

What K. Told Me About Starting Up - mahipal
http://whatahack.tumblr.com/post/1189095328/what-k-told-me-about-starting-up

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shadowsun7
This deserves another mention: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=469940>

Is K. right? Maybe. That depends on what context he's thinking about - the
kind of startups he's done, probably. I suspect that he's likely making an
attempt (a regretful one, I must add) to generalize whatever it is he's
learnt, and apply that to every single bloody startup there is out there.

Because almost everything he's saying is utter rubbish, applied to web
startups. The context isn't right. Google won because of cleaner design?
Right. Sure. The iPod was a lousier product? Right. Sure. Microsoft and
Windows as an example of how to do things? I'm not sure if that's the right
advice he should be giving to a young student-entrepreneur. 'Be like
Microsoft' doesn't make much sense when you consider the fact that Microsoft
wasn't much like Microsoft when they first started out.

Paul Buchheit has an opposing view point
([http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2010/02/if-your-product-
is-...](http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2010/02/if-your-product-is-great-it-
doesnt-need.html)) that you should consider - one of the _many_ people who say
things that run contrary to K.'s advice, I must add. (See also pg's How to
Start a Startup <http://www.paulgraham.com/start.html>)

I suppose it all boils down to: a) what kind of business do you want to build?
Because that determines b) who you listen to. If you want to get into K.'s
space, that's fine. He's probably right. But if you want to build a Google, or
an Apple - heck, even a Microsoft ... well you should consider looking
elsewhere.

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erikstarck
This story reminds me of the book "The Art of Profitability" which is told in
the same master-student setup. Well worth a read!

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bhiggins
Riiiight, if only AltaVista had done a redesign... sure.

