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Build businesses, not apps

December 17, 2013 • By Daniel Tenner on December 13, 2010 • Entrepreneurship

A point that bears repeating, by Bryan Doll:

I’m not suggesting anyone stop building prototypes. I’m not suggesting we don’t explore the idea of an application through its development. However, the next time you have that “aha” moment, think first of the value you can create and the app will follow. The app, it turns out, really is the easy part.

A startup is not a web application. A startup is first and foremost a business, and to be a successful business it needs to fulfill some important function for its customers, so that they will be willing to pay for it.

Of course, this doesn't mean that every startup needs to follow this approach, but Twitters and Facebooks are few and far between.

Vinod Khosla

Generally true but lots of ways to build activity first (FB, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, ...) and then fiure out business model. Also recognize that (my guess) less than 50% of businesses that are successful are successful on the original plan. Allow lost of room to experimenet, change, pivot, or evolve. I think evolution is the key to most startups and too much attention to the "plan" is not great. A good plan (as long as it is a flex plan) makes the startup go thoroughly through the excercise of key issues, assumptions, hypothesis that can be test easily. It is better to have an "if/then" set of scenarios than to believe a "plan."