"...why I keep running into the same brilliant, wise, full-of perpsective programmers at the same parties/meetups... because I know that all programmers everywhere know a lot more about businesses... than anybody anywhere."
I could be wrong but have you ever thought that maybe since you had trouble convincing/selling your idea to the programmers themselves that they logically concluded that you'd probably have a hard time convincing/selling to other people too? or that since you have no track record, that its hard to prove your busines acumen... Knowing about textbook business is different from being able to execute it in real life...
"I could be wrong but have you ever thought that maybe since you had trouble convincing/selling your idea to the programmers themselves that they logically concluded that you'd probably have a hard time convincing/selling to other people too?
Well, since it usually never even GETS to my idea because they're busy showing me their brilliant technical features that few people would use and even fewer would pay money for ...
Plus, I don't trust the business acumen of most programmers. In 1999 I got turned down by Phil Greenspun because he was 100% convinced he could build a successful company building $1-5 million a pop corporate websites forever based on (1) Oracle costing a million per licence then (2) no other technologies existing to compete with Oracle (3) complete obvliviousness to offshore development trends (4) never-ending bubble enabling people to pay that much for a website forever and ever.
Guess he really showed me his business acumen when a year and a half later the VCs outmaneuvered him out of his startup.
So, since most programmers admire his business acumen, by transition most programmers in my mind have ... um ... not too much business acumen.
"or that since you have no track record, that its hard to prove your busines acumen...
See above.
Or my current experience this summer with a programmer who left my profitable business model and private equity relationships to work on his awesome idea which currently has a blog with ... um .. 3 subscribers (myself being one) and a never ending stream of posts with "o" comments.
" Knowing about textbook business is different from being able to execute it in real life...
I know nothing about textbooks. Just a market with a need and willingness to pay and a relationship to a CEO at a Dubai based equity firm willing to invest if I can build a "showable" example.
I would have thought in today's environment a profitable business model and people willing to invest would be of some value ...
But I could be wrong. Maybe bush is right and we're not coming into a recession/depression, but are merely in a "slowing down business time" as he put it that's due to reverse any second now, which will mean come this summer Ruby/Ajax based sites with no paying customers and no business model in the foreseeable future will be all the rage again.
I could be wrong but have you ever thought that maybe since you had trouble convincing/selling your idea to the programmers themselves that they logically concluded that you'd probably have a hard time convincing/selling to other people too? or that since you have no track record, that its hard to prove your busines acumen... Knowing about textbook business is different from being able to execute it in real life...