Comments on: Fail Factors – Why Startups Die: Running Backwards

By: Steve Duplessie

Steve Duplessie — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:00:52 +0000

The reason it wasn’t “possible” for Filepool to accomplish what EMC did wasn’t about product/technology (of course not knowing what you know) in as much as EMC “choreographed” the whole market – they did all the back channel work to make it acceptable for a disk device to be used as an archive medium (after doing a LOT of homework/research), they got language changed in the legal world, and essentially created a market to dominate before it ever sold product one. Thanks for the note.

By: Angus

Angus — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:10:56 +0000

Thanks Steve,

I am intimately familiar with Centera’s story so funny you should use that as an example. Of course, Centera was an acquisition of Filepool which in itself was not such a raging success in that it, I believe, took exactly the opposite path you espouse by engineering, and re-engineering for many years to find the market niche and burning money all along the way. In the end, it took the EMC folks to actually make a big success out of it and the price they paid for Filepool…well let’s say it wasn’t exactly at the big money end. Anyway, appreciate your effort to put in more examples. I am really enjoying the blog. Best bit of sensible information I have had since I read ‘A Good Hard Kick in the Ass’.

By: Steve Duplessie

Steve Duplessie — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:25:13 +0000

I’ve tried to weave in success stories throughout but take your point and will try to address more examples of what has worked. My favorite absolute runaway success story is EMC’s Centera. They had it nailed before they ever let it out of the gate. They did all the upfront homework so they knew (not guessed or hoped) exactly what the market opportunity was, exactly what they had to do to meet and greet that opportunity, exactly how the competition would react, and exactly how long it would take them. Game over before it began. Of course EMC had the luxury of time and gobs of money and talent to make sure they did it all right, and most startups don’t. Equallogic is about as close as I can think of at 6AM to pulling that feat off. They did a spectacular job of leveraging others (the channel in this case) to tell their tale for them. There are other examples of brilliance scattered all around, I’ll try to be more conscious of making sure I add them along. Thanks.

By: Angus

Angus — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 08:15:35 +0000

Steve,

In a number of your blogs you mention having a great marketing plan as being key (along with the other two legs). I tend to learn by example. Got any concrete examples of great marketing plans?

By: Asim

Asim — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:37:53 +0000

Not to be underestimated in making items 1-28 happen (which reads as a painfully familiar ride I’ve taken a few times), is the Board (VC’s) pushing you so far ahead of your skis that you typically end up wrapped around a tree. Dust yourself off, hire the new CEO, etc, etc as you noted. Thankfully, sanity has now returned to some board rooms, but not entirely. At Archivas we fortunately had the right formula, and skipped a bunch of those ugly steps (but not all). The most recent gig, not so much.

By: Dennis Grogan

Dennis Grogan — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:44:12 +0000

Dup,
Sounds like a ride I took with you once! You hit the nail on the head, these days I spend my time working with clients to limit their risk in commercializing new product innovations. To your point, the key is alway understanding the “cutomer’s tough problem” first. A good idea is just creativity, turning the idea into new revenue and realized profit is innovation.

It’s not rocket science to understand the value of investing upfront, but it is hard to convince yourself to follow through when the Vultures knock at the door with a big bag of $ and your belt is tight.

Grogan