Comments on: Fail Factors – Why Startups Die: The Market of One

By: Steve Duplessie

Steve Duplessie — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 12:29:15 +0000

ITC failed for many reasons – but I don’t think a market of one was one of them!

By: Larry Rarus

Larry Rarus — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 05:59:43 +0000

“Remember Stratus? Tandem?”

I remember Invincible Technologies Corporation.

By: Andy Sparkes

Andy Sparkes — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:52:44 +0000

Even large corporates get duped by the Wall Street CTO’s office, but they can afford it as they still have the rest of the portfolio and fortune1000 to sell to. I have lost large portions of my life on “research projects” with a market size of one, don’t do it anymore.

By: Mark Campbell

Mark Campbell — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 01:46:07 +0000

There may not be a better fundamental description of how strategic marketing can utterly fail at a startup than this article. Chasing opportunities that are one-off, whether it be a huge behemoth or simply a big account that represents a sale of an order of magnitude beyond your average sales price at the end of a tough year, can be the death knell of an undisciplined company with a short-term focus.

By: Nick Mehta

Nick Mehta — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 01:22:42 +0000

Hi Steve,

Excellent article. I’ve run and advised startups for many years and have felt the Wall Street trap is one of the biggest potholes a promising young company can run into. Specifically, I’ve seen countless startups spend time with the CTO’s office at major Wall Street firms, thinking they are getting traction when really they are working on unfunded research projects. In addition, the complexity that you get in your products by building to the spec of these “markets of one” is sometimes almost unfixable. Your product becomes bloated, ugly and slow. There certainly are exceptions where Wall Street is the leading edge for a larger trend, but I’ve found it’s less common than people think.

Nick

By: Lee Traupel

Lee Traupel — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:37:13 +0000

Great, insightful article. We try to tell our clients to “think small” build some customer references with smaller accounts who don’t have the big egos that typically are proportional to the big “revenue generation” upside. Then, learn from them (“what didn’t work well?”), adjust technology, services then start to move up the ladder. But, many VC’s want those “name brand” deals that they they can toss out like bon mottes in boardroom discussions, forcing their funded firms to chase a lot of thin air……….

By: Phil Gomes

Phil Gomes — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 17:09:36 +0000

Good piece. I’m reminded of and article that ran in Wired where Marc Andreessen reminisces about Netscape:

“Seven million dollars seemed too incredible to pass up. But what we didn’t realize is that we were selling our soul.” The check arrived, and the team was jubilant – but then Netscape had to fulfill its obligation to create software to MCI’s specifications instead of software that would have been useful to a wide range of customers. “We became their indentured servants,” Andreessen says. “A big early customer owns you.”

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.08/loudcloud.html