[whacked_new]

It's very misleading to compare pizza places to web businesses.

Every new pizza shop adds tangible value to the system. It has a physical presence and sells a physical good that fulfills a basic need.

A web shop, without marketing, adds basically zero value to the system. It's not like you can "walk by" and discover that it provides something. And I don't think any pizza shop bootstrapped its business by offering pizza for free until it got a critical mass of popularity.

The message makes sense, but the example does not.

[catone]

I think you're reading too much into the analogy -- or misreading it.

The analogy isn't, "web business are just like pizza shops!" Rather, the sentiment that I think Allen was communicating is, "in _any_ business, there is always room for competitors and new ways of doing things."

I wish I could remember the link to the podcast so you could hear it in the exact context.

[undertoad]

It might make sense--a pizza shop owner who couldn't afford to rent in a highly-trafficked area may have similar problems bringing customers to his storefront (stores don't usually pop up and have instant success).

Plus, a brick-and-mortar store owner has higher fixed costs.

[fallentimes]

It's not like you can "walk by" and discover that it provides something.

Sure you can, organic traffic.