Perpetually-in-private-beta online TV startup Joost has announced it has reached 1 million users. That’s a pretty impressive number for a product that still lacks much truly compelling content. But do these numbers matter? And are they even real?
One miiiiilion users!
Question: What do Kevin Rose, Jason Calacanis, Guy Kawasaki, and Steve Jobs have in common? “Easy”, you answer. “They are all well-known tech personalities who have developed a cult of personality around themselves.” True. And, more importantly, they have used the sheer force of their personality to build a following for their product, or at the very least, an incredible surge of initial interest. But is personality all it takes to launch a successful startup? Read more »
I found a great post by Alex Krupp about assumption-based entrepreneurship. In it he basically argues that while solving a problem based on theories about the future is fine for investors, who have the luxury of choosing between multiple solutions to a problem, this strategy may not work as well for entrepreneurs. In others words, it’s often, it’s a lot easier for second movers than for those who are first to the market. First movers have to go through the trouble of convincing the public that there is a problem, and that they need a solution, and that the solution they need is yours.
Alex Krupp argues that instead of predicting the future, entrepreneurs should try to make assumptions about human nature. How true
. An, in our current society, and in all of entrepreneurship, the most important assumption about human nature marketers make is that the general public has unsolved problems. They just don’t know about them yet, and, if you’re a marketer, it’s your job to enlighten them about the problems in their lives. Just as it is the goal of advertisements to convince us to want things we don’t really need, it is often to goal of web applications to convince us to use services we may not have realized we needed, even if the convincing is done subconsciously. Read more »
