

Stop Building Apps and Start Disrupting Industries - badboyboyce
http://www.mikekarnj.com/blog/2011/05/15/stop-building-apps-and-start-disrupting-industries/

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ekidd
If you're a small team with limited runway, you can't simply decide to disrupt
an entire industry. That's a huge undertaking, and a hopelessly vague one.
What you _can_ do is bite off a small piece of the problem, find some
customers who really want to give you money, and iterate. Once you have a
proven track record and solid revenues, you can aim higher.

Once upon a time, VCs didn't insist on taking baby steps, and would fund
people who wanted to "revolutionize the grocery industry." That led to
disasters like Webvan, and the first dotcom crash. For a good history of how
Webvan bit off more than it could chew, see _Four Steps to the Epiphany_. For
some online overviews, see:

[http://articles.sfgate.com/2001-07-12/technology/17606161_1_...](http://articles.sfgate.com/2001-07-12/technology/17606161_1_webvan-
kozmo-delivery)

[http://www.beyondvc.com/2010/10/dont-build-an-empire-
overnig...](http://www.beyondvc.com/2010/10/dont-build-an-empire-overnight-
lessons-from-freshdirect-and-webvan.html)

Today, you're still allowed to dream big. But you're expected to start small,
and build from there.

~~~
mikekarnj
I agree. All companies should dream big and then break it down into actionable
and realistic steps.

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nhebb
_There are complete industries built on creating zero value for the world
(investment banking)._

Maybe he's watched one too many Oliver Stone movies, but I don't think he
understands the importance of investment banking. While SV VC's provide
capital to startups on a comparatively small scale, investment banks provide
capital to businesses on a much larger scale. Love 'em or hate 'em, they do
provide a much needed service to our economy.

~~~
silverlake
Depends on the area. Many banks act as middlemen for OTC trades that could and
should be on an exchange. They purposely scuttle public exchanges because it
would eliminate their lucrative fees.

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fjw
I appreciate his sentiment and especially his motivation, but I'm not entirely
sure everyone who is setting out to build an app must make the strict
distinction between changing the world and not changing it. This borders on
being an either/or fallacy - who's to say that you can't just build something
for personal enjoyment and THEN watch it grow bigger and change the world?

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synnik
Disruption needs to be driven from industry knowledge. Certainly technology
will be the major enabler of disruption, and may be the catalyst to disruptive
ideas, but it industry insiders know where to make the changes and how to
achieve acceptance.

So raising your hand and offering to build the tech is not the hard part. The
hard part is finding those insiders who know every detail of the industry, but
do not buy into the status quo.

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nhangen
The argument is largely subjective. For one person, making the world a better
place is achieved by spending more time with the family to raise good kids
that can improve upon their parent's success and keep building.

To others, it's creating something like Paypal or Square.

To another, it's Kiva.

Lastly, as another commenter said, you need money and time. You can buy time
with more money, so let's say you just need money. Apps can be used to get
that money.

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thinkcomp
I agree with the sentiment here completely, but sadly, there's almost zero
support for true disruption these days from Silicon Valley.

FaceCash disrupts the credit card companies and banks. Not a single VC has
offered a term sheet to date. (I'm not necessarily upset about this, but it's
an interesting fact.) Students would generally rather work for Facebook or
Google where they can make more money in a summer. Industry conferences don't
want to hear from the people working on the hardest problems; they want to
hear from the people who have made the most money.

There are some real systemic problems here that, if they don't eventually get
worked out, will end up keeping us locked into a steadily declining system in
a number of industries.

~~~
revorad
I don't know enough details about your or Square's technology and business,
but every time I see you complain about how no one supports true disruption
and even the cool new startups are doing the same old thing, I remember this
video by Sean Murphy on technology adoption:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4h68mrzuwc>

I hope it will help you and you will take my comment as constructive
criticism.

~~~
thinkcomp
It's a good video and an interesting graphical representation of the problem I
hadn't seen before. It also helps explain why so many startups work on small
issues rather than large ones. Thanks for sharing it!

Unfortunately, what it doesn't explain is the hidden cost that such an
approach has, when repeated indefinitely, on the greater context of the
Valley's infrastructure and incentive structure. Investors today simply are
not rewarding risk.

~~~
revorad
I hope you will find someone to back your daring innovations. Godspeed!

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tzm
Disruption is a fundamental change of the business model, economics and user
experience.

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dreamdu5t
If you want real disruption, you're not likely to find funding for it.

------
EGreg
Stop building apps and start building platforms which can eventually disrupt
industries.

------
swombat
_snip_

~~~
mikekarnj
The derivatives market is an arbitrary market where money just moves from one
place to another.

Real engineers build things like bridges and websites. Bankers build dreams
and leverage the shit out of it to put the whole country in debt.

[http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-
american...](http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-
bubble-machine-20100405)

~~~
bdunbar
_Real engineers build things like bridges and websites. Bankers build dreams
and leverage the shit out of it to put the whole country in debt._

Without banking you can't have infrastructure: no financing, no cement, no
salaries, one can't acquire land.

Shorter: you can't boot strap a bridge.

