Phillip Greenspun writes an article about his ideas on what makes a good startup.
It’s not very long, but I’ll summarize it for you anyways:
- Knowing how to make a certain set of customers happy is more important and valuable than the technology or easy access to money. (agreed!)
- Don’t go for VC money until you don’t need it (He puts a lot of reasons out here, all of them valid.)
- Your Board of Directors should all have strong business experience. (Question, why do you need a BoD if you’re not raising VC money?)
- Don’t bring in outside managers too early
Having read Phil’s stuff for a while, I can hear the bitterness in his voice when he wrote this list, especially the last three points, all of which blew up in his face a while back. In any case, he’s doing a public service by providing some of the things he’s learned the hard way.