Branding. Do Things that Don't Scale. July 2013 One of the most common types of advice we give at Y Combinator is to do things that don't scale. A lot of would-be founders believe that startups either take off or don't. You build something, make it available, and if you've made a better mousetrap, people beat a path to your door as promised. Or they don't, in which case the market must not exist. [1] Actually startups take off because the founders make them take off.
There may be a handful that just grew by themselves, but usually it takes some sort of push to get them going. Recruit The most common unscalable thing founders have to do at the start is to recruit users manually. Stripe is one of the most successful startups we've funded, and the problem they solved was an urgent one. Startups building things for other startups have a big pool of potential users in the other companies we've funded, and none took better advantage of it than Stripe.
Airbnb is a classic example of this technique. Fragile Delight Experience Fire Meraki. Startup advice, briefly. This is a very short summary with lots left out—here is the long version: You should start with an idea, not a company. When it’s just an idea or project, the stakes are lower and you’re more willing to entertain outlandish-sounding but potentially huge ideas. The best way to start a company is to build interesting projects. On the other hand, when you have a “company” that you feel pressure to commit to an idea too quickly.
If it’s just a project, you can spend more time finding something great to work on, which is important—if the startup really works, you’ll probably be working on it for a very long time. Have at least one technical founder on the team (i.e. someone who can build whatever the company is going to build). In general, prefer a fast-growing market to a large but slow-growing one, especially if you have conviction the fast-growing market is going to be important but others dismiss it as unimportant. Make something people want. How do you beat the network effect? How to launch a new product | Calacanis.com. Location: CalaCompound, Brentwood, CA Monday, December 22nd, 5:50PM PST. Word Count: 2,986 Jason’s List Subscriber Count: 11,858 List management: Filed under: Entrepreneurship Republishing: PLEASE DO *NOT* REPRINT WITHOUT PERMISSION Forwarding: PLEASE *DO* FORWARD TO SMART PEOPLE Team Jason, Last Monday we launched a new product called Mahalo Answers ( ).
It got a very warm reception from the press, users and the industry (investors, partners, etc). This was the most seamless and well-executed launch I’ve ever been involved in, so I thought I would share what I’ve learned about launching new products while it’s fresh in my mind. In this email I discuss coming up with the idea or building the product–that’s almost a book’s worth of information (hint, hint ;-), but I will discuss the moment from when the product is completed, through the beta test, generating buzz, the press tour and launch. Now, on to the process. Simple. 1. 2. 3. What's the best launch strategy for a web startup?