- Monster: Don't get burned by user controlled/driven content. Balance between professionalism and community content (unless you're www.collegehumor.com).
- PayPal: Focus Matters. Don't lose site of core capabilities. Avoid the temptation of trying to be everything, to everyone.
- NetFlix: Don't believe you understand the whole business model from the get-go. Plan to fail (because it WILL happen).
- LinkedIn: Don't have a bunch of promotional advertising and marketing stuff floating all over your page (AMEN!!). Don't make them (the users) click too much. Make finding what they want easy or they will go somewhere else where it is easy, whatever IT is.
- Snapfish: Don't chase other customer segments without mastering your primary. Don't hire too quickly.
- Hoover's Online: Avoid anything that doesn't focus on what you do well.
- Salesforce: Don't let potential investors throw you off what you gut is telling you to do. Don't waste time focusing on things that aren't your core product.
- Bluefly: Don't do something that's WELL Covered and exploited in the marketplace. Identify a focus. Maintain that focus.
- Expedia: Don't assume your customers shop the same way you do. Look at things from your customer's perspective.
- Adobe: Don't forget to do research. Use evidence and research to support decisions - there's no excuse not too. With the internet, information is soooo cheap (and does involve card catalogs).
- Travelocity: Don't forget your economic engine (what makes you $$$). Drive revenue growth BUT don't forget the human element.
- Yahoo!: Never lose site of your original goal which is why you started the business in the first place.
- Craigslist: Don't do what users don't ask you to do. Control your destiny - Don't accept money from outside firms like VC's (WHAT?!?). Don't do marketing or advertising - these are the costliest things a startup can do - they chew up huge money.
So there you have it. 13 Internet Entrepreneurs and their advice on what NOT to do. Take it for what its worth. Link to the article.
Now Playing: Justin Timberlake - My Love (FutureSex, LoveSounds).
Soooooo glad Timm is back (Timm = Timbaland)!!
2 comments:
great list!
I'd never ever, again, even with a gun to my head, in any parallel universe, under ALL circumnstances, would ever do a startup without primary market research
for me, building something for hypothetical future customers has always resulted in never ending head aches and disappointment
so now, the only way to know whether I should be doing buzzsupply.com (or something), is when I'm sitting on contracts for delivery.
The problem with hypothetical customers is there's nothing guaranteeing that they'll actually be come real.
Something told US to step back and think about what WE as customers would and would not want. Oddly enough, it lead to us scaling back a lot of our initial ideas (and reducing our start up costs).
Glad you liked the list!
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