Changethis.com/manifesto/1.ArtOfTheStart/pdf/1.ArtOfTheStart. Startups in 13 Sentences. February 2009 One of the things I always tell startups is a principle I learned from Paul Buchheit: it's better to make a few people really happy than to make a lot of people semi-happy.
I was saying recently to a reporter that if I could only tell startups 10 things, this would be one of them. Then I thought: what would the other 9 be? When I made the list there turned out to be 13: 5 things you should know before starting a company. (Editor’s note: Stuart Wall is co-founder and CEO of Signpost.
He submitted this story to VentureBeat.) Despite the rocky nature of the stock market these days, it sure seems like a great time to start a company. The stories of early stage founders graduating from Y Combinator and TechStars with $8-$10 million pre-money valuations soon after graduation are encouraging. And late stage valuations appear to be equally generous, with LinkedIn trading at a 554x P/E multiple on the day of their IPO. These seemingly outsized returns are attracting a new group of aspiring entrepreneurs, who often leave MBA programs and business careers to try their luck at a startup. Customers normally aren’t free – We spend most of our days using products that have experienced extraordinary viral growth.
Unfortunately, most ideas aren’t so useful or well executed. If this sounds like you, remove “normally” from the previous lesson. Put your business plan on SlideShare. Note to entrepreneurs: Your idea is not special. – Brad Feld is a managing director at the Boulder, Colorado-based venture capital firm Foundry Group.
He also co-founded TechStars and writes the popular blog, Feld Thoughts. The views expressed are his own. – Every day I get numerous emails from software and Internet entrepreneurs describing their newest ideas. Often these entrepreneurs think their idea is brand new – that no one has ever thought of it before. These entrepreneurs think their idea is special and magic. The great entrepreneurs are already focused on the implementation of their idea. Google? The products and their subsequent companies became great because of execution. Rinse and repeat, over and over again. It’s awesome when an entrepreneur is obsessed with his idea. Sure, they tried, but they didn’t obsess about it, pour all their energy into it, and most importantly get as many great people as they could on the journey with them.