I think you have put your finger on something important and under-appreciated.
Thanks John, I know you think about this stuff a lot as well so that means a lot to me.
I just want to note that being on stage can sometimes cause peoples’ brains to freeze up. So it may very well be that particular founder had a compelling USP and just wasn’t able to articulate it well under pressure.
True
I think improving on Wikipedia is possible, but you first have to reach parity with Wikipedia, which is a big project.
I’m not sure “improving on Wikipedia” is necessarily a helpful way to frame any new startup idea. Personally, I’d just look for a specific thing that Wikipedia isn’t currently doing well, e.g. (random example) documenting who is making what public predictions, and then I’d build a startup focused on that value prop.
And I can imagine extracting some stories out of what Jude Gomila tweeted
You’re right. The best such story I’ve heard for Golden is to host articles that wouldn’t pass Wikipedia’s fickle and politicized “notability” standard. The existence of this Value Prop Story does pass my sanity check, so Golden isn’t 100% devoid of a value prop (nothing is ever black and white right?). I’ve analyzed Golden in more detail here.
I think these kind of “breadth-first” startup ideas, where you try to provide small amounts of added value to a large number of people and use cases, can be harder to get off the ground.
Yeah, I also think of Golden as a breadth-first startup idea, and I’m very skeptical of breadth-first startup ideas. I explained why in my analysis of Arbital:
“Launching a new product means trying to wedge yourself into a crowded market for people’s attention. It won’t work if your wedge is a breadboard full of little bumps of value. To wedge yourself into the market, you need a single sharp spike of value.”
But they can also work really well. It could potentially be the case that Golden will be to Wikipedia what Google was to AltaVista.
I don’t think the analogy holds, because in 2000 I could easily have showed you a specific query where the Google results were much better than the AltaVista results. Google wasn’t a breadboard full of little bumps of value, it was a breadboard full of spikes of value!
Anyway, I’d be curious to hear how you think this all applies to Quixey, as I feel like this post kind of gets at why I was never very optimistic :)
Yeah, I agree with you that Liron_2009 was super wrong, while your argument was basically good. Kudos :)
Do you feel like your ability to judge startup ideas has improved since selecting the idea for Quixey?
Only a difference in magnitude, a “little bump” vs a big spike.
More precisely, the quantity of value we’re measuring is the delta between a specific product or service that the company offers to a specific user, and that specific user’s next-best alternative if the company didn’t exist.
Thanks John, I know you think about this stuff a lot as well so that means a lot to me.
True
I’m not sure “improving on Wikipedia” is necessarily a helpful way to frame any new startup idea. Personally, I’d just look for a specific thing that Wikipedia isn’t currently doing well, e.g. (random example) documenting who is making what public predictions, and then I’d build a startup focused on that value prop.
You’re right. The best such story I’ve heard for Golden is to host articles that wouldn’t pass Wikipedia’s fickle and politicized “notability” standard. The existence of this Value Prop Story does pass my sanity check, so Golden isn’t 100% devoid of a value prop (nothing is ever black and white right?). I’ve analyzed Golden in more detail here.
Yeah, I also think of Golden as a breadth-first startup idea, and I’m very skeptical of breadth-first startup ideas. I explained why in my analysis of Arbital:
“Launching a new product means trying to wedge yourself into a crowded market for people’s attention. It won’t work if your wedge is a breadboard full of little bumps of value. To wedge yourself into the market, you need a single sharp spike of value.”
I don’t think the analogy holds, because in 2000 I could easily have showed you a specific query where the Google results were much better than the AltaVista results. Google wasn’t a breadboard full of little bumps of value, it was a breadboard full of spikes of value!
Yeah, I agree with you that Liron_2009 was super wrong, while your argument was basically good. Kudos :)
Y E S
What’s the difference between “a bump of value” and “a spike of value”?
Only a difference in magnitude, a “little bump” vs a big spike.
More precisely, the quantity of value we’re measuring is the delta between a specific product or service that the company offers to a specific user, and that specific user’s next-best alternative if the company didn’t exist.