DISQUS

Maggy Young · 2 years ago

Would quibble with term 'unique value proposition' as there are very few of these around any more, not least on the web & especially open to raw startups which this series is aimed at. Read recently it is a mistake to want to be unique, instead concentrate on a new angle/combination & making it work. The story of the net is Evolution eg. small social sites, then Friendster, then M/Space & F/book. You Tube grew on the back of M/Space.

Also instead of a list of 0000's of unknowns in the Dead Pool, it might make a useful follow up to examine a few of the more substantial sites which failed eg. BackFence, & reasons for eg. the decline of Friendster & give us some concrete stuff.

Danny Ma · 2 years ago

Maggy, I totally agree. The combination factor is such a key, siting iPod/iTunes as a classic example.

The eqivalent of that in the network utility world would be, oh say... a friendster with microblogging capability reaching into every smartphone, portable gaming device, iPod Touch and Starbucks.

I'm currently in Hong Kong working on something like this for the Greater China market, huge opportunities over here.

Internet Phone Service · 1 year ago

Combination is necessary for doing this.We have to make certain that the same people who use Netflix can easily get their head around your product.

Pete · 1 year ago

Great post. We can all learn a lot more by studying examples of failure than by getting caught up in the hype and false hopes bred by super-successful startups

Andy · 1 year ago

If you don't make use of the many resources out there that are designed with Startups in-mind, you'd fail too. Check out Sun Microsystem's Startup Essentials Program-- discounts on x64 servers, free tech support and more. They're just one of the many abundant resources out there. Good luck!

debt advisor · 1 year ago

To sum it all.....

You need to make a really interesting product that people can't resist to buy

If this is achieved, failure is a nearly impossible.
Creativity and effectiveness is the key.

Beautiful Minds · 1 year ago

Things will turn unfavourable when some one do like what dell have done to me.. That too for a start up company, they should treat customer as the king.

Debt Consolidation · 1 year ago

This article reminds me of the burger king commercial where a new employee quits after 5 minutes of working because he can afford something off the dollar menu.

Porch Lifts · 1 year ago

I found the section about earl adopters pretty interesting. I never thought about it like that, but now that I do it really makes sense.

I guess the quote should be "If you build it, market it properly, and have some luck: They Will Come.

Lisa Medina · 11 months ago

Thanks for the information. I do agree you need to make your services stand out as well as the product. I am with a company that has natural and organic snacks. And even though it is unique, I still have to market myself as having great customer service and communication to the customer when needed. I value great information and always in search to learn more.

Amuseline · 9 months ago

Thanks for you thoughts. I can agree with you and the main thing one shall remember is creating more quality content.