This link has been bookmarked by 31 people . It was first bookmarked on 03 Sep 2006, by Stjepan.
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21 Dec 08
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it’s an interesting data point that a company with $88,000 in funding can even compete against one with $2.8 million.
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02 Aug 08
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Paul: There’s definitely a trend toward smaller investments, because it costs so much less to start a startup now. And if you take less money initially, you keep more options open. Once you’ve taken a VC-scale investment of two or three million dollars, you give up the option of an early acquisition.
You’re also under more pressure to grow fast, which can cause you to make design errors. It may not be a coincidence that both Flickr and Del.icio.us avoided the usual VC route. Both had to get a lot of subtle, social things just right. You’re more likely to do that if you can evolve organically.
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Paul: What I tell founders is not to sweat the business model too much at first. The most important task at first is to build something people want. If you don’t do that, it won’t matter how clever your business model is.
Of course you have to have a business model eventually. But experience so far suggests that figuring out how to make money from something popular is a lot easier than making something popular.
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Is this another Bubble? I don’t think so, not so far. There may be a lot of lame startups being started, but that’s not the definition of a bubble. A bubble is when a lot of money is being invested in lame startups, and that’s not happening yet. The reason so many new startups are getting started is that the cost has gone down, not that funding has gone up.
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Paul: Yes, that’s a pretty accurate summary. I wouldn’t advise competing with Google in things they’re good at. So what is Google good at? As a first approximation, making things their own developers use at work. So they’ll do a better job on an online calendar than a video sharing site, for example, because their employees are probably not supposed to be sitting watching videos at work.
Another weakness of Google’s is that they’re a big company. I’ve heard some real horror stories from hackers there about the bureacratic obstacles to getting stuff released. That means they’re unlikely to do anything so novel that it frightens the bureaucrats.
So a startup could compete with Google if they had an idea so wild that it would freak out the internal gatekeepers, no matter what area it was in.
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05 Feb 08
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04 Feb 08
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03 Feb 08
Gagan DieshPaul Graham believes we’re not in a bubble, that startups shouldn’t worry about their business models and the best companies are the ones with potential to kill old monopolies.
business site Innovation inspiration for:joegirard for:dd05brad
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11 Nov 07
Adriana Lukasgood answer to 'is there a Web 2.0 bubble'... interesting point about Google bureaucrats - it seems what with size and success come systems, processes and bureaucrats... like parasites? The best point is the one about how to make technology stick: "Mak...
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05 Oct 07
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13 Sep 07
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Paul Graham believes we’re not in a bubble, that startups shouldn’t worry about their business models and the best companies are the ones with potential to kill old monopolies. Graham is a partner at Y Combinator
, a Mountain View firm that invests in very early tech startups.
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19 Apr 07
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There’s definitely a trend toward smaller investments, because it costs so much less to start a startup now
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You’ve said that having a good business model is not important for startups because the good ones are liable to change models several times anyway. Yet many people believe that the absence of viable business models is one of the primary indications that we’re in a bubble.
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What I tell founders is not to sweat the business model too much at first. The most important task at first is to build something people want. If you don’t do that, it won’t matter how clever your business model is.
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Of course you have to have a business model eventually. But experience so far suggests that figuring out how to make money from something popular is a lot easier than making something popular.
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There are so many. I especially like things that take advantage of the power of networks.
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You wrote that the best lesson for startups was probably to stay out of Google’s way and that the best way to do that was to not start something that Google employees would use at work
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Make something people want.
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The easiest way to make something people want is to make something you want.
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What do you wish existed that doesn’t?
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Most of the great startups seem to have begun with something the founders wanted: Google, Yahoo, Apple, even Microsoft.
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10 Nov 06
lgsiigoAn interview with investor Paul Graham of Y Combinator
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19 Oct 06
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21 Sep 06
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05 Sep 06
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04 Sep 06
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03 Sep 06
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A bubble is when a lot of money is being invested in lame startups, and that’s not happening yet. The reason so many new startups are getting started is that the cost has gone down, not that funding has gone up.
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but the ones that blow away evil old monopolies.
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kills the record companies
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making things their own developers use
at work -
unlikely to do anything so novel that it frightens the bureaucrats
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