Comments on: The Model for a Successful Startup is Broken

By: nannasin smith

nannasin smith — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 07:07:00 +0000

make their millions on when they sell a few years later. 2N7002

By: Alan F.

Alan F. — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 16:59:00 +0000

I completely agree with you Nichole. Scoring a big exit with your company, with no profits, is only
a Ponzi game. Giving something for free and getting users is easy; charging and getting people to
pay you means that you have to be good. Funding can’t save a crappy business model. Sometimes I laugh at TechCrunch, and other times I just shake my head.

I like the approach by the sharks and Jason Fried and wish the media would highlight startups that are making money, particularly ones who are bootstrapped. Lynda.com grew to $100M in annual revenue while bootstrapped. They were highlighted by TechCrunch yesterday….only because they just raised their first external capital!

Alan Fitzpatrick
co-founder
mailVU.com

By: MicroSourcing

MicroSourcing — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 05:16:00 +0000

It’s true that businesses should be more focused on monetizing their efforts instead of platform usage because revenue generation keep their organizations alive.

By: Nichole_Kelly

Nichole_Kelly — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 19:28:00 +0000

Yes, it’s an interesting challenge. I think for starters sites like TechCrunch can start sharing success stories from companies that didn’t need to raise venture funds, they can start writing stories about what happened 24 months, 36 months after an acquisition. That’s the dirty little secret. How many of these companies are bigger and stronger after the acquisition? It starts with sharing the stories of those who are doing the other things right too. Thanks so much for commenting.

By: Amy Fowler

Amy Fowler — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 16:56:00 +0000

At the same time though, there’s a lot of great companies who make creating a great company culture for their employees a priority. Something that I don’t think was that common even 10 or 20 years ago.

There’s always going to be good guys and bad guys in every walk of life. As an employee we just need to choose who we work for wisely (of course, not all of us have the privilege of being able to choose who we work for….).

By: Amy Fowler

Amy Fowler — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 16:52:00 +0000

There’s definitely too many people starting up companies with little more of a plan for the future than: “When can I sell? And how much can I sell for?”

It’s a sad reflection of today’s culture. Many kids are growing up thinking about how they can get rich with minimal effort. Whether that means starring in a reality show and getting their bits out in a magazine, or starting up a company to make their millions on when they sell a few years later.

It seems that as a whole, the world is becoming increasingly selfish, and they think; “If I can make lots of money and retire, I don’t care what happens to my employees or the careers we’ve began to build for them.”
Maybe we *are* celebrating the wrong kind of startups. And I agree that what a lot of people think constitutes success in business is harmful.

But how do we change this? Surely it involves changing people’s desire for a quick fix to get rich; but that desire is so ingrained in modern society that I’m not sure we can.

By: Nichole_Kelly

Nichole_Kelly — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 15:05:00 +0000

Thanks for jumping in Nick. Obviously I agree with you. I think the bigger challenge is that we keep celebrating these companies for raising money and getting users and at the same time founders for selling and leaving their employees with a crappy lot to deal with. It’s a shame. I wonder how many Harvard Business Review Studies will come out of today’s startups? Facebook and Twitter? There are a lot of companies trying to ride the wave and a lot of people getting hurt in the process. Not to even mention the bad business of it all. As an ROI junkie, I can’t imagine investing in companies who can’t answer the types of questions I posed here. You rock!

By: Nick Robinson

Nick Robinson — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:24:00 +0000

Good points Nichole! The word “lifetime value” comes to mind when thinking about what success means for a start up. It’s tough to predict what lifetime value will be when you don’t know how you’re going to make money in the first place, which is a recipe for disaster in most cases. As for succession planning, too many people get blinded by dollar signs and forget about the people that made them successful. I think those people need to take a step back and look beyond themselves for a change. Every great company was built upon a mission higher than oneself.