I’m a bit late, but as promised, here’s the first post in a series I’m planning on writing on how to go from just an idea to having a thriving startup. This first post also appeared on TechCrunch, the subsequent ones will appear here on the Meebo Blog, which I’ll link to from my Twitter account too. Hope you all enjoy!
Here’s the post, edited slightly for the Meebo Blog:
I was one of those kids who just couldn’t stop trying to start a company. I think I just really feared working for the Man. Problem was, I seemed to suck at the whole startup thing. Multiple attempts followed by multiple failures. At some point I just said, “screw it, I’ll get a high paying job.” Problem was, I couldn’t stop thinking of the next great thing that got me ridiculously excited. Turns out, it wasn’t so much that I was the problem. Rather, I didn’t have anyone around me familiar enough with startups to tell me that I was doing it all wrong.
This is the first post in what’s going to be a series of blogs on how to go from nothing – no connections, no team, no money and no knowledge of how the startup industry really works – to operating a growing business. I mentioned to Mike (the Editor of TechCrunch) that I was going to kick this series off here on the Meebo Blog, but he suggested I kick it off on TechCrunch. Gladly!
So for this first post, here’s the best advice I can give you: join an awesome founding team and get your product out the door ASAP. Then, forget everything else, VCs included, and just build.
One of the things I do as a founder of a later stage startup is to meet with early stage entrepreneurs to help them get their companies going. Nine times out of ten, the meeting ends with them asking me for introductions to VCs. Little do they know that, even if they could raise VC, it’d start them down the wrong path. So, this is what I tell them:
At the exact moment you had your idea, ten other people had the exact same idea. There was just something in the environment that made it the right time for folks to think that one up. The race has already begun! Who’s going to execute first? Who’s going to execute best? If you want to waste nine months trying to raise VC money for that idea, great. But six months in, you’re gonna cry when you see someone else put out that same product you’re pitching me right now. Like I said, forget everything else and just get your product out the door. Now.
Inevitably, the excuses begin: I need to hire people to build the product. I don’t know any developers. I need money for the servers. I want to get that last promotion at my current company first!
Here’s the rub: in consumer internet (and often enterprise), if your founding team doesn’t have the chops to get a prototype of your product out and in the hands of a blogger to test and write about, you might as well save yourself a lot of pain – you’re not going anywhere. Need proof? Just look at some of the most successful tech companies in the last decade: eBay, YouTube, Sun, Oracle, Apple, Cisco, Facebook, Yahoo!, and Google. All of them share a couple common traits: they launched before taking outside investment, and they were able to do it because they had a set of founders with the skills to build the initial version of the product themselves. Only eBay was founded by a single individual – the rest were team efforts.
With that background, let’s get to the three most important things you can do to go from nothing to a kicking startup.
First and foremost, find a great founding team. One person is almost never enough. You just can’t do it all. Rather, team up with one or two other people who have skills synergistic – not overlapping – with your own, but with similar goals and passions. I can’t tell you how frequently teams of three business school students tell me they’re going to start the next great consumer Internet company. When I point out that they’re all business people, and wonder who’s going to build the product, they almost always fall back on “we’ll get a couple of undergrads to do it,” or, “we’ll outsource it.” If I hear either one of those, I know the startup’s already dead. Sorry, folks. Harsh, but probably true.
The best composition is probably one engineer whose passion lies in the pixels on the screen and another engineer whose passion is making bits fly really fast through servers. In Meebo’s case, for example, I was lucky enough to partner up with Elaine and Sandy. Elaine is a JavaScript wizard who has a great visual eye and makes sure every pixel is in its place. Sandy is a straight C nerd and is all about efficiency. Together, they built the first versions of Meebo from scratch. Now, if you have a business guy along for the ride, that works too. But let me tell you, the sum total of my contribution to Meebo prior to our launch was getting us incorporated (read: easy) and suggesting that “the button might look better over there” (read: not much). Post launch, if you gain traction, is where the business person will help take the load off of the technical folks. The business person can take all the meetings while the technical folks work on making the product better.
Second, like I said, forget everything else and just get your product out the door. No office. No phone system. No hiring. No press. No legal muck. No raising money. No looking for partnerships (who’s going to partner with you anyway?). The success or failure of the adoption of your product is what will create 99% of the initial value of your company. If no one ever uses your product, you have no value. Oh, and for the record, raising VC does not help get traction – in another blog post, I’ll argue that if anything, it hurts. So just forget everything else and focus on what matters – getting an alpha of your product out the door and into the hands of your friends and family. Use some URL like www.mygreatstartup.com/shhh.html. Then, once you’ve fixed the initial bugs and incorporated a feature or two that everyone requested, go live. Remember: keep it simple. The initial product you build is for you – you don’t know what features everyone else wants. Launch fast and light, and listen to your users for feedback. In the product, always have a way to ask for user feedback. Remember, once TechCrunch or GigaOm writes about you, you’ll most likely get crushed with a single surge of traffic (we fondly call it the “blog spike”), only to watch almost all of it flitter away. Take advantage of that surge to learn and iterate.
