

4 Things Startups Should Learn from Moneyball - skelneko
http://idea-stack.tumblr.com/post/17926925187/4-things-startups-learn-from-moneyball

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vidocha
I though this was a great movie as well and quickly picked up all the lessons
in it for startups. I even recommended it to my co-founder to go and watch it.

One lesson I learned was that we have to have blind faith in our startup. I am
pretty young so I don't get much objection to doing a startup, but I can see
how this can be a problem to someone who has more responsibilities like a
family, or puts higher education in jeopardy. Billy Beane himself lost his
chance at higher education to go after his dream. The other point of objection
is the startup itself, people might not see the potential in the startup like
you do. Some people just won't get it, they won't think it will work, even
after you explained the ultimate vision. Billy got shit from everyone, the
scouts, the coach, and the sports commentators, who are almost equivalent to
trolls. To these people you just can't explain how you eat what you kill, it's
a concept they will never try and simply won't understand the fulfillment of
the hunt.

My other favorite takeaway was in the beginning of the movie when Billy put a
scout on the spot and repetitively asked him "what's the problem", referring
to the teams main challenge. The scout saw the problem the way they always see
the problem, the wrong way. Billy new that if they went about the season
looking at the problem the same way they did the previous year when they lost,
then they would naturally lose again. For alcoholics recognizing you have a
problem is the first step. Startups know we have a problem, in fact startups
wouldn't exist if there weren't any problems to solve. Picking the right
problem to solve is key, as long as solving all the little problems that go
with running a startup. A co-founder might recognize that they are not seeing
the mythical hockey stick on their charts. Some might suggest that it is
because the landing page design sucks, while the real reason is that the
startup doesn't explain clearly how it can benefit their users. Being able to
recognize the right problem is key in our success, we should make sure to look
at it from all angles so as to not overlook it. Sometimes it is having the
right tools in place, however, most of the times it's making sure you are
listening to your users/customers.

