Best solutions and worst mistakes Internet startups

The best and worst decisions (part one) .

To start my new blog, StartUpping , I asked many successful Internet entrepreneurs a question - what did they learn by opening and supporting the work of their Internet companies. I asked about their best and worst decisions, and received many practical answers. Here is the first series of answers.

John Battelle.
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John Battel is an entrepreneur, journalist, professor and author who was the founder or co-founder of various companies, magazines and websites. A former lecturer at the University of California at Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, Battel is the founder and executive producer of the Web 2.0 conference and co-author of BoingBoing.net . Previously, Battel was the founder, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Standard Media International (SMI), the publisher of The Industry Standard and TheStandard.com. Prior to founding The Standard, Battel also co-founded and edited Wired and Wired Ventures. Now John is the founder and chairman of the “ Federated Media ” and blogs on the “ Searchblog of John Battel ”.

1 . You either keep control, or you don’t try to pretend that you have it. Here is my main lesson from The Industry Standard. It was the first large-scale business, which, as it seemed to me, I built myself, and I acted accordingly. But the main control always remained in the hands of the founding company. We fought for a long time, and I lost.

2 Do not save on the hiring process. Never. I hired people with the right resume, but deep inside I felt that these were not the people who were suitable for the company. I thought skill or resume would outweigh teamwork. That never happened.

3 Do something out of love, not for money. This is a beaten truth, but very, very true. I didn't start anything for the money. Some get great at founding companies for money, but not for me. And I suspect that most entrepreneurs are like me in this.

3a But first make sure that someone else needs your initiative. About everything that I started myself or at the start of which I took part, I first spoke with key players who could support or kill this idea, and urged them to become investors, or enlisted their help. If these guys were critical of the idea, or she was not interested in them, then ... well, this is a pretty good sign that things will not burn out. This does not mean that the idea is bad, just probably you are not the one who should do it.

4 Choose your audience (niche) and stick to it. Once upon a time, we decided that “Federated Media” would be “managed by the author” (“author driven”). We could decide that the company would be “managed by the advertiser” (“advertiser driven”), but inside me I thought that the company would have to deal with the guys doing the websites we work with. The core of “Wired” was ideas, the core of “The Standard” is journalism. One clearly distinguishable driving force helped to make the right decisions in those difficult early years.

5 Do not start anything, simply because you can do it. Do something because it’s good for the guys in point 4.

Dick Costolo .

Dick Costolo is the CEO and co-founder of Feedburner , a leading provider of media distribution services and engaging audiences for blogs and RSS feeds. Prior to that, he was co-founder and CEO of Spyonit.com. In September 2000, Spyonit.com was sold to 724 Solutions. Prior to working at Spyonit, Dick co-founded Burning Door Networked Media, a consulting company in the field of web design and development. In October 1996, the Burning Door was taken over by the Digital Knowledge Assets. Dick also runs the “ Ask The Wizard ” blog.

The best decisions I made always referred to hiring decisions. When you are really worried about the absence of a certain person in the staff, it is very easy to hire the first person who came to the interview, but for a company that is just starting its work, it is vital to make sure that all people on your team think that this is the most suitable this work man. You are always advised to hire first-class specialists, but the person should also be suitable for the team you select and for the company you imagine.

I made a lot of mistakes, so I will try to recall only one that will serve as a good lesson for startups - so, one of the biggest mistakes I made in a company I used to work for was the conclusion of one very expensive contract in that area. was not the key to my business vision. Although the original profit seemed great, there is nothing worse than chasing a share in the business that is not the key to your startup vision. The lesson - once deciding what you do, do not spray on another. One of the hardest lessons that entrepreneurs need to learn is what income should be discarded. Of course, you can decide to turn every time the market turns, but in a startup, everyone needs to focus in one direction, and discard projects that can be a real distraction (and which, in the long run, you will probably spend much more than expected).

Paul Graham (Paul Graham).

Paul Graham is an essayist, programmer, and developer of programming languages. He is now a partner at Y Combinator , an innovative venture capital firm specializing in early stage startups. He is also co-founder of Startup School . Previously, he helped develop Viaweb, the first web application, later purchased by Yahoo, and then the first to create a Bayesian spam filter that inspired most modern spam filters to create.

