The 10 Ways Startup Advice Is Flawed

Ed Loessi 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Wordpress

Thanks Eric,

I agree with the 10 that you have. I have been on both sides of the coin having received advice from “those who have done it” and have given advice as “one who has done something”. I definitely think it is important for people seeking advice to understand what level of done it or done something is being offered.

As we all know the number of people who have “done it” is pretty small and more likely you will be relying on people who have done something so try and find people who will be honest with you and tell you what they did and what happened with out a lot of puff and fluff.

In my most recent company we are attempting this by posting out a series of blogs on “Eating our Own Dog Food” and “How we created and implemented X Strategy as a startup”. We took this approach to promote our product, which is for implementing strategic plans and we figured if we showed people that we actually used our product and then what we were thinking or doing a particular period then people would be able to draw from that.

http://www.rapidinfluence.com/blog-0/bid/9631/It-s-strategic-planning-dogfood-time-Part-1

Who knows where the company or the product will go but at least it will be clear to us and others what we were thinking at a particular time!

Thanks,

Ed Loessi

http://www.rapidinfluence.com

http://twitter.com/rapidinfluence

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sacstarts 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Twitter

What to look for in startup advice. http://ow.ly/vHUK

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Vincent Van Der Lubbe 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Wordpress

Thanks Eric. I am a big fan. And your key message ” look for actionable advice that can be applied in small batches, has a measurable outcome and is based on coherent principles that you understand.” is hopefully not only applicable to start ups, but to life in general. I’d also rather hear some advice from entrepreneurs what went wrong, what they thought would work etc. I know of a company which is rather succesfull (market leader in their field and expanding globally) whose business idea came from an intern at their original company. ... See all content Hide content

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MaRSDD 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Twitter

"The 10 Ways Startup Advice Is Flawed" - great article by Eric Ries from Gigaom. Lots of advice & lots of it sucks. http://ow.ly/vMi3

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John Stack 3 months, 3 weeks ago on Wordpress

Sage Advice Ed. The focus should be making an “ever-bettter” living. The rest will come with it.

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bjrk 3 months, 3 weeks ago on Twitter

"The 10 Ways Startup Advice Is Flawed" http://tinyurl.com/yj7g8ne -værd at huske når man læser alle jubelartiklerne (via @tveskov) Exactly!!

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Edward Yang 3 months, 3 weeks ago on Wordpress

I think a lot of would-be entrepreneurs should rethink the popular conception of “start up”. Forget the dreams of going public. Forget the dreams of getting bought out. Focus on starting small, lean and mean. Focus on generating steady cashflow. Focus on keeping costs rock bottom. Focus on beating your customers’ expectations. View “success” as controlling your own destiny while making a good living. Yeah it’s not sexy, but this is the new reality. Trust me, you’ll be much happier.

Ed Yang

President of Firecracker PR ... See all content Hide content

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4delite 3 months, 3 weeks ago on Twitter

Nicely framed. Maybe. (via Gigaom) http://bit.ly/3klSse

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mattscoble 3 months, 3 weeks ago on Twitter

Eric Ries' "10 Ways Startup Advice Is Flawed" is quite good--I really like #1 (after-the-fact-rationalizations): http://bit.ly/2Sg17O

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links for 2009-10-20 « Blarney Fellow 3 months, 3 weeks ago on Wordpress

[...] The 10 Ways Startup Advice Is Flawed (tags: startup) [...]

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ericnsantos 3 months, 3 weeks ago on Twitter

"Be wary of advices that you don’t understand the principles behind." @ericries http://bit.ly/1UBmCE #leanstartup

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powel 3 months, 3 weeks ago on Wordpress

and there is a whole industry trying to make entrepreneurs feel insecure and miserable, so they can benefit from them … eg – big VCs, coaching pundits, MBAs with no useful experience, english majors who just want to write another book, business consultants etc etc

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scyphers 3 months, 3 weeks ago on Twitter

The good & bad of startup advice: http://bit.ly/1xMyEz (GigaOM)

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aptuscollab 3 months, 3 weeks ago on Twitter

.@ericries is all over with good founder guidance these days: The 10 Ways Startup Advice Is Flawed http://om.bit.ly/3OaKqF guesting @gigaom

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gbookman 3 months, 3 weeks ago on Hackernews

I know this might sound whiney or bitter, but I think the vast majority of successful entrepreneurs were in the right place at the right time.If they weren't, how else would they have been successful?

