and see what happens even on the system side where engineering is difficult.
— Mike Schroepfer, VP of Engineering
On what means to be quick
Our core values are about moving fast. That is the ability to innovate and iterate as fast as possible. You never know what you got is the right {product} so it’s really important to get it out in the market and test it with people to see what they think. It’s not about what they say, but also how they use it. The question is “do they use it, do they enjoy it, do they come back to the site, and do they engage it?”
— Mike Schroepfer, VP of Engineering
Getting user feedback, Facebook style
And here is the whole ☞ interview with Mark recorded by Business Insider
How long it takes to become a tech giant. Summarised.
Good night. Sleep tight. But do not dream about overnight success
