Another way to decrease the risk is to join an existing startup instead of starting your own. Being one of the first employees of a startup is a lot like being a founder, in both the good ways and the bad. – Paul Graham
How do tiny companies with no money seem to do the impossible, while bigger, more established companies struggle?
Startups hire smart, energetic people with a lot of potential, while established businesses often look for someone to come do the same job that he did at his last workplace, and nothing more. Who do you think gets better results?
We’re part of something bigger, not just counting days ’til the weekend or tallying up freelance hours. We’re here to change the world!
Source: oDesk
There is a 100/10/1 “rule of thumb” with social services. 1% will create content, 10% will engage with it, and 100% will consume it. If only 10% of your users need to log in because 90% just want to consume, then you’ll end up with the vast majority of your users in the logged out camp. Don’t ignore them, build services for them, and you can slowly but surely lead them to more engagement and potentially some day into the logged in camp.
A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption of our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider to our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He is doing us a favour by giving us the opportunity to do so. — Mahatma Gandhi
[...] It’s good to know the market but the competition is irrelevant. The market is big. Winning comes by knowing the customer better, executing better, and continuing to work on the problem after sane people have cashed out. If a competitor is going to scare you, you shouldn’t have started a business in the first place. Every big market or successful business will attract competitors anyway. Always assume competition. — Babak Nivi, Venture Hacks
