Posted By: Tom
And the little guy is still being ignored.
What is a startup?
For many people, they would likely say the first is true. But, I
believe the reality is much closer to the second. And, this isn't to say that
VC backed companies are bad or won't deliver amazing things, but they just
aren't the underdogs people think they are.
Society needs to have more patience.
When people think of companies like Apple, Facebook, Amazon, or
Walmart, all they see are the amazing things these companies have given
society. The iPhone, deliveries on your porch almost overnight, and reliable
low cost food in practically every city. What fewer people see is how these
companies have changed the game.
People expect the world for free. All it costs is your privacy.
Apple created an entire digital marketplace with the expectation
that software should be free. Almost overnight this changed how developers sold
their systems. Suddenly, they weren't building a product to solve some
solution, they were catering to their audience and building an advertising
network.
Facebook did the same thing and made people believe that free
software forever wasn't only possible, but that it should be expected. Then
everyone ignores the hidden costs and downsides. If you're not paying for the
product, you are the product…
When did the economy become a private party?
Perhaps I'm naïve and it's always been like this, but having
been brought up hearing about the American Dream and the free market, I can't
help but feel trapped in an ecosystem that I didn't sign up for.
Yes, I use the products these companies offer, but I want to
hear about the millions of ideas people are passionate about. Is it necessary
for every venture to take the VC funding to advertising model in order to gain
traction and grow? Or, can people still piece together shoddy software based on
an idea to deliver something truly original?
When sites like Facebook or Amazon were started, they were built
by just a couple people, or even one person. They had bugs, but people were so
excited to see something new, that they ignored the problems. Startups today
are expected to be perfectly polished on day one. Oh, and they can't email
anyone because that's spam. Sssh, don't tell anyone that every one of these big
companies now used to spam everyone. Who remembers when LinkedIn would download
your contacts list and just start emailing? Hint, I do.
The point here is that people need to be willing to sacrifice a
flawless UI and experience to find something new, or slowly over time evolution
will end. Just look at iPhone iterations. A new phone used to mean awesome
discoveries. Now it just means a few minutes of waiting for iCloud to finish
your restore and you're back to the same apps, but out a small fortune.
I could easily be mistaken for an idealist and maybe the real
world would quickly end this possibility, if it hasn't already. But, I don't
want to agree to these terms where we let the invisible focus groups and
community decided features determine which products are allowed and which don't
make enough money.