Finally, get good mentors. If someone had been there and just told me “join a great founding team, focus on the product, and forget everything else,” I would have saved a lot of time and heartache. A good mentor is someone who has been part of the startup community themselves – someone who has a realistic understanding of some of the basic dos and don’ts of starting up. You don’t need many – one or two to begin. In Meebo’s case, two of our friends, Todd and Cam, gave us a ton of pre-launch advice. Every time we started straying down a wrong path, like flirting with just talking to that one VC or even thinking about approaching a company about a partnership, they’d always come out with something like, “is that going to get the product out faster?” Trust me, once you’ve launched and achieved traction, you’ll have your pick of mentors, VCs, partners and all the legal expenses you need.
I hope that some of this hit home for those of you who’ve been working on your own startups. In later posts I’m going to get into more detail on specific topics like hiring, raising money, what types of ideas have the potential to get big, finding your founders, and the like. You can follow them here on the Meebo Blog. Alternatively, follow me on Twitter (@sethjs) where I’ll mention when I put up a new post.
Thanks for reading, and feel free to ping me with suggestions on future posts.
Seth
[ comments ] [ past blogs ]
Follow us on Twitter
September 20th, 2009 at 11:19 pm
Hey can twitter get a sign on kind of thing here at Meebo, I can’t wait and it’s a cool website too. Please tell me!
September 21st, 2009 at 1:02 am
Wow…. I hate to admit it as many other entrepreneurs would but this is by far the most succinct and clear depiction of how my start-up ecommerce site failed. Ever since our demise, I have pondered why we failed or failed to launch. That was just it – we failed to focus on building a site, which achieved its intended purpose and then failed to launch it expeditiously. Rather, we spent way too much time looking for money especially for money to grow our start-up even before growth was realized or possible. And for me specifically, being the business minded partner, I spent way too much emphasis of safeguarding our potential business through countless hours and dollars (of the few we had) negotiating and renegotiating with our attorneys what in hindsight were unnecessary legal measures e.g. drawing up partners contracts, etc. Clearly, that was silly. While I do feel it is important to legally establish an entity, it is most important that you trust your partners, have an understanding of each partner’s skillsets/responsibilities, and share everything equally. If any of these are not mutually understood and respected then the start-up will be at odds. And a start-up at odds may as well be no start-up at all because the core business (product) is not the focus.
Thank you, Seth. I look forward to reading your future posts.
September 21st, 2009 at 2:35 am
This is by far the single most usefull advise I‘ve read so far on starting up. – Thanks
September 21st, 2009 at 2:50 am
I hate to be naive, but what does VC mean? Some of us are newbies and need explanation of acronyms.
Thanks
September 21st, 2009 at 3:06 am
@ MSLankford: VC stands for venture capital.
Seth, this was a terrific article, keep up the great work!
September 21st, 2009 at 4:14 am
Thanks Seth, Will be very much useful for my startup which is going on now. Thanks a ton.
September 21st, 2009 at 4:17 am
Seth,
This was an easy read and full of valuable advice. I look forward to all your future posts.
Thanks!
~Robin~
aka a faithful and rabid Meebo-ite
September 21st, 2009 at 4:55 am
Thank you Seth,
I’ve been working with my fellow artists at starting our own record label and sometimes we get so wrapped up in “how the business will be ran”… that we sometimes lose focus on what is most important… the music itself. You’ve clarified what should be our main concern and shed light on how to truly get this started. Thanks, homie.
Stay Up.
-Kizzle
September 21st, 2009 at 5:25 am
This helpful, motivating article is the cat’s meow! Thanks for keeping us informed and focused!
September 21st, 2009 at 7:05 am
Seth,
Thank you for the great article. You are very encouraging. I look forward to more of your posts.
September 21st, 2009 at 7:10 am
eu só acho que podia ser melhor,que os outros msn
está bom sim,mais podia ser melhor.
September 21st, 2009 at 9:28 am
Hi Seth
Really glad to read this article, really useful info!
Personally, I trying to start up and a business, and some of the info I think is very useful in my position.
One thing I am curious of, how did you originally find your team members?
Jamie
September 21st, 2009 at 11:03 am
Seth,
Great post. I appreciate the insights.
I am looking forward to your next blog regarding how you, at the early stage of your start-up, were able to lure the talented engineers to join the team? If it was too early of course it would be hard to get talents without shelling out some good bucks.
