All In: Now's The Time (opens in new tab)

(techcrunch.com)

36 pointssilentscope14y ago13 comments

13 comments

12 comments · 10 top-level

fourstar14y ago· 2 in thread

People get lucky. The instagram story was one of luck, rather than hard work (granted, they probably put in long hours but in the end they hit a goldmine purely on luck [plus I'm sure being connected to the top VCs & players in the valley didn't hurt]).

My point is, while it's great to encourage entrepreneurship, it's easier said than done.

rbranson14y ago

Instagram is an exceptional product built with significant restraint and focus. It took them over a year and a half to release an Android app, because they were focused on what matters. This is exceedingly rare, as most teams would end up shortsightedly chasing the last few percent of users. Your assumption that the Instagram team has some above average connections in the valley is also baseless.

Make your own luck.

fourstar14y ago

If you are going to say that my claims are baseless, please explain "... they focused on what matters.". What would that be exactly?

Significant restraint and focus? Please expand on what you also mean by this.

You're right on one point... They don't have above average connections. They have spectacular connections. Only the connections that being funded by Jack Dorsey, Sequoia, Benchmark, Andreessen Horowitz, etc. would provide.

1 more reply

asanwal14y ago

So acquirers are going to pay too much for companies in the coming silly season and this should be your signal to really go "all in" on your startup?

Instagram hit the startup lottery. Awesome for them. But building a biz solely because of market frothiness and hoping to hit the lottery seems like a horribly misguided idea.

nchuhoai14y ago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6IQ_FOCE6I

Always appropriate. On a side note, really hard to know whether this is a bubble or not. I don't want to take either side, but you cannot refute that a billion dollars for a startup that did not gain any significant revenue seems like a lot of money.

dennisgorelik14y ago

you need to slide all of your chips on to the table.

Is it a casino?

Thanks, but no thanks.

hartror14y ago

I notice that the only use of "bubble" in the OP is when talking about the late 90s. Surely we want to move away from cash in while to goings good mentality the OP is promoting to something more sustainable. Otherwise we're going to see a further degradation of web technology as a good place to invest. I don't know if there is a bubble or not, but the language in the OP screams it.

This all assumes investors are capable of weighing up the relative merits of various investments and aren't blinded by big exits like that of Instagram. And the evidence continues to point to them being blinded by dollar signs . . .

jmathai14y ago

It's important to understand the context of this post. Adeo said it was an email to their startups which they decided to publish.

It's a pep talk to people who've already or are on the brink of taking the leap. In that light it's entirely applicable. It's not speaking against sane business models it's about use this as an opportunity to dig in and kick ass.

It doesn't matter how you get to "kick ass" ... as long as you get there.

thesash14y ago

As an entrepreneur, what you really have to ask yourself is: are you pursuing your idea because you think you'll get rich, or because you want to change the world? Are you chasing money, or building value?

Valuations may be high right now, and some frothy transactions may be going on, but that doesn't make building a company any easier. If you can bootstrap, work on a project on the side, and keep a backup plan until you're ready to make the leap, do it! If the problem you're chasing is big and scary and capital intensive, then go raise the capital necessary to tackle it, but if not, you may be better off bootstrapping and building a 5 million dollar company you own all of than a 100 million dollar company where you end up heavily diluted [1].

[1] http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2010/06/paths-to-5m-for-...

alaskamiller14y ago

If you're in your 20's and have skills now is the best time to do something big.

You're being squeezed on both sides. The gen-Xers that cashed out are reinvesting and flexing their muscles to win again. The teens and early twenty whippersnappers are hungry and foolish enough to think they'll win.

If you love what you do and do what you love then you'll win. Just make sure you love something worthwhile.

snowwrestler14y ago

Articles like this seem to me like a good sign that we might be entering bubble territory.

This is essentially saying, "hey everyone, time to cash in right now before the money dries up." Of course in that sentence "money" refers to capital, not revenues or profits. Such misplaced focus was the hallmark problem of the late 90's bubble.

I went in all-in for that bubble and got 10 months of hope followed by 4 months of COBRA and unemployment, then another regular ol' job.

kristianp14y ago

Yesterday Wired was saying that it's not a bubble.

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