The 1. 8 Mistakes That Kill Startups. October 2. 00. 6In the Q & A period after a recent talk, someone asked what made. After standing there gaping for a few seconds I. It's equivalent to. Afterwards I realized it could be helpful to look at the problem.

MORE INFO. Ryan Adams is an American singer-songwriter, musician, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and poet. He is best known for his solo career, during which. October 2006 In the Q & A period after a recent talk, someone asked what made startups fail. After standing there gaping for a few seconds I realized this was kind of. The ultimate news source for music, celebrity, entertainment, movies, and current events on the web. It's pop culture on steroids.

If you have a list of all the things you. And this form of list may be more useful in practice. It's easier to catch yourself doing something you shouldn't than.

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In a sense there's just one mistake that kills startups: not making. If you make something users want, you'll. And if you. don't make something users want, then you're dead, whatever else. So really this is a list of 1. Nearly all failure. Single Founder. Have you ever noticed how few successful startups were founded by. Even companies you think of as having one founder.

Oracle, usually turn out to have more. It seems unlikely this. What's wrong with having one founder? To start with, it's a vote. It probably means the founder couldn't talk any.

That's pretty. alarming, because his friends are the ones who know him best. But even if the founder's friends were all wrong and the company.

Starting a startup. Even if you could do all the work.

The last one might be the most important. The low points in a. When you have. multiple founders, esprit de corps binds them together in a way. Each thinks "I can't let. This is one of the most powerful forces in human. Bad Location. Startups prosper in some places and not others.

Silicon Valley. dominates, then Boston, then Seattle, Austin, Denver, and New York. After. that there's not much. Even in New York the number of startups per. Silicon Valley. In towns. Houston and Chicago and Detroit it's too small to measure. Why is the falloff so sharp?

Probably for the same reason it is. What's the sixth largest fashion center in. US? The sixth largest center for oil, or finance, or publishing?

Whatever they are they're probably so far from the top that it would. It's an interesting question why cities. Standards are. higher; people are more sympathetic to what you're doing; the kind. Who knows exactly how these factors combine to boost. Silicon Valley and squish them in Detroit, but it's.

Marginal Niche. Most of the groups that apply to Y Combinator suffer from a common. If you watch little kids playing sports, you notice that below a. When the ball comes near. I didn't make a lot of catches. I used to close my eyes and hold my glove up more for. Choosing a marginal project is the startup equivalent of my eight. If you make anything.

You can only avoid competition by avoiding good ideas. I think this shrinking from big problems is mostly unconscious. It's not that people think of grand ideas but decide to pursue. Your unconscious won't even. So the solution may be to think about. What would be a great idea for. Derivative Idea. Many of the applications we get are imitations of some existing.

That's one source of ideas, but not the best. If you. look at the origins of successful startups, few were started in. Where did they get their ideas? Usually from some specific, unsolved problem the founders identified.

Our startup made software for making online stores. When we started. it, there wasn't any; the few sites you could order from were. We knew that if. online shopping ever took off, these sites would have to be generated. Pretty straightforward. It seems like the best problems to solve are ones that affect you. Apple happened because Steve Wozniak wanted a computer. Google because Larry and Sergey couldn't find stuff online, Hotmail.

Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith couldn't exchange email at. So instead of copying the Facebook, with some variation that the. Facebook rightly ignored, look for ideas from the other direction.

Instead of starting from companies and working back to the problems. What do people complain about? What do you wish there was?

Obstinacy. In some fields the way to succeed is to have a vision of what you. Starting startups is not one of them. The stick- to- your- vision. Olympic gold medal. Startups are more like science. So don't get too attached to your original plan, because it's.

Most successful startups end up doing something. You have to be prepared. And the hardest part of. But openness to new ideas has to be tuned just right. Switching. to a new idea every week will be equally fatal.

Is there some kind. One is to ask whether the ideas. If in each new idea you're.

Whereas if you keep. Fortunately there's someone you can ask for advice: your users. If. you're thinking about turning in some new direction and your users. Hiring Bad Programmers. I forgot to include this in the early versions of the list.

I know are programmers. This is. not a serious problem for them. Watch The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas Online The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas Full Movie Online there. They might accidentally hire someone.

In a pinch they can. But when I think about what killed most of the startups in the. A lot. of those companies were started by business guys who thought the. That's actually much harder than it.

They don't even get a. In practice what happens is that the business guys choose people. Microsoft Certified Developer) but who aren't. Then they're. mystified to find that their startup lumbers along like a World War.

II bomber while their competitors scream past like jet fighters. This kind of startup is in the same position as a big company. So how do you pick good programmers if you're not a programmer? I. don't think there's an answer. I was about to say you'd have to. But if you can't.

Choosing the Wrong Platform. A related problem (since it tends to be done by bad programmers). Watch Rise Online Rise Full Movie Online. For example, I think a lot of. Bubble killed themselves by deciding to build. Windows. Hotmail was still running. Free. BSD for years after Microsoft bought it, presumably because.

Windows couldn't handle the load. If Hotmail's founders. Windows, they would have been swamped. Pay. Pal only just dodged this bullet.

After they merged with X. CEO wanted to switch to Windows—even after Pay. Pal cofounder. Max Levchin showed that their software scaled only 1% as well on. Windows as Unix. Fortunately for Pay. Pal they switched CEOs instead.

Platform is a vague word. It could mean an operating system, or a. It implies something that both supports and limits, like. The scary thing about platforms is that there are always some that. Windows in the 9. Java. applets were probably the most spectacular example.

This was. supposed to be the new way of delivering applications. Presumably. it killed just about 1. How do you pick the right platforms?

The usual way is to hire good. But there is a trick you could. Slowness in Launching. Companies of all sizes have a hard time getting software done. It's. intrinsic to the medium; software is always 8. It takes an. effort of will to push through this and get something released to.

Startups make all kinds of excuses for delaying their launch. Clear History Full Movie Online Free here. Most. are equivalent to the ones people use for procrastinating in everyday. There's something that needs to happen first.

Maybe. But. if the software were 1. One reason to launch quickly is that it forces you to actually. Nothing is truly finished till it's. The other reason you need to launch is that it's only by.

Several distinct problems manifest themselves as delays in launching. Fortunately you. can combat all of them by the simple expedient of forcing yourself. Launching Too Early.

Launching too slowly has probably killed a hundred times more. The danger here is that you ruin your reputation.

You launch. something, the early adopters try it out, and if it's no good they. So what's the minimum you need to launch?

We suggest startups think. This is the same approach I (and many other programmers) use for. Think about the overall goal, then start by. If. it's a subset, you'll have to write it anyway, so in the worst case. But more likely you'll find that. The early adopters you need to impress are fairly tolerant. They. don't expect a newly launched product to do everything; it just has.

Having No Specific User in Mind. You can't build things users like without understanding them. I. mentioned earlier that the most successful startups seem to have.

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