I think you were able to get a bunch of great engineers from the Ivies, Stanford ….to help building your company. How to compete with well established powerhouses (i.e. Google, Microsoft…) for these talents ?
September 21st, 2009 at 11:32 am
can we get a meebo for smart phones? I’ll actually pay for it
September 21st, 2009 at 2:09 pm
good everning
September 21st, 2009 at 2:09 pm
yes good muy good
September 21st, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Thanks much Seth, very encouraging and inspirational for those of us out here wanting to share our great ideas with the world.
September 21st, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Ok. Thanks for this enlightening post. Yes, I have made almost every mistake you mentioned and have yet to get it right. So, the next obvious question is, if you still have some life left in an idea but have made all these mistakes, how do you regroup, refocus, re-energize, and get back on a successful track? I would think the odds would be against me but maybe not?
September 21st, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Otimo esse msn..
September 21st, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Seth,
Thanks for the great insight. Like you said, action is the most important. Many people failed because they always delay themselves in taking action. This article really motivates me and I am looking forward for your next post.
September 21st, 2009 at 8:42 pm
Hi Seth,
I am a very new user of Meebo. Though I use it only for keeping in touch with my friends, I can’t help reading the articles posted there in the blog. I just read yours, which in my opinion is very inspiring, enlightening, useful and to-the-point. Despite the fact that I currently don’t have any intentions or plans to set up my own business, I will certainly bear in mind the suggestions you put forward there in the article since who knows maybe some days later I am gonna give it a shot. ^_^
Thanks for sharing and looking forward to your next posts.
Lisa Fu from Shanghai, China
September 21st, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Great Post Seth. I love this stuff. One thing I’d like to add, if I may, is to identify a problem that you believe needs a solution. In the case of Meebo it’s “I am tired of having all these different IM clients and not being able to chat on the road”. In addition to finding a problem, it has to be a problem that enough people have that that you could build a profitable company out of it.
I couldn’t agree more with getting the product to market asap. VCs rarely write checks for ideas on the back of a napkin. As Thomas Edison said, genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.
Steve
September 21st, 2009 at 11:03 pm
Fantastic post Seth! Ever think about having a team of Meebo staff come to college campuses to speak about these things to college students?? It’d be great to share this input with some business majors. E-mail me if anyone with Meebo is interested!!
-Juan
September 21st, 2009 at 11:23 pm
Thanks for this article… the concept of start up is clear to me now… well VC is important but its not the core thing… the core thing is the product and others (VC, office space, etc) are all secondary. If the product clicks the other things will follow automatically.
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:53 am
noooooooooooo
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:03 am
great blog seth i think its really interesting keep me posted.
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:52 am
meebo rooms cant be open with http://www.meebo.org
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:05 am
Interesting core messages Seth. I recognise your focus is ecommerce startups, but I’m interested if the same message applies to more traditional industries? Many of the same challenges apply, but I think your concentration on product is equally valid, as is the reliance on a small talented team.
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:42 am
Thanks for your article, you couldn’t have been more right on!
I’m a fellow entrepreneur that through trial and error can validate every word you said. There are three things you need to do in order to be successful; get the product out, get the product out and get the product out. If people like what you are doing, success will follow.
It’s like that movie Field of Dreams — “If you build it, they will come … ”
I look forward to your other posts.
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:58 am
Hey,
I am developing a new techonology of mobiles and internet, and trying to open my own small company in Brazil, I saw your text and I felt like could be me speaking… Hahaha..
So hard to start something, and even more now because all world decided to bet on me (same time in all kinds of jobs that I ever tried and never could realize)…
The question is: People wishes to you start to become a sucessfull person to bet all on you, then all people in all planet will bet on you to do differents things AT SAME TIME???
No far, but keep trying and soon they will bet on you a lot hehe… (helping you, dreaming your dreams and maybe putting money and techonollogyes on you..)
Wish you lucky, well.. wish us lucky!!!
Congrats i like what you write!
Camila L.
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:51 am
I like your no-bullshit attitude. People are too soft in this industry too frequently. I’m graduating in a few months and deciding whether to start something or join something. This is good advice. Keep it coming.
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:50 am
wow i almost overlooked the “get user feedback” feature at my app!
thx for sharing all the knowledge
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Seth, thanks!
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:39 pm
bueno yo qeero entrar poh xd
September 22nd, 2009 at 6:34 pm
I wholey agree. I ran my business for 8 years then sold it, so I know something about what you’re saying. Too often I hear about getting funded x money when they themselves have no idea how to spend the money wisely or a business person trivialzing building the product, or software engineers think they have the first idea and afraid it gets stolen, or software enginneers (myself included) jump into the coding then realized that someone already done it better & cheaper.
