If you read this blog, you know that we believe that one of the only advantages that a start-up has over the big boys is the ability to execute quickly. As I mentioned in my post on the 3 advantages of a start-up, if you get there first good things can happen.

Jellyfish.com is a great example of this. Microsoft saw our head-start with a new search advertising model and decided to acquire the company to launch its Live Search cashback service.

Throughout the Jellyfish experience, we got many questions that went something like this: “won’t a big search company see your idea and just do it themselves?” Seems like a fair question and one we certainly considered.

But the reality is that big companies often perform a “make versus buy” analysis whenever they decide to launch a new innovation or enter a new market. Sure they have the money and employees to do what the start-up is doing. But big companies have big competitors too, which creates pressure to get to market fast. This time-to-market pressure often means that they put a premium on acquiring that start-up with the head start. That head-start can mean the difference between success and failure.

This concept came into sharp relief today as I read this Wall Street Journal article charting some of the early mistakes Microsoft made in the search wars that allowed Google and Yahoo! to become the two dominant search advertising companies. One central mistake was a miscalculation in0 this “make versus buy” analysis.

Microsoft had the opportunity to buy Overture, the early market innovator in paid search way back in early 2003, a move that would have given them a huge head start in paid search. But the company balked at the billion dollar price tag, instead believing that they could build the system themselves.

The result of Microsoft’s decision? Yahoo! snapped up Overture for more money, and Google and Yahoo! established themselves as the dominant players in search advertising before Microsoft finished building their offer internally. Microsoft has played catch up ever since, and will likely end up buying the Yahoo! search business for a lot more than that early acquisition of Overture would have cost them.

Lesson for entrepreneurs? If you have a window of opportunity to innovate in a market first, then do it! Get there first, build value, and good things can happen.

Forgive the analogy, but launching a start-up is the professional equivalent of a pregnancy. And no, I’m not referring to the physical pain of pregnancy or trying to compare a company to an actual son or daughter. But still, there is a similarity in that nervous excitement you feel; that feeling of the great unknown you are about to enter. Will everything work out as planned? What if something goes wrong? Leaping off that cliff is exciting/stressful/overwhelming/thrilling all at the same time.

Our closed beta-test of Alice.com begins on February 2nd, which means we are going to meet Alice for the first time in a few short weeks. It is one of my favorite times in a start-up. The time when everyone on the team comes together to work like crazy to pull off the big idea we’ve been talking about for so long and change the market (we hope). To see something that was once only scribbled on a whiteboard come together and take on a life of its own is an amazing experience and something that I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to experience again. Being in a start-up gives you the freedom to swing for the fences; something everyone should do at least once or twice in their lives.

Things will be stressful the next few weeks and for months beyond our launch. But they are times you’ll never forget. So wish us luck as we enter the waiting room and get ready to step into the great, exciting unknown.

Brian Wiegand’s daily prayer that Alice will actually work