

All In: Now's The Time - silentscope
http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/11/instagram-all-in/

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asanwal
So acquirers are going to pay too much for companies in the coming silly
season and this should be your signal to really go "all in" on your startup?

Instagram hit the startup lottery. Awesome for them. But building a biz solely
because of market frothiness and hoping to hit the lottery seems like a
horribly misguided idea.

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nchuhoai
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6IQ_FOCE6I>

Always appropriate. On a side note, really hard to know whether this is a
bubble or not. I don't want to take either side, but you cannot refute that a
billion dollars for a startup that did not gain any significant revenue seems
like a lot of money.

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fourstar
People get lucky. The instagram story was one of luck, rather than hard work
(granted, they probably put in long hours but in the end they hit a goldmine
purely on luck [plus I'm sure being connected to the top VCs & players in the
valley didn't hurt]).

My point is, while it's great to encourage entrepreneurship, it's easier said
than done.

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rbranson
Instagram is an exceptional product built with significant restraint and
focus. It took them over a year and a half to release an Android app, because
they were focused on what matters. This is exceedingly rare, as most teams
would end up shortsightedly chasing the last few percent of users. Your
assumption that the Instagram team has some above average connections in the
valley is also baseless.

Make your own luck.

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fourstar
If you are going to say that my claims are baseless, please explain "... they
focused on what matters.". What would that be exactly?

Significant restraint and focus? Please expand on what you also mean by this.

You're right on one point... They don't have above average connections. They
have spectacular connections. Only the connections that being funded by Jack
Dorsey, Sequoia, Benchmark, Andreessen Horowitz, etc. would provide.

~~~
rbranson
What I mean is that typically these types of companies drive to support all
platforms (including web), diluting their ability to execute. Instagram
focused on excellent execution for a narrower user base and won over a large
number of users. Considering the demand for an Android app, they held out for
a very long time, until they were able to bring the same level of execution to
that platform.

This isn't "connections." This is called an investment. It is because those
investors realized the potential here and invested in the company. Maybe I
read it wrong, but your post made it seem like there is some kind of unfair
advantage they had because they "knew a guy who knew a guy." Only after they
proved their ability to execute did they take significant funding and gain
those connections.

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dennisgorelik
_you need to slide all of your chips on to the table._

Is it a casino?

Thanks, but no thanks.

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hartror
I notice that the only use of "bubble" in the OP is when talking about the
late 90s. Surely we want to move away from cash in while to goings good
mentality the OP is promoting to something more sustainable. Otherwise we're
going to see a further degradation of web technology as a good place to
invest. I don't know if there is a bubble or not, but the language in the OP
screams it.

This all assumes investors are capable of weighing up the relative merits of
various investments and aren't blinded by big exits like that of Instagram.
And the evidence continues to point to them being blinded by dollar signs . .
.

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jmathai
It's important to understand the context of this post. Adeo said it was an
email to their startups which they decided to publish.

It's a pep talk to people who've already or are on the brink of taking the
leap. In that light it's entirely applicable. It's not speaking against sane
business models it's about use this as an opportunity to dig in and kick ass.

It doesn't matter how you get to "kick ass" ... as long as you get there.

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thesash
As an entrepreneur, what you really have to ask yourself is: are you pursuing
your idea because you think you'll get rich, or because you want to change the
world? Are you chasing money, or building value?

Valuations may be high right now, and some frothy transactions may be going
on, but that doesn't make building a company any easier. If you can bootstrap,
work on a project on the side, and keep a backup plan until you're ready to
make the leap, do it! If the problem you're chasing is big and scary and
capital intensive, then go raise the capital necessary to tackle it, but if
not, you may be better off bootstrapping and building a 5 million dollar
company you own all of than a 100 million dollar company where you end up
heavily diluted [1].

[1] [http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2010/06/paths-
to-5m-for-...](http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2010/06/paths-to-5m-for-a-
startup-founder.html)

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alaskamiller
If you're in your 20's and have skills now is the best time to do something
big.

You're being squeezed on both sides. The gen-Xers that cashed out are
reinvesting and flexing their muscles to win again. The teens and early twenty
whippersnappers are hungry and foolish enough to think they'll win.

If you love what you do and do what you love then you'll win. Just make sure
you love something worthwhile.

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snowwrestler
Articles like this seem to me like a good sign that we might be entering
bubble territory.

This is essentially saying, "hey everyone, time to cash in right now before
the money dries up." Of course in that sentence "money" refers to capital, not
revenues or profits. Such misplaced focus was the hallmark problem of the late
90's bubble.

I went in all-in for that bubble and got 10 months of hope followed by 4
months of COBRA and unemployment, then another regular ol' job.

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kristianp
Yesterday Wired was saying that it's not a bubble.

