I slightly disagree. You need a good idea. When I was looking for funding around 1997, I was pushing what are now three companies, each of with had a very successful IPO or buyout. At that time it was all the rage to invest in tshirt companies (FogDog and Starbelly come to mind) and dog food services.
The hard part of getting going was wedging the idea into the investment environment. So LinkedIn was my business partner's room-mates company. He got nowhere with it because it wasn't Tshirts or dog food. I got nowhere with my payments company after around 50 VC presentations. The ideas were unique and really solid, and no one else was doing that at the time.
**
Operations are counter-intuitive. eBay had terrible customer service (actually much improved lately) but still has a lame interface. Facebook customer service is pathetic and even hostile. Twitter customer service is out of it mind bad. Yet, people keep going back to them.
I think it boils down to, can the business still operate with really bad customer service and follow up? Because if FB provided reasonable customer service, they would be losing money like crazy.
One of the reasons I stopped taking any requests to secure financing, or invest myself, in startups was because so many thought they deserved to be compensated for the idea and I was stunned at their ignorance. I said your compensation will be remarkable if and when you implement it into successfully creating revenue, then profits, but if you don't do that, you're no different than a child with an active imagination.😄🙄🤨😲
I have told many that leadership is more important than an idea.
I slightly disagree. You need a good idea. When I was looking for funding around 1997, I was pushing what are now three companies, each of with had a very successful IPO or buyout. At that time it was all the rage to invest in tshirt companies (FogDog and Starbelly come to mind) and dog food services.
The hard part of getting going was wedging the idea into the investment environment. So LinkedIn was my business partner's room-mates company. He got nowhere with it because it wasn't Tshirts or dog food. I got nowhere with my payments company after around 50 VC presentations. The ideas were unique and really solid, and no one else was doing that at the time.
**
Operations are counter-intuitive. eBay had terrible customer service (actually much improved lately) but still has a lame interface. Facebook customer service is pathetic and even hostile. Twitter customer service is out of it mind bad. Yet, people keep going back to them.
I think it boils down to, can the business still operate with really bad customer service and follow up? Because if FB provided reasonable customer service, they would be losing money like crazy.
One of the reasons I stopped taking any requests to secure financing, or invest myself, in startups was because so many thought they deserved to be compensated for the idea and I was stunned at their ignorance. I said your compensation will be remarkable if and when you implement it into successfully creating revenue, then profits, but if you don't do that, you're no different than a child with an active imagination.😄🙄🤨😲
I have told many that leadership is more important than an idea.
It really is a blessing to be old enough that our kids are long gone from schools. Plan B for for the grandkids.