A short manifesto for web startups
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1. You must run it successfully with a handful of people, possibly just one
One myth about startups is that they take a lot of people to create. The opposite is closer to the truth. You need a small number of talented people to keep the noise down, to avoid dilution, and to solve the hard problem of making something simple.
On the web you need someone with peerless graphic design sensitivities, one great developer, and possibly someone leading you and the idea. This can be three people, two people that can finish each other’s sentences, or one uncommon individual with great tools, to help make switching hats easy.
2. You must launch it with almost no money
We are living in the golden age of small startups. Investors still exist, and investors still have money, but it’s probably better for you in the long run, especially with a small team, to avoid them altogether. The startup that works without money, keeps the money they make. The startup without money, that makes no money, loses only time (and the less time the better).
3. The least important part of your startup must be the technology; organize accordingly
When asked to described your startup in one sentence, “it has dynamic drag and drop modules” is not an answer. A startup’s execution is everything, it’s true, but only on an idea, not on itself; executing on itself is just execution.
4. The technology you choose must be easy, or half of your job must be helping to get it there
You need to be able to go from idea to working application in almost no time. You’re in a hurry. You’re in a hurry because you need to kill your startup today, right now, if the idea behind it turns out to be uninteresting, not useful, not something you really believe in.
You’re in a hurry because you always have more ideas than time. The less time it takes the more ideas you can try out. What you can’t do is waste your time getting the technology to behave, then dance, and then sing. If you’re already great at a technology that dances, teach it how to sing so you’re that much faster on your next idea.
5. Stop being one
A startup is a company that its owner intends to sell; in the game it’s called a liquidity event, which is when your company disintegrates like gum that’s been chewed too long, and it repurposes itself into a company that is meant to grow fast, provide a return on investment, and receive leadership from a board of directors.
All this means is that if, at the end of you describing your project to a stranger you don’t end with “and then we get acquired”, then you’re probably not a startup. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s actually great news, because now you know that you aren’t a fit for investors, and they aren’t a fit for you. In other words, you aren’t building your startup for them, it’s for you, and it’s for your users. Go ahead and build your startup, solve a problem, and see what sticks.
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