The best decision I made was the decision to make Viaweb a web application. At that time, there were no web applications, so we were not even sure if something like that was possible at all. What initially motivated us is our common dislike for Windows. Writing a desktop application would mean learning Windows, which we really didn’t want to do. Therefore, the servers were the same Unix machines we used every day. To create a web application, all we needed to do was to figure out how to enable users to work with our software through clicks on web pages. It was much easier than learning Windows.

Although, no, actually the best solution was to get two amazingly good programmers, Robert Morris and Trevor Blackwell, to start a company with them.

Probably my worst mistake was that I did not behave very decisively with investors. Now I understand that investors like when you are pushing. This convinces them that you are able to take matters into your own hands. But due to the fact that our investors were so much older than us and gave us, it seemed, huge money, I felt obliged to give in to them. And at the same time, I was not prepared enough to conduct things the way they want, something really important, for example, what our programs should be, or what our strategy should be. This inconsistency led to disputes that took a lot of time and energy.

I understand that in fact it was not a decision taken. It was rather what I did not do than what I did. But I think that the worst mistakes of startups are basically similar to this one. Another big mistake I made was that I did not carefully examine the intellectual property agreements that the people we hired signed. It almost killed us later. But I did not decide not to do this, I just did not pay much attention to it.

Ross Mayfield (Ross Mayfield).

Ross Mayfield is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Socialtext , the first wiki company and the leading provider of Enterprise 2.0 solutions. A well-known blogger and industry expert, he is a serial and social entrepreneur. Under the leadership of Mayfield, Socialtext has grown to a company with more than 2,000 clients of service, application and open source software.

The best solution is to actually become an entrepreneur. I began my career in the non-profit sector, then in the public sector, dreaming about changing the world. I quickly realized that I could prove myself and make a living in the private sector. I was lucky to work in a company producing socially useful products. In addition, I believe that as a founder of a startup, you can quickly have a significant impact, perhaps more than on any other job. This is how to ride a roller coaster. One day you can glow with pride that you create jobs and a satisfying place to work, while in the other you experience stress by meeting with employees and trying to get people to be more humane to each other.

Answer number 2, to more precisely bind this to the solution ...

The best solution is to choose co-founders that you trust.
I will not exaggerate if I say that you are marrying your business partners, especially if we are talking about the founders of a startup. Some see their partner as a “computer freak” because of their excellent knowledge of technology, or “the guy on the wire” because of pleasant conversations and access to capital. Although you want to work with highly qualified people, I would say that it is paramount whether you can trust your partner. If there is the slightest doubt, either resolve them or get out of business, and quickly. I was lucky to work with great people whom I can trust my life. In addition to trust, I would also put experience in working with startups above certain skills. The one who has already rolled on a roller coaster before is still less likely to vomit on your lap.

The biggest mistake is not to take a greater risk before.
Perhaps this is due to the fact that in retrospect all the risks are clearly visible, but I have always regretted that I had not taken greater risk before. For example, we did not open the Socialtext source code until the company got firmly on its feet. Partly due to the fact that, as we thought, sales would fall, and partly due to the fact that we did not have enough staff to really engage the community in the development. But, as it seems to me, if we had done this before, the company would have shown better results. Now, as a planning exercise, I always try to ask two questions: “How can we take greater risk?” And “What risk will create the greatest number of options for us?”. I realized that there are always ways to achieve more, for example, overcoming the instinct to control everything that is common to so many entrepreneurs.

Chris Pirillo.

A computer fan, an Internet entrepreneur, a man obsessed with hardware and software, the author of a book, once a host of a television show, a technology enthusiast, an indiscreet promoter of himself, a coordinator of a technical conference, an ideological evangelist, a blogger. support, bootloader, media person, technology consultant, more-than-further-more. You can call Chris at 1.888.PIRILLO and leave a question for him to answer in his podcast. Chris's blog is always available at Chris.Pirillo.Com .

The bad decision: to deal with sellers who had no idea what they were selling. A good seller (and there are probably only two of them on the entire planet) will cost you dearly, but a bad seller will cost you even more. I loved them with all my heart, but love does not help pay bills. The moral of the story is: be careful when it comes to losing control of your business model.

A good solution: to find someone who would help me in performing various tasks (following the publication schedule, supervising our authors, etc.). Robert Glen Fogarty was sent to us from above, and I regret not having found him a few years ago. He is incredibly talented and successfully relieved my daily stress. The moral of the story is: don't be afraid to give up control to the right people.

Once again, I thank all the responding entrepreneurs, and I hope to write to you soon about the answers of the others (Mark Fletcher).

( Part Two ).

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