So I have been sparingly involved in a new venture at work. They are trying to build a new, better telco, from the ground up. I don't know what the budget is, but it probably has 9 zeros in it.
The question I ask myself is:
Did Sam Morgan have that when he started Trademe? What abut Sergei brin/Larry Page? I doubt it. Why then, can they do it, yet large established organisations can't?
It didn't take me long to work this out. Large organisations lose the ability to do iterative, rapid prototyping in their production environments. How many google web sites have "beta" in the title?
When a company gets big enough, or maybe when management become intoxicated by process, they begin to demand that every project goes in perfect, first time... and then DON'T TOUCH IT AGAIN FOR ANOTHER FIVE YEARS! not even for upgrades.
My catchphrase at work is "always time to do it twice, but never time to do it right". Well, I think it might only apply to projects of a certain size. After that it becomes a case "never do it more than once. no matter what!"
Stay tuned. The next episode, I work out how break out of the death spiral that teaches companies how to make a small fortune... out of a big one.
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5 comments:
It's interesting as it's probably not really a startup. This blog by Rod Drury paints an interesting picture of his view of what a start-up is.
http://www.drury.net.nz/2005/10/15/ferrit/
I personally like 'Standing by the fax machine waiting for the order that was promised'
And now I think about startups definitely do have time to do it more than twice - they pretty much get out the door at 80% (if that), and expect to rework things lots in the first years. And they are ready to do that - totally agile.
When you look at trademe initially vs now there is a huge difference. You just couldn't copy it now. And they probably totally rebuild it every few months...
bingo
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You crazy blogger you.
Come see what we are doing with Valuecruncher on a lot less than 9 zeros.
I agree with Miki - we got it out at well less than 80% and are iterating like crazy.
Not sold on the big company intrepreneurship thing at big companies at all. Personal opinion only - way too much baggage in launching something cool in a big corporate.
Adding you to the RSS reader...
Cheers
Mark
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