

Building A Startup Backwards - Ataub24
http://www.betabeat.com/2011/12/02/building-backwards-the-one-ny-startup-putting-business-before-product/

======
padrack
I think the point is there is a romantic ideal of building product first, just
make it cool, no ads, don't focus on revenue. If you need cash, raise a
venture round.

But that actually puts a lot of strange stresses on a company, because the
need to find a exit for a multiply of the money they raised.

In this case, the company figured out how to monetize and attract users, but
not retain them (a lot of churn). Now they are trying to build a stickier,
more engaging product.

------
InclinedPlane
It's funny how "backwards" in startup-land is "using basic business common
sense" for every other business venture on the planet.

This isn't revolutionary advice here: get profitable, then grow. There's far
less risk in doing it that way than the reverse. Even if you make mistakes
while small if you are profitable or even on the bubble of profitability you
can overcome them. Just about any mistake on timeline, acquiring investment
funding, "monetization", or budget can easily sink a "grow then make money"
style startup. Given that novel software development is already a rather risky
endeavor that translates into quite a lot of risk.

~~~
gatlin
I won't pretend to be successful but many successful people I know did the
following:

0) School, education, apprenticing, whatever. Helped someone else's dream
along and forfeited their wants for a bit. 1) Did mind-numbing grind work for
a long time. 2) At each step of the way, bemoaned that their successes and
increases in expertise, skill, and profit were incremental at best. 3) Did
step (2) about a brazilian times 4) At some point looked back and realized
they were now successful.

Startup culture confused me for a while because of this. It seemed backward.

------
thenewgreen
It's an interesting idea. It seems to me that so much of the revenue side
depends on scale. How can you monetize something if you aren't sure how its
going to be used etc? The user experience often drives how a site can be
monetized... you know?

