Data is valuable, but getting it is hard. Here's my take on it, taken from a book I'm writing.
Entrepreneurs often shy away from data-heavy products because they believe they can't make it without the data mountains OpenAI or others have. I don't think that's true. I think, you can:
1. Create value with minimal data, by pulling in data you might not yet own (like external data sets, publically available ones, etc.). Then, use that to attract a minimal set of first users, get their data, and go from there incrementally.
2. You can heavily incentivize early data contributions as Glassdoor does.
3. And you can bootstrap with alternative data sources.
Of course, there are a few battles you shouldn't fight, but I think there's way more potential for data-heavy startups out there than people realize.
Entrepreneurs often shy away from data-heavy products because they believe they can't make it without the data mountains OpenAI or others have. I don't think that's true. I think, you can:
1. Create value with minimal data, by pulling in data you might not yet own (like external data sets, publically available ones, etc.). Then, use that to attract a minimal set of first users, get their data, and go from there incrementally.
2. You can heavily incentivize early data contributions as Glassdoor does.
3. And you can bootstrap with alternative data sources.
Of course, there are a few battles you shouldn't fight, but I think there's way more potential for data-heavy startups out there than people realize.
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