> A good question to ask yourself early in the process of thinking about an idea is “could this be huge if it worked?” There are many good ideas in the world, but few of them have the inherent advantages that can make a startup massively successful. Most businesses don’t generate a valuable accumulating advantage as they scale. Think early about why an idea might have that property. It’s obvious for Facebook or Airbnb, but it often exists in more subtle ways.
This reminds me of David Heinemeier Hansson's talk at Startup School waaayyy back.
The gist: funders tell founders all the time to catch a wave. Go big or don't bother. The reason is that the funder must have a big payoff and small outcomes don't cut it.
But there's plenty of room for a small, well-run company with no aspirations of getting bigger. I believe the analogy was: best Italian Restaurant in the city.
The other advantage of thinking smaller than "huge" is that success is so much more likely because the competition tends to be less intense.
Maybe the author and I have a different idea of "huge," but the examples suggest otherwise.
If you're looking for a community that embraces the small startup idea and has developed a lot of material for exploring it, check out Microconf:
The comments are great and they talk about these non-venture companies that are quietly churning out 10s of millions or maybe 100s of millions of dollars.
This reminds me of David Heinemeier Hansson's talk at Startup School waaayyy back.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CDXJ6bMkMY
The gist: funders tell founders all the time to catch a wave. Go big or don't bother. The reason is that the funder must have a big payoff and small outcomes don't cut it.
But there's plenty of room for a small, well-run company with no aspirations of getting bigger. I believe the analogy was: best Italian Restaurant in the city.
The other advantage of thinking smaller than "huge" is that success is so much more likely because the competition tends to be less intense.
Maybe the author and I have a different idea of "huge," but the examples suggest otherwise.
If you're looking for a community that embraces the small startup idea and has developed a lot of material for exploring it, check out Microconf:
https://microconf.com