7 signs of a startup per billion
““ Enough. I no longer wish to listen to this nonsense. Mattresses will never replace hotels. ”Wilson interrupted the conversation. We tried to argue, but he was adamant. Fred Wilson was the 15th investor who refused to listen to us until the end,” says Brian Cesky, founder of Airbnb.
When we designed the startup Grrow.me, we asked one question. What signs make the project a billionth?
Having opened these signs, we decided to follow them in our project and share with you.
1. One foot from the future
')
15 Airbnb Investors - Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharzike refused. They considered the idea of service nonsense - well, really, who will rent their room to strangers? Now a startup is worth 20 billion.
What did these 15 investors not consider? They just looked around and didn’t see people who rent rooms — almost nobody did that. They could not see the future of the sharing economy. The future is not easy to see. Stereotypes and foundations do not allow many to look beyond the horizon.
2. Crazy idea
Einstein, when evaluating physical theories, said: "Your theory is not crazy enough to be true." This principle can be rephrased for startups - “The ideas of many projects are not crazy enough to become a billion-dollar business.” The project should be a little crazy, like Snapchat. Well, who needs it so that the photos disappear after viewing? After all, this is a minus, not a plus. Is it possible to earn on stickers, as did Line? Well, who will buy content, of which there are already so many on the net? Well, is it possible to earn a lot on the photos and your thoughts by publishing materials on the social network?
Crazy ideas do not occur to anyone, most simply do not think about them. Only after a while people understand that it works and they clone and copy. But it's too late, the first player in the market is not to catch up.
Crazy ideas are not predictable by the Lean Startup methodology, no Customer Development will show the obvious need of users for the service. They are crazy for that.
3. The trigger forcing the user to recall the project
A trigger is a kind of event that encourages people to use the service. For example, when a user needs a taxi, he remembers Uber.
Many things happen in our life. Everyday. Our thoughts are busy shopping list, thinking about politics, watching the news, meeting with friends and loved ones. Therefore, people forget about even the coolest and most useful startups.
A trigger is needed that “clicks” in real life, regardless of the user and prompts him to use the project.
4. The "toothbrush" rule from Larry Page
People should use the billion-dollar project at least twice a day, and this should become a habit. Habits rule the human brain. We do not think about the need to brush your teeth in the morning and in the evening - this process takes place on autopilot. We do not need to strain and specifically remember where the toothbrush lies. Just like people just can not forget to brush their teeth, they can not forget about a billion billion startups.
The average user logs in to Facebook at least twice a day. People do not think "is it worth it to visit Facebook?". The user simply opens a social network, just as he takes steps, without thinking about how to correctly set foot.
It is in the formation of the habit that the power of many billions of projects is concluded.
5. Polarization of the audience
Startups with great prospects necessarily cause controversy at the beginning of their journey. They cause a controversial reaction. When people hear about a new project and say, “Oh, what a cool project,” why do they say that? People think that it is worthwhile just because they have already seen similar projects before. Projects that have already earned a lot of money have reached serious capitalization. What does it mean? If everyone speaks with one voice that the project is cool, it means that people have been working in this direction for a long time, and such services have already been implemented. Then why hasn’t there been a big project yet? Because the idea of scale does not work. Most likely in this niche it is impossible to capture the entire market and there will be many small competitors - for example, platforms for online stores.
A billion-dollar start-up needs a “secret” that very few see.
6. Timeliness. Why now?
Few remember one of Friendster’s first social networks. It was a great idea with great potential. Friendster launched a few years before Facebook. However, he died. Because it was too early for the social network. Too few users - people did not have computers. Then Facebook appeared and that was the moment.
Why did Snapchat and Instagram reach huge audiences? Smartphones and tablets, and with them, the mobile Internet has become widespread - now almost everyone has them. This means that people can at any time and at any point take photos and upload them to the Internet.
7. Self-propagation
A billion startups should have viral properties. This can be achieved only in communication services. Everything connected with communication of people, the exchange of information can quickly grow. Rapid growth is provided by virality, when users of the service themselves attract other users. If the user of the service realizes that his friends are important to him (opinions, likes, rating) he will invite them.
It remains to make it convenient and simple. Without this attribute, Facebook would not be able to reach an audience of a billion users. Dropbox could not cost more than $ 10 billion if he did not have the properties of virality. Yes, and no means for advertising are enough to attract such a large number of users, if you pay for each lead.
Utility trap
Why are so many investors mistaken and not investing in “stars”? Why do ordinary people laugh at billions of ideas and don’t believe in them?
It's all about the utility trap.
When people see a really useful project, they immediately think that this startup is waiting for success, because people need it. And if there is a need, then you can earn a good investor understands. Not so simple!
Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin and thus saved hundreds of millions of human lives. Without exaggeration, we could not be, did not open Fleming antibiotics. No doubt this was a very useful project. It would seem that the discoverer of such a useful medicine should become the richest person in the world. Become a multi-billionaire. However, Fleming did not earn anything from his discovery. Because he did not have a business model or he did not think about it.
On the other hand, Kevin Systrom created a photo-sharing application and sold it for a billion. Does humanity need to exchange photos so much? Does it save lives? People lived for thousands of years without knowing at all what photography is. And nothing, were happy.
It turns out that Instagram is useful quite a bit, but it has many signs of a billion-dollar startup.
The project can save lives and have no chance to bring money to the founders and investors. On the other hand, a startup may have a bit of utility and gild investors. It's all about the signs of the billionth project, which are discussed above.
Of course, if the project has all the features of a startup for a billion, this does not guarantee that it will necessarily achieve such success. However, the presence of these signs opens the way to a billion.
