Why isn’t there a blog that covers the company start-up process from the inside? Brian and I asked ourselves this question recently as we left Microsoft (and Jellyfish.com, the company we sold to them last year) to jump back into the start-up world again. The web has made life so transparent. We figured that there must be a start-up founder or two that opens up the kimono to share their daily business challenges from the inside. I mean substantive content, not simply Twittering about who they just met or what they ate for dinner, which may be interesting for different reasons.
We couldn’t find one. Granted, we didn’t look that hard, but if one does exist it wasn’t easy to find (clue us in if you have one to share). With the notable exception of the blogging done by Riya’s CEO a few years ago here, and a periodic post on a mistake/lesson learned by a start up leader (my recent favorite is here and here), there doesn’t seem to be anyone blogging in this way.
We are going to give it a try.
We’ve been at this new, yet to be named start up for about two months, and we continue to face many of the same decision points, milestones, and pitfalls that we have seen in our past start up experiences. Why not open up and share these with you? Hopefully, you’ll find it is like dissecting that frog in 7th grade biology. Sure, you can watch a frog hop around, but cutting one open gives you an entirely different perspective.
Idiot or Genius?
Starting a company is hard. One of the hardest things is the need to push to be bold and different. To stand out. And in doing so you run risks. Brian and I call it pushing the idiot/genius line. You need to push this line, take chances and stand out, or your start up will fail. To keep our sanity, we remind ourselves that it is ok and necessary to be on this line.
I guess this blog concept is no different. It may be one of the dumbest things we’ve tried in our start up efforts, or one of the best (we hope you tell us what you think). But that is life in a start up.
August 8th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Great idea for a blog! I have other motives for keeping up, but I already see that your experiences can apply to more than just the start-up entrepreneur. I am starting off a new venture with a new outlook. I’m doing an old job in a new environment that has changed significantly since I was last here. I admire the start-up and the vision you guys have. I don’t know if I’ll ever have what it takes to be in that boat, but it does sound like a fun ride. I feel like I have a little bit of a chance to try it out, though, in a safe environment by helping to start up a new area in a company that has historically been against the concept. Going to be an interesting journey, but I can already see the value of standing on the Idiot/Genius line because if you stay content with what people are telling you rather than going with you gut and trying something you think is going to stand out and make a difference, you’re bound to fail and continually hear “I told you so”. I’ll be keeping up with the entries on flywheel, thanks for sharing your experiences!
August 12th, 2008 at 4:00 am
Interesting concept…anxious to see if your content is interesting and valuable
August 12th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
As someone who’s been sitting on the sidelines in the corporate world waiting for the right time to make the big leap into start up land, I’m looking forward to tracking your process. It’s one thing to think you have a good idea but a much bigger challenge to take it to a successful exit. This blog will be much cheaper than consulting fees! Best of luck.
June 22nd, 2009 at 10:30 pm
[...] value to an end consumer. (You can read more about our start-up philosophy on the flywheel blog here, if [...]