[davidw]

I didn't care much for Ries' "The Lean Startup", but one thing that did stick with me about it was the example of just doing stuff 'by hand' to see if there's a market for it, without worrying about creating some super-cool highly automated and perfect system from the get go, as would be our inclination as hackers. The oDesk story seems to indicate that they did something similar - putting people in touch very much 'by hand' initially. It'd be interesting to hear about the transition, but I think it's a good concept to keep in mind, as long as you are reasonably sure that, at some point, things can be automated pretty well.

[orky56]

I think it's important to understand the difference between hacking