joshuago’s business Bookmarks

Marc Andreessen argues that market is the most important factor to a startup's success.

To completely misread the intended purpose of the article: a good inspiring read to motivate yourself to build a good personal and professional network. The oil fixer relies on his contacts all over the world. "Of course you offered the advice pro bono, but you used that to build your network."

Spending real money on things that don’t exist still sounds “fringe-y and aberrant” to many American consumers. Yet it has been going on for years in elaborate games like World of Warcraft or Everquest, as players buy tools, weapons and the like for digital characters.

The media loves fear-mongering, as they ultimately sell more of their “stuff” by fueling the recession hype. In the meanwhile though, most of us still get our morning espresso, buy iPods and People Magazine, go out for lunch, and rent a few videos a week. Some are clearly hit harder than others, but it’s not as though all spending has stopped. We all know this, and it’s not the only reason that we need to market our businesses more aggressively.

The lesson for GM and its American rivals now struggling to stay in business is that when they launch daring innovations, they need the will and a way to ensure that those ideas don't get drowned by the corporate mainstream.

Supporting a family in NYC or Silicon Valley is insanely expensive especially for someone who has no cushion to fall back on during the months when funding is tight. (Which is a major reason you see lots of Silicon Valley startups from twentysomething men with no expenses and few startups from women with kids, and heated discussion on TechCrunch about salaries for founders who can't make ends meet.)