 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Jason Fried and Jim Coudal, SXSW This is the kind of business presentation that I've tried to avoid, but I have to say, it's not really a business presentation -- it's a philosophical presentation in disguise. "Instead of looking for 50 hours, look for the five hours -- because with that limited time, you don't have time to plan, you don't have time to screw around. You only have time to create. Just create things, that's what I'm trying to get at. Less: Less time, less money, less attention. Just seven years ago, people were starting new web-based businesses, spending millions of dollars on Oracle and Windows Server, trying to be ready to scale to 50 million users on day two -- which is bullshit -- and wasting a lot of money...With Basecamp, we had one server in the beginning, which cost us 150 bucks. You don't need expensive hardware, software, tape backup. The only thing that money buys you these days is salaries. I'm startng to see the return of this 90's mentality -- "hey, we've got two million dollars, let's go buy some next desks...it's easy to spend other people's money. Don't spend the VCs money, spend your own money, you'll spend it more wisely. A lot of people in this industry are afraid to charge for things...they think they'll make money later on for advertising. But it's a lot easier to charge a monthly fee than it is to make money on advertising. People say, "well, how are we going to make money?" Well, you're going to charge for things, that's how! And sure, some people hope they'll get bought out, but that's a lottery ticket I wouldn't put my money on. You don't have to get big; it's okay to be small for a long time. Less software -- "Build simpler products -- you're going to have less times, why build 50 features poorly. Get a few things right and start there; there's an infinity of time to add stuff later -- because if you put a poorly done feature out there, users will start using it, and users don't like it when you're taking Tech support's one of the things that will kick your ass. Make things simple and clear by doing fewer things. Don't build clever software, the software we all hate -- the software that capitalizes for you, that tells you you want a bulleted list when you don't want one. Your brain is the solution to a lot of things that people think computers should do for us. Don't do projections. Projections are bullshit -- they're just guesses. Make the decision when you have a lot of information to make the decision; when you've got a little money, then decide how to spend it. More constraints: Embrace constraints. Jim: During the boom, we were hiring people to do work we didn't believe in for people we didn't like. If the crash didn't happen, we'd probably still be doing that. Jason: Sometimes we respond too quickly. Sometimes you change something, and people don't like change, and the vocal minority is really vocal; and so sometimes we've changed things back even though we really thought it wasn't the better way. And the biggest complainers are the people at the lowest end of the payscale or the free customers. James Surowiecki, The Wisdom of Crowds Francis Galton |
Last modified: Friday, October 31, 2008 at 9:25 PM.
Tech resources |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
