

The Value of Design to Startups - jack7890
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jan2010/id20100120_303529.htm

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patio11
Original version here:

[http://www.500hats.typepad.com/500blogs/2010/01/startups-
vcs...](http://www.500hats.typepad.com/500blogs/2010/01/startups-vcs-eat-your-
own-damn-dogfood.html)

The editing process apparently stripped it of some of damn-wretched
bloodletting tricolored shamen-with-ransom-notes charm. (That might sound
snarky but I actually kind of like the metaphor. The refusal to use
rudimentary measures like e.g. A/B testing because "it is hard and anyway I
know what I'm doing" makes us look less like doctors and more like physicians
leeching patients because, hey, leeches were good enough for Dad. Or, to use a
modern analogy, we look like doctors who will not use checklists because
they're too smart to ever kill anyone because they didn't follow a checklist.)

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rgrieselhuber
"This is an edited version of an article that previously ran on
DaveMcClure.com."

I'm guessing that "pruned" is a more accurate description than "edited."

Great article, though.

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ohashi
It follows nicely on that posterous v tumblr post a couple weeks ago. Design
matters. I guess the question becomes how much? And that probably varies based
on industry and who you are competing against. Do you have to be amazing or
better than everyone else?

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davidw
So... he's basically saying that a great user experience, as well as good
marketing, is the barrier to entry, rather than great engineering?

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Towle_
Unsurprising that this article earned four (now five) comments from HN
readers, whereas "lisp vs. language x" articles merit dozens.

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extension
People think you need your right leg to walk but it's the left leg that's
really important.

