

Startups Shouldn't Follow Trends - adii
http://adii.me/startups-shouldnt-follow-trends

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freejack
I couldn't agree more. We're in Toronto and I'm often left scratching my head
asking "Why" after reading Techcrunch, HN and other startup-centric sources.
If you aren't solving a problem for a customer, then you are wasting effort.
Problems come in many shapes and forms - seek them out and solve them better
than anyone else, that's the secret to a successful business in a nutshell.

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jmitcheson
In some cases the customer is the investor; the product is the startup. Or so
it seems.

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Avalaxy
I agree with this. I see most of the people here doing what everyone else is
doing. Using RoR and AWS because it's 'cool', using all kind of bullshit names
to indicate non-existing bullshit jobs, applying practices because everyone
else is using them... There's nothing wrong with using a normal programming
language that has debug tools (such as C#) and there is nothing wrong with
building something that has nothing to do with social media, but something
that's actually useful. Yet some people think that they can become rich by
doing what everyone else is doing... Doesn't work like that.

Too bad the author kind of participates in this as well with hipster terms
like 'ex-rockstar', 'bootstrapping' and 'lean startup'.

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sanderjd
There's nothing wrong with using a normal programming language like Ruby
either. Many people use RoR because it's a good tool, not because it's 'cool'
(aside: is RoR even 'cool' these days?). All tools have their strengths and
weaknesses and while I tend to agree with you that C# has nicer debugging
tools, that is only one of many important considerations when choosing a tool.

Agree with your other points, particularly about doing something that isn't
social media.

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smkiv
Wait, blogging using Svbtle about not following trends as the ceo of a web
startup centered around delivering wordpress themes? I don't mean to hate, but
I can't not ask for an explanation.

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nathanbarry
To be fair to Adii, he was one of the first to sell WordPress themes. His
startup, WooThemes, helped lead that trend.

Though I completely agree about the blogging on Svbtle.

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eli
Agreed. I go to startup meetups and it's crazy how similar all the ideas are.
My startup is B2B and ad-supported, two things that are definitely not trendy,
and I kinda dig that.

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markkanof
I've observed this too at a number of startup pitch events. There are
countless people ready to build a business based on some little missing
feature of Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, etc., but there is almost no one that
wants to solve any problems in any established industry. Seems crazy to me.
Sure maybe building B2B software isn't always sexy, but there are tons of
interesting problems to solve, and lots of real money to be made.

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wamatt
_[x] shouldn't do [y]_. meh

Social was taking off (myspace, friendster etc) and Facebook hopped aboard
that train, and road it longer and harder, than the others. The rest is
history.

However I do agree that going against the grain can work too, just skeptical
of one-size-fits-all advice.

Also, one _should always_ tell readers not be trendy, while blogging about it,
on the ultra-trendy and exclusive SVBTLE network. :p

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gagege
I agree with this article, but I have one suggestion. Don't do what's trendy,
but also don't start to hate everything that is trendy either.

I've seen people on both sides. Those who wont touch anything that is
conservative or a little bit enterprisey and (quite intelligent) programmers
who have allergic reactions to anything that is not .NET or Java (and even
within .NET, they don't consider things like F#).

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raghavneesh
I agree. The product decides itself, how it's gonna be implemented. Things
evolve with time, just you've to look the best option at that time. I do agree
too with the bootstrapping point, it's always good to be in a lean mode, if
you are doing a startup and do not have a solid back support.

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wtvanhest
_Stop doing things just because they’re trendy and mainstream media seems to
reward it with publicity. It’s not clever business._

Am I the only one left wondering why isn't it clever business?

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njx
solve hard problems. Things have become easy now a days so it should be more
affordable and doable to really solve hard problems.

