
The Young Man's Business Model - ntoshev
http://paultyma.blogspot.com/2008/04/young-mans-business-model.html
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dmv
The motorcycle screw reminds me of a similar problem solving lesson I have
learned from experience, which may resonate more with those less mechanically
inclined.

When moving a large object (especially a couch), remove everything you can
(that is intented to be removable) from the object (legs, pillows) and the
path (doors come off hinges easily). The set up and tear down (in testing
terms; in practical terms, it is reverse order) steps seem like potential
wasted effort, but taken as a mandatory step are constant time. Iterating
through the things that need to be removed to achieve the goal is linear, with
potentially exponential cost (you get tired). Like what everyone is saying
about burn rates in a recession: in hindsight, few regret trimming too early
and plenty regret trimming too late. Few complain about a move made too easy.

In theory, this is a straightforward argument that any sufficiently
intelligent person could read and practice. In practice, it is not until at
least your third move that you pause during the move to question why the plan
is "let's just try it first" and "it is not too heavy". But you never see a
professional piano mover iterate. This is not a comment trying to propose a
solution. I just liked the article for its clean way of expressing how
experience matters in your approach.

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josefresco
I have another boring story. I was moving a treadmill with my Dad yesterday
and we had to disassemble parts to fit it into a particular room. As we were
working I told him about a treadmill I had owned, that folded up and had good
wheels.

Lesson? Make and buy treadmills that fold.

The end.

~~~
jamongkad
Thank you for putting it in a few sentences.

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knarf
I like the idea that your business should be about helping other people make
money. At least two ideas I submitted in my application to ycombinator
actually build on that scheme.

~~~
mixmax
_Hyman Roth always makes money for his partners. One by one, our old friends
are gone. Death, natural or not, prison, deported. Hyman Roth is the only one
left, because he always made money for his partners._

Godfather II

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jfornear
I don't think this trend of criticizing the ad-supported business model is
fair. Whether you like it or not, having eyeballs is "valuable" and brands
will always pay to be seen. It doesn't matter how old you are or how much
"value" your app is bringing to the table, if the economy is up and you have
eyeballs, you can sell ads and make money. If the economy is down, ad spending
is cut and the ad-supported model struggles. The ad-supported model isn't dead
merely because the economy is down lately. It will be back.

~~~
prospero
You can turn eyeballs into money, but it helps if they're the right eyeballs.
The less discriminate you are in who you target, the less you understand your
audience, and the less money you'll make per visitor. For some websites, this
value will approach zero.

Knowing specific people who will use your product is important, if only to
better understand your own value proposition. To rely on people discovering
your site and immediately understanding what it offers them is silly. This is
true regardless of your business model.

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vlad
More comments from the last time this was submitted to YCN:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=163083>

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daveambrose
I used to fix my dirt bike when I was younger and know exactly the type of
screw he was talking about. The way the old-man went about solving the problem
made me instantly think of a phrase we tend to forget in the start-up world:
"Thinking in multiple perspectives".

We need to take a moment from our 25/8 schedules and think about what we're
working on/trying change from another viewpoint.

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darose
That's especially critical in times of market downturn. If your product isn't
making (or saving) a company a sizable amount of $, it's going to be hard for
them to justify a purchase.

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josefresco
3 lame stories and 1269 words to get to the rather obvious and well beaten to
death Internet cliche of ...

1\. Have Idea, launch Site 2\. Get Lots of Traffic. 3\. ?? 4\. Profit.

I got it Paul, save your wrists.

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lallysingh
It warrants repeating, and the 1269 words did a good explanation of why. The
"build it and they will come" mentality _doesn't_work_.

