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Your Startup Sucks (startupswami.com)
41 points by mdouglas on Sept 29, 2009 | hide | past | favorite | 8 comments


I like and appreciate the motivating aspect of this article from the perspective of the startup founder. As for the perspective of all those looking in from the outside, one has to realize their criticism comes as a result of the fact that most startups eventually fail, as it is extremely difficult for a startup to succeed over the long term. However, I do agree with the author that one must focus on the task at hand in the process of cultivating a startup because sometimes one person may see something special that millions or even billions do not.


I almost stopped reading halfway through. Glad I read to the end. He's right on.


If you believe you can do it, that's the only thing that matters.

Believing is a necessary but hardly sufficient condition. Ironically, almost everything OP mentions before the missing </sarcasm> flag matters too.


Yes, I agree, you should generally ignore the naysayers, the ones who say "don't do it", "it'll never happen", "this is going nowhere", etc. However, don't immediately write them off. They may actually have some valid points and they should be considered. Sure, you don't have to halt process on your idea, but it can and should force you to re-analyze everything.

If these naysayers completely stop you from continuing your startup, chances are you're not cut out to run one.


I agree.

The hard part about listening to negative feedback is knowing what to ignore and what to pay attention to.


If you don't fix each and every one of them there is no way you can get the "early adopters" to use your product. And you know that you need the early adopters if you ever have the chance to cross over the chasm to the mainstream user.

Tell that to Twitter. Nothing to see here, move along.


His point, at the end, was to ignore all the naysayers, so he actually agrees with you.


Uh huh. Perfect example.




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