

It’s going to take five years - six words that can save your startup - erikstarck
http://blog.opportunitycloud.com/2010/03/02/its-going-to-take-five-years/

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tom_ilsinszki
This is a great reminder, if you are impulsive, and want to achieve goals
quickly. There is another type of developer however: the "perfectionist". Some
people, who claim to be "perfectionists" tend to miss deadlines, because the
product is not good enough yet. "Perfectionists" (as myself) need another
reminder: Don't work on something for too long. It might take 5 years to get
it right, but try keeping those deadlines. Release things, even when they are
not perfect (whatever that means). [moral: being a perfectionist is just
another way of procrastination]

~~~
siong1987
"real artists ship." - steve jobs

~~~
tom_ilsinszki
"One’s creation, quite simply, did not exist as art if it was not out there,
available for consumption, doing well… to make a difference in the world and a
dent in the universe, you had to ship."

Thanks for pointing this out.

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JacobAldridge
Reminds me also of the themes in pg's 'How Not to Die' essay[1]. There will be
deadlines missed, mistakes and blind alleys, but if you can 'not die' for five
years then you've probably built a solid company.

[1] <http://www.paulgraham.com/die.html>

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jbyers
Right on. Our startup, Wikispaces, will be five in two weeks. I finally have
the feeling we've got the flywheel spinning at a good clip: millions of users,
thousands of customers, a stable and scalable infrastructure, and actively
hiring to grow the business. But it took years and years of hard work to get
there.

Everything in a bootstrapped startup takes longer than you want. This for me
was and is a constant frustration. It's another reason that having a cofounder
is mandatory in my mind. It's a rare person who has the wherewithal to go it
alone.

~~~
bricestacey
Oh wow, I didn't think I'd stumble across a cofounder of Wikispaces here. We
just got Wikispaces 100% up and running at UMass Boston and we've had it for a
couple years at UMass Boston's Healey Library. Great product and definitely
well improved with time.

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mrshoe
From <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1112881>

_What's usually the biggest mental hurdle for hackers to transition into
entrepreneurs?_

 _pg: Coming to terms with the effort required._

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fnid2
I am working on at least 10 different "startups" right now. People think it's
too many. It's not focused. But I think the world moves slower than I do, so I
work on lots of projects simultaneously. If I hit a wall on one project, I
procrastinate with another one.

A lot of people dedicate themselves to one project, but I liken it to putting
all one's eggs in one basket. It doesn't take much to build something quick
and see if anyone is interested. If they aren't, move on to something else.

You never know when someone might come along who is the missing piece in one
of your projects.

~~~
jasonkester
Indeed. There are lots of things about building a site that require Calendar
Time to elapse to see results. SEO results, A/B results, AdWords performance,
word-of-mouth spreading.

A lot of that stuff can happen in parallel with development on the site, but
it's always nice to have a few other projects to work on to make that Calendar
Time tick by a little faster.

~~~
fnid2
That's how I see it too. Right now, I'm waiting on other people on most of the
projects and I'm thinking about better interfaces or architectures for some.
It helps me to have other things to work on that are productive to distract me
from the angst that builds up when I'm waiting on someone else or calendar
time like you said.

Something I read a while back said "sleeping on it helps." If you're only
working on one thing, then you may be spinning wheels that your brain can do
itself when given the right amount of time to evaluate or even discover all
the options.

Another reason I can do this is a lack of demands from a timeline. A lot of
project die simply because there wasn't enough time to let them evolve or find
a market or they were "ahead of their time." That's fine, just be patient and
work on something else. If it's a VC backed idea, that's not an option. You
can't tell investors, "Hey we're just going to wait right here and see what
happens..." But often times that's really the best route to success.

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rms
It took Zuckerberg more than five years to make Facebook the #1 web site...
he's still not quite there but probably by the end of 2010.

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diN0bot
how does this play with the thought that if an idea doesn't find enough
traction in 3 months you should move on? i get the impression from investors
and startup bootcamps that they want fast results seemingly more than
commitment. how many times have we been reminded that startups completely
change their ideas? how do we balance flightiness with steadfastness?

~~~
dualogy
"how does this play with the thought that if an idea doesn't find enough
traction in 3 months you should move on?"

Depends entirely of your definition of "enough". If anyone pays you only 1$
within 3 months of putting up a "Buy Now" button somewhere, you're onto
something --- now grow it if and only if that "something" is what you can bear
doing for the next few years to come.

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freshfunk
Short but sweet.

I think the other thing that entrepreneurs should keep in mind is that while
you will need to work hard to succeed, don't neglect your
family/friends/health. Success will take time and if you neglect these things,
you'll either crash before you succeed or end up in a bad spot.

~~~
erikstarck
True. Gary Vaynerchuk talks about this in Crush It. Health and family should
always come first.

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JoeAltmaier
I've never spent 10 years at a startup, and several were successful. In fact,
after 5 years any startup is unrecognizably different from how it started.

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apsec112
"People say it takes 10′000 hours of practice to become an expert in
something. That’s roughly ten years."

Assuming you work twenty hours a week, which is an assumption he should
explicitly state, rather than stealing it (uncited) from Malcolm Gladwell.

~~~
mattm
Of course Gladwell "stole" it from other people before him. It's not a new
idea.

~~~
erikstarck
Yeah, I have a faint memory of reading about that before Gladwell came out
with his book (which I haven't read).

Anyway, putting a number on expertise is purely an academic exercise. The
important thing is that it clearly will take a huge effort and "talent" is
only a small part of it. The rest is inspiration and transpiration.

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TheSOB88
Ten years to become an expert, five years to become... an exp?

