

4 Startups + 4 Months + 4 People = Mayhem - jasonb05
http://www.technation.com.au/2008/09/05/4-startups-4-months-4-people-mayhem/

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wheels
First the good: sounds like a lot of fun and a good way to generate ideas and
see how they stick.

Then the crotchety: website != startup. Building a business is a lot harder
than hacking together a website (wonderfully groovy or otherwise). Paul's
mantra of "build something people want" is a precondition, not the endpoint.
It's next to impossible to build a business in a month.

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jasonb05
cheers wheels

your "crotchety" point's a good one. in fact, it's a frequent point of
discussion within the team. the website!=business comment is a common rebuke
for us.

my position is agreement with your statement. "something people want" is a
starting point, a primer for the business. rather than four business in four
months, I argue 4 seeds, some of which may grow into viable business, and most
that won't.

Further, trying to grow 4 business at a time (come November) is equally
insane. The niches are small (we call them micro startups - one month to
address the core need, the "one thing"), and the end of the year might be a
good time to weed.

nevertheless, we are learning a tremendous amount about the process, about
users, and about how much we truly don't know. and damn it's better than
working in an office!

~~~
wheels
Hey Jason --

I'd really recommend taking one of the ideas at the end of the four months and
seeing how far you can run with it. The trials and errors of building a
business have really been the eye-opening part of our own startup experience.
There's nothing quite like that first flopped investor pitch or learning how
to incorporate or doing semi-long-term planning to really change your outlook.

Best of luck. :-)

~~~
mace
Agreed. It might be worthwhile to work on a project longer than a month to
build a user base and accumulate enough useful feedback that might lead you
into building what people want.

Project Mayhem is an interesting experiment. I bet some of your products might
turn out to be better than more well-funded products.