September 23rd, 2009 at 6:46 am
vcs do meebo poderiam dar mais uma corzinha no meebo
September 23rd, 2009 at 7:29 am
PEOPLE NEED TO STOP SPAMING ON MEEBO AND STOP WARNING AND MUTEING EVERYBODY WHEN THEY ARE NOT DOING ANYTHING…..MAKE THEM STOP OR I WILL
September 23rd, 2009 at 9:20 am
how can i sign in to myspace?
September 23rd, 2009 at 11:02 am
thanks Seth. i’ve been a user and fan and supporter and curious observer since 2006 and this still resonates with me as an idea-maker.
i need to build faster.
w
September 23rd, 2009 at 11:37 am
I possess several years of experience in the medical field. Yet, have an interest in marketing a food product that I believe will become very successful by opening my own shop and mass producing it. I have to borrow 100% of $, to get the idea off the ground. With this economy, I question the reality of this endeavor… Please assist, THANKS & reply to: elainemayo@live.com
September 23rd, 2009 at 1:30 pm
hey this is a nice paragahph<<<<<<<<<<3333333333
September 23rd, 2009 at 5:11 pm
oi prazer meu nome e thayanne queria ter conhecer melhor como pessoa
September 23rd, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Howcome it always fails when I verify my account?
September 23rd, 2009 at 7:23 pm
hi,
this is more of a question more than a comment.
i was wondering if we can use the MEEBO LOGO
because we(meebo chattersin the phil ) are planning to produce a t shirt and we want to put the meebo logo on it. it wont be a mass production since about 10 -15 shirts will be produce.
where can we ask the permission to use the LOGO?
thanks much.
melay
September 23rd, 2009 at 11:29 pm
Nice article.
Thanks.
Came here from meebo.
September 24th, 2009 at 11:03 am
Hey, this is a nice post. Hope to see many such posts coming out soon.
September 25th, 2009 at 2:27 am
business people wear extravagant clothes and make fancy powerpoint presentations
that’s all
September 26th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
Great info!
If you would like to *hear* Seth talk about this … he’s on iTunes U: Yale Entrepeneurial Institute: You’ve Got the Idea Now Forget about the Money.
September 26th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
Just found the link to Seths talk:
http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Feed/yale.edu.1321709735.01321709743
September 29th, 2009 at 7:48 am
Seth – this is a good read, and re-read to get back on track if one ever strays. Couple questions:
1) You suggest mentors, are you available? Even if you can’t mentor me personally (an hour every couple weeks), have you thought about doing a group mentor session online? You take questions ahead of time and answer a few select ones for budding entrepreneurs.
2) While those wait for the initial ‘buzz’ or push to their site, what did Meebo do before hitting mainstream? What was your marketing plan?
Thanks,
Brad – MYiLIVE
October 11th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
Would you be kind enough to let me republish this with due credits? You have my email address.
October 11th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
[...] is the third in a series of posts on how to form your own startup from scratch. Like the last one, this post can be found here and also over on [...]
October 12th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Hi Seth,
I think you have picked one of most fundamentals of business( has not changed since man started doing business on this earth) and the must for any business to to do business – Product. I realise this after working in some of the large companies, supporting their IT. Most of the time techies working in IT believe that it is IT which is at core of things and will make or break the business. But it is the product that is foundation of any business. I was also in the league of techies who believed once that IT is the most important for these companies to survive in business. But at the end of day, we cannot over rule the ultimate importance of the product of the company. In my experience, I also realise that it is the product in the hands of consume will make or break your company. The faster you make it to their hand, better you are in the race as you said. Even if consumer will have 90 negative and 10 positives about your product when you lunched, with no competition being there nearby saves your product from being dead immediately. You have that extra 4-7 months to improve before someone else lunches a new look alike. You have already occupied that space in cosumer’s mind ( the most premium thing in the business world) by lunching it early. Thanks for putting this point accross to all start ups ( or the ones who are thinking to do it soon) the it is the product which is important not just the idea itself. Will wait to read all ur post in this series. Thanks. Atul
October 14th, 2009 at 8:05 am
oiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii,é leila moro no brasil e gostaria de fazer amizade… bjs
October 15th, 2009 at 11:44 am
I am not sure I agree with “as soon as I hear outsourcing I know the product is dead” part. Look at digg.com for example, it was built using outsourcing model and that too via a marketplace site (elance) and we all know what digg is today.
I agree it is all about timing and make sure you hit the first first and with a product that is still evolving. I think it gives users a feel of seeing a product built while they are using it, and then if it is built on user feedback, it also helps them establish a connect with it’s evolution. So, I guess it is better to launch a simplistic version first than to work on getting a full blown product first before launching.
Thank you for your wonderful advice Seth. You wanting to help early startup companies with all the experience you have had in building a start up as successful as meebo.com is going to certainly a lot of a people a lot of heartache.