Something I’ve been learning about start-ups

Before starting this little venture called Curious Office, I labored for about six months searching for something that might become the “next big idea”. Alex over at the www.milliondollarhomepage.com certainly had a rare kind of big idea that worked right out of the box and made a lot of money very quickly. But, usually it doesn’t happen that way and I would bet that he probably won’t have another idea to hit quite like that one. Usually, money isn’t easy. When it is, I think most people call it luck. Like the lottery. Doesn’t get any easier than that but the odds aren’t great so you can’t plan your retirement around it.

I had another former colleague from RealNetworks who had briefly “retired” for about a year. All the while, he toiled and considered a wide range of business plans, most all of which were in the mobile space. My other friends who did work in the mobile space met with him and reviewed dozens of his ideas. He didn’t do them even though some seemed to have promise. But he was looking for the “big idea”. Eventually he did settle on a very compelling start-up concept which I expect to do very well. But, that idea really came from some other folks and he joined on and is helping take that concept through to a real business.

I suppose my point is that ground breaking “ideas” are typically NOT what makes things work. It’s here that I disagree somewhat with the recent blog post from the founder of GoDaddy.com (the world’s largest registrar). None of the ideas he lists as being “big ideas” seem ground breaking to me. They sound like a normal evolution of the business he chose to be in. Nothing all that innovative but small details that represent evolving adjustments to the original plan.

And that’s the bigger point. Starting a start-up is a fine idea. But, be prepared to be flexible. If you choose a business concept and 12 months later all the data in the world seems to suggest that you should shift 5 degrees to the right, then do it. I’m already thinking this way about ImageKind. Before we even launch, I’m constantly reviewing related spaces. What can we learn? What could we offer that is a close cousin to our business? What products could we add that would be relevant and not be confusing to our customers? Consider my former employer RealNetworks. We started out selling audio servers. Then we sold video servers. And, we sold “premium” audio/video players. Then, Microsoft’s Windows Media happened. Today, RealNetworks sells MP3 albums and games and a whole lot of advertising. They don’t really sell a lot of servers. Their current business is a close cousin to their original plan. But it isn’t the same at all and I’m very certain that Rob (as smart as he is) didn’t image selling games on the Internet when he started the company as Progressive Networks in 1994.

Look for the close cousins and little ideas every day. The business you’re in doesn’t have to be the business you’re in. If you’re learning as you go, the business you’re in could lead to other lines of business that could very well wind up being some unexpected revenue streams. This isn’t about big ideas as far as I’m concerned.

What Makes Curious Office Different?

Curious Office is both a seed stage investment firm and a software development company. We make early investments in the web sector and we choose to build our own companies at the same time. We have worked with many great technology entreprenuers over the last 15 years and we have accrued extensive experience ourselves working for or starting our own great software and web companies. Learn more about how Curious Office could possibly help your company grow to the next level.

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