
Hey, entrepreneurs, we’re living in a bubble - evo_9
http://venturebeat.com/2011/11/06/hey-entrepreneurs-we%e2%80%99re-living-in-a-bubble/
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sivers
> "American entrepreneurs do have a shot — if we have the courage to learn
> about markets half-way around the world"

I feel the same way, and it's a big reason I forced myself out of my comfort
zone and moved to Asia. (Granted, to comfortable Singapore, but every month I
go to a new country to learn about the culture and business environment
there.)

There's really some amazing stuff going on over here. I'm going to spend the
next 10 years writing about it in these books: <http://woodegg.com/>

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aba_sababa
Every month? What are you planning for January?

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sivers
Pretty much every month, yeah. Right now I'm hiring someone to do the research
and interviews, so that I can stay put for a while.

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gfodor
I think everyone is tired of the flood of coupon startups, but the argument
there is simply it is generally a stupid thing to be focusing your engineering
talents towards. This ivory tower argument about the new global middle class
is unnecessary and effectively tries to apply a business-centric argument to
something that is much more obvious: life is short, why are you working on the
100th daily deal or cat photo site?

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hessenwolf
Thank you for encouraging me to continue working on the 'big project' and not
pivoting to get that cat photo site out. My commitment was waning. (this is
not sarcasm, btw)

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blackiron
Go for your big projec. Siri's success has prooved that working on an
interesting and deep problems will have its rewards.

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codeslush
I like the idea of the article, but I would be more impressed if the author
would have taken a few moments to identify steps one might take to help find
solutions for this new "global middle class." I have no doubt opportunity
exists, but it isn't as simple, in my opinion, as looking at our (U.S.) own
history. The playing field is very different. Maybe a springwise-like site
would be a good way to communicate upcoming needs (as opposed to trends)
outside the u.s. market?

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PaulHoule
Well I made a web site about the world and discovered many of my best users
are from Africa and the Middle East. I never thought I'd be big in Iran.

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kapitalx
Paul, can you share a link please?

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PaulHoule
<http://ookaboo.com/>

I haven't done any breakout of ad revenues in different regions but every day
I have to "moderate" comments in languages I don't know at all.

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aba_sababa
I agree, but it's very tough to innovate and solve problems that you don't
even know exist. That kind of information would be very valuable. Maybe that's
the first step.

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cageface
Probably the best way, if you can afford the time, is to go live in one of
these emerging market countries for a while.

However, after close to a year of living in Vietnam I haven't seen any obvious
opportunities. People here will pay for hardware, but the idea of paying for
software/music/movies/services etc is pretty foreign. For example, most people
jailbreak their iPhone and get apps for free. Maybe the right kind of targeted
advertising could work but you'd practically have to be native to be savvy
enough to get that right.

~~~
acgourley
Definitely interesting, since I hear many people suggest moving to another
country would yield bounties of startup ideas.

That said, certainly there must be tech startup opportunities beyond pure
content and software plays. Aren't there some other pain-points that could be
solved?

~~~
cageface
I'm sure there are things that have just so far eluded my imagination, but it
may also be better to look somewhere a little more developed. There's a huge
untapped population here but not much buying power yet. The big players like
Facebook and Google and Yahoo are already pretty entrenched here too so it's
not like you've got an open field to play with.

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jermaink
Hi Bubble, you´re welcome!

Whatever the bubble looks like, wherever it will develop, there will always be
new creative ideas disrupting the status quo.

I think there´s no such thing as a free bubble. It will rearrange the system
and in the fog of all pseudo entrepreneurship, the true creators and ideas
will be seen.

Nobody has to be named nostradamus to be aware of cyclic movements in
industries. If ever, a bubble can only be a measurement of high financial
liquidity and volume of business valuations. Of course, capital remains a
vehicle helping new ideas to develop. But if a bubble comes or does´t is
totally unimportant, isn´t it?

I think that the money reports in the news attract a lot of spectators and
streakers right now that pretend to be part of a game that they define by
exit, funding and names. But ideas like Airbnb, Getaround, Square (you name
it) are no a result of a movement in volume, like a statistical confidence
interval or given percentile of success. They are structures that combine real
need with digital supply and shape cultural aspects of society.

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ashishgandhi
I grew up in India. But I can't identify with "entrepreneurs in emerging
markets" thing. Where are they? Who are they? What came out of my country - I
want to know!

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Tichy
Article is unreadable on an Android tablet, buggy advertising interferes.

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robertp
Man wtf is this shit? Is this a Demand Media type of article?

There are maybe a dozen or so companies with really high valuations, there are
then hundreds or low thousands of web based companies that are trying to be
profitable and make it for themselves.

Look at the author of this article, he started an "intelligence platform".
Wow, if you can't plug your company into something even intelligent techy
people can understand, what about everyone else? Maybe he is in the bubble?

