| "Once you do the math you realize there is far more travel media out there than travelers, especially in a down economy". I recently shut down my travel startup - a site that offered tours and excursions in many of the world's greatest cities. Why? The VC-funded big boys have 2,000 affiliates and many thousands of inbound links to their site. This bumps them up in the organic rankings which sends more traffic to their site - enabling them to gather more conversion data. As conversions gradually increase, their product becomes more attractive to other affiliates, and more sign up, thus perpetuating a positive feedback loop. Learned a ton during the process of building the company, and I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. To all prospective founders out there - really do your homework and understand the competitive advantages held by the top competitors in your market - things that are very difficult, time consuming, and/or expensive to replicate! For example, 37 Signals now has a passionate fan base of hundreds of thousands of people based on years of teaching and writing opinionated rants. Nearly impossible to replicate for a new startup trying to market simple project management software. Also, realize that cute innovations and a great user experience might not overcome the massive reach held by existing companies. |