[aseem]

I think Andreessen's words should be taken with a grain of salt. His underlying premise is that a startup's ultimate goal is to get really big. This may make sense for a guy who has his own VC fund, but I'm not sure it makes sense for every entrepeneur.

While having a market is certainly important, I don't think someone should disregard the niches that are out there. Is a large market more important than the product? While I agree with Marc on iteration and speed of execution, I can't quite convince myself that I would take a large market over a solid product and team. I'd love to see a response from DHH.

[nostrademons]

I think that Andreesen sorta assumes that anyone who's watching/reading his stuff is interested in the big hits. This talk was given at the "Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders" series, for example.

If that's not your goal, you should probably seek out other entrepreneurs who're in an area more like your own. That's sorta implied though - does it have to be spelled out?

I also wouldn't be surprised if DHH also said that the market was important. Without a market, you have nobody to buy your product, which doesn't make it much of a product after all. If you're willing to settle for a smaller market, there're more of them that you can go after and less competition for each, but that still doesn't absolve you from finding one.