Archive for July, 2010

Implications of Startups That Exist to Maximize Abundant Social Capital Instead of Scarce Economic Capital

Saturday, July 17th, 2010

There is a new class of ventures emerging. They’re not focused on creating the next profitable widget. Their core purpose is about empowering people with tools, knowledge, social connections to live a better life and fulfill their dreams. The currency of their value creation is broader than just along the economic spectrum. They are about [...]

Startup Musings on Markets, Pivots & Currency

Saturday, July 17th, 2010

It’s not about your vision it’s about what the market wants. Vision is not about creating something that’s beuatiful and elegant to you. Vision is about anticipating trends in markets and technology to begin solving an important problem that isn’t yet solvable or ready to be solved. For any big market there are a discrete [...]

Byproducts: Learning from Failure and Virtues of Playing Sports

Saturday, July 17th, 2010

Two more examples of byproducts. Focusing on byproducts makes you less likely to achieve them. Instead focus on what the real end goal should be. I recommend first reading the original post where I discussed byproducts: Why You Can’t Get More Happiness, Money and Love By Pursuing Them Directly Learning from Failure You’re first startup venture will [...]

Market Evolution: The Special Case When a Startup Has No Market Risk

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

In this post Steve Blank urges startup founders to consider what kind of risk they face if they want to be successful. They must figure out if they face technology risk, market risk or both? But I believe the key principle to understand here is market evolution. In order to understand market evolution I think [...]