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mrkurt 3 months, 3 weeks ago on Hackernews

Because Yahoo bought them for a whole ton of stock.

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synnik 3 months, 3 weeks ago on Hackernews

Because it was publishing static content to an anonymous audience, not dynamic content tailored to each individual user?

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RyanMcGreal 3 months, 3 weeks ago on Hackernews

> a long list of companies in the right place at the right time but lacking vision.Precisely my point!

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dabent 3 months, 3 weeks ago on Hackernews

If I recall the story of the "Hot or Not" founders, they suddenly found themselves with an experiment that went out of control. They had no immediate means to profit from it and more traffic than they could handle. Rather than just pull the plug on the site, they found ways to get servers and bridge the gap until they had money coming in.I couldn't help but think I'd have given up on the site early on if no money was flowing. I wouldn't have seen the point in keeping it going with no immediate cash flow. ... See all content Hide content

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dabent 3 months, 3 weeks ago on Hackernews

Now if I can only get those users. :-)

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ulihegge 3 months, 3 weeks ago on Twitter

The 10 Ways Startup Advice Is Flawed http://tinyurl.com/yfkqbzt - Full ACK. Om nails it.

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venturehacks 3 months, 3 weeks ago on Twitter

@ericries says good startup advice is actionable, test-able in batches, measur-able, and based on coherent principles: http://j.mp/2WOvyX.

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YevMalloff 3 months, 3 weeks ago on Twitter

Safe-Fail business advice: actionable, small batches, measurable outcome, coherent principles that you understand: http://is.gd/4sJDN

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jbyers 3 months, 3 weeks ago on Twitter

"Success Theater" is a great term, found in GigaOm post by @ericries - http://bit.ly/iv86B

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les madras 3 months, 3 weeks ago on Wordpress

more blather from the same author who says that enterpreneurship is not a path to wealth. no matter all the evidence to the contrary.

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jwesley 3 months, 3 weeks ago on Hackernews

As a corollary to this, I think it's important to understand that only certain types of companies and entrepreneurs benefit from giving out business advice to the entire world. Generally, these are the types of businesses that greatly benefit from publicity. One of the main reasons social web companies pursue (and receive) so much press is that it's in their best interest for everyone to know about their product because their goal is to acquire as many users as possible. For many other companies, being in the limelight is a huge liability that can quickly erode their competitive advantage. You never hear about these businesses, but in many cases they are far more profitable than the Twitter/Facebook type companies constantly paraded around the business press. ... See all content Hide content

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walkercorplaw 3 months, 3 weeks ago on Twitter

"Be wary of advice that you don’t understand." RT @ericries: guest post RT @gigaom The 10 Ways Startup Advice Is Flawed http://bit.ly/1IJcA9

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Laurie Sheppard, MCC 3 months, 3 weeks ago on Wordpress

Snappy and well-written, your blog post gets sharply to the point and is useful. There are lots of supposedly successful people making their money teaching others to “do what they’ve done” and they’ve not actually done it (yet). However, one doesn’t always need to have been in their client’s shoes to help them determine a problem and solution, but if the advisor is saying they have when they haven’t, therein lies the danger.

My mantra with new learning is always to ask, “Is it value added?” Did something positive come from that advice, feedback or training? If yes, then continue to use it. If your results after using it are unmeasureable, confusing, or you have to sign up for the next program to “really get it” – then make an about face and go elsewhere for authentic support that’s more about you than them. ... See all content Hide content

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John Stack 3 months, 3 weeks ago on Wordpress

I can’t believe someone finally said this. Thank you so much. Until now, I thought I was a mismatcher. No joke. You’ve been promoted to my #1 blogger.

I would probably add one thing – if I may:

You might not have nutted marketing or the target market on the first pass. Don’t listen to folks who say that you must have a full-on marketing plan out of the gate . It is ok to have a great idea in search of a market and keep trying until you’ve found the best thing that resonates with your value proposition. The most important thing is the core value prop and not the market – that is until you’ve found it.

Thanks Eric. Great Post! ... See all content Hide content

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jakriffer 3 months, 3 weeks ago on Twitter

The 10 Ways Startup Advice Is Flawed [GigaOM]: Startup advice abounds these days. But while much of it is extre.. http://bit.ly/4EXqI7

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