Who says startups are easy
A blog post by Fred Wilson, undoubtedly the king of early stage consumer web investing (Twitter, Tumblr, Etsy, Foursqaure, Zynga and Kickstarter), has many folks wringing their hands about consumer Internet investments and extolling the virtues of enterprise or more business focused companies. (It is only a matter of time, before it becomes a fad too, but let’s leave it for another day.)
I am just a little surprised that it has taken people this long to realize that doing a startup in this day and age is a massive problem. It is not just about the money — it is the increased attention diffusion which is a problem. I have been talking about this for a long time. Last year, I wrote about the lack of second chances on the modern, post-mobile Internet.
The economics of attention is much more ruthless and unforgiving than the real economic underpinning of a product. Just as it is hard for a movie to recover from a bad opening weekend, today’s “apps” lose if they don’t make a good first impression.
Today with the increased competition and attention diffusion, it is becoming much harder to be a consumer web startups. And in order to win, the founders need to make all the right bets, all the time, or else they will find themselves on road to nowhere. And that is why I thought that doing a startup in today’s environment was much tougher than most people realize. In December 2011, I told the attendees of Hackfwd in Berlin the same thing. Here is a video of that talk and also, my presentation, that is now on Slideshare.
December 1st, 2012 at 1:16 pm ★ ↓
While it may have never been harder to create an interent startup that Fred Wilson may be interested in funding, it’s never been easier for a business that has just started to tap into the resources the internet — that help make success possible.
November 28th, 2012 at 4:41 pm ★ ↓
Agree entirely Om. I’m certainly seeing the challenge with my startup, Zarfo.com. We have been slowly building and learning from our members but starting web focused and without an iOS app has been detrimental to our consumer cause. We are pivoting to corporate/enterprise at the moment so we can continue staying relevant. We’re introducing subscription as well. It’s a tough time to launch a start up!
November 28th, 2012 at 1:27 pm ★ ↓
Great presentation as always Om
November 26th, 2012 at 10:04 pm ★ ↓
you did a powerpoint?
November 27th, 2012 at 6:55 am ★ ↓
Keynote chetan
November 25th, 2012 at 11:57 pm ★ ↓
Clearly this is the meme of the month. I think your’s, Fred’s and Dave McClure’s view whilst seemingly at odds are all accurate. Audience size is up. Getting attention is harder and costs are down. I think the real issue is that it’s harder to get on the radar. As Chris Dixon mused – 10 million is the new 1 million.
November 26th, 2012 at 7:11 am ★ ↓
Sean
I am making a simple point — have been for a year — just because it is easier to start a company doesn’t mean it is any easier to build a business and that isn’t going yo change and in fact become harder. So every decision has to be precise and well thought out.