Fred Wilson, co-founder of Union Square Ventures, still keeps a box of “Obama from Oz” flakes as a reminder of lost opportunities. “I couldn’t even imagine that air mattresses on the living room floor could become the next stage in the evolution of the hotel business.”
When we designed the startup Grrow.me, we asked one question. What signs make the project a billionth?
Having opened these signs, we decided to follow them in our project and share with you.
1. One foot from the future
')
15 Airbnb Investors - Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharzike refused. They considered the idea of service nonsense - well, really, who will rent their room to strangers? Now a startup is worth 20 billion.
What did these 15 investors not consider? They just looked around and didn’t see people who rent rooms — almost nobody did that. They could not see the future of the sharing economy. The future is not easy to see. Stereotypes and foundations do not allow many to look beyond the horizon.
2. Crazy idea
Einstein, when evaluating physical theories, said: "Your theory is not crazy enough to be true." This principle can be rephrased for startups - “The ideas of many projects are not crazy enough to become a billion-dollar business.” The project should be a little crazy, like Snapchat. Well, who needs it so that the photos disappear after viewing? After all, this is a minus, not a plus. Is it possible to earn on stickers, as did Line? Well, who will buy content, of which there are already so many on the net? Well, is it possible to earn a lot on the photos and your thoughts by publishing materials on the social network?
Crazy ideas do not occur to anyone, most simply do not think about them. Only after a while people understand that it works and they clone and copy. But it's too late, the first player in the market is not to catch up.
Crazy ideas are not predictable by the Lean Startup methodology, no Customer Development will show the obvious need of users for the service. They are crazy for that.
3. The trigger forcing the user to recall the project
A trigger is a kind of event that encourages people to use the service. For example, when a user needs a taxi, he remembers Uber.
Many things happen in our life. Everyday. Our thoughts are busy shopping list, thinking about politics, watching the news, meeting with friends and loved ones. Therefore, people forget about even the coolest and most useful startups.
A trigger is needed that “clicks” in real life, regardless of the user and prompts him to use the project.
4. The "toothbrush" rule from Larry Page
People should use the billion-dollar project at least twice a day, and this should become a habit. Habits rule the human brain. We do not think about the need to brush your teeth in the morning and in the evening - this process takes place on autopilot. We do not need to strain and specifically remember where the toothbrush lies. Just like people just can not forget to brush their teeth, they can not forget about a billion billion startups.
The average user logs in to Facebook at least twice a day. People do not think "is it worth it to visit Facebook?". The user simply opens a social network, just as he takes steps, without thinking about how to correctly set foot.
It is in the formation of the habit that the power of many billions of projects is concluded.
5. Polarization of the audience
Startups with great prospects necessarily cause controversy at the beginning of their journey. They cause a controversial reaction. When people hear about a new project and say, “Oh, what a cool project,” why do they say that? People think that it is worthwhile just because they have already seen similar projects before. Projects that have already earned a lot of money have reached serious capitalization. What does it mean? If everyone speaks with one voice that the project is cool, it means that people have been working in this direction for a long time, and such services have already been implemented. Then why hasn’t there been a big project yet? Because the idea of scale does not work. Most likely in this niche it is impossible to capture the entire market and there will be many small competitors - for example, platforms for online stores.
A billion-dollar start-up needs a “secret” that very few see.
6. Timeliness. Why now?
Few remember one of Friendster’s first social networks. It was a great idea with great potential. Friendster launched a few years before Facebook. However, he died. Because it was too early for the social network. Too few users - people did not have computers. Then Facebook appeared and that was the moment.
Why did Snapchat and Instagram reach huge audiences? Smartphones and tablets, and with them, the mobile Internet has become widespread - now almost everyone has them. This means that people can at any time and at any point take photos and upload them to the Internet.
7. Self-propagation
A billion startups should have viral properties. This can be achieved only in communication services. Everything connected with communication of people, the exchange of information can quickly grow. Rapid growth is provided by virality, when users of the service themselves attract other users. If the user of the service realizes that his friends are important to him (opinions, likes, rating) he will invite them.
It remains to make it convenient and simple. Without this attribute, Facebook would not be able to reach an audience of a billion users. Dropbox could not cost more than $ 10 billion if he did not have the properties of virality. Yes, and no means for advertising are enough to attract such a large number of users, if you pay for each lead.
Utility trap
Why are so many investors mistaken and not investing in “stars”? Why do ordinary people laugh at billions of ideas and don’t believe in them?
It's all about the utility trap.
When people see a really useful project, they immediately think that this startup is waiting for success, because people need it. And if there is a need, then you can earn a good investor understands. Not so simple!
Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin and thus saved hundreds of millions of human lives. Without exaggeration, we could not be, did not open Fleming antibiotics. No doubt this was a very useful project. It would seem that the discoverer of such a useful medicine should become the richest person in the world. Become a multi-billionaire. However, Fleming did not earn anything from his discovery. Because he did not have a business model or he did not think about it.
On the other hand, Kevin Systrom created a photo-sharing application and sold it for a billion. Does humanity need to exchange photos so much? Does it save lives? People lived for thousands of years without knowing at all what photography is. And nothing, were happy.
It turns out that Instagram is useful quite a bit, but it has many signs of a billion-dollar startup.
The project can save lives and have no chance to bring money to the founders and investors. On the other hand, a startup may have a bit of utility and gild investors. It's all about the signs of the billionth project, which are discussed above.
Of course, if the project has all the features of a startup for a billion, this does not guarantee that it will necessarily achieve such success. However, the presence of these signs opens the way to a billion.
Fred Wilson, co-founder of Union Square Ventures, still keeps a box of “Obama from Oz” flakes as a reminder of lost opportunities. “I couldn’t even imagine that air mattresses on the living room floor could become the next stage in the evolution of the hotel business.”
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/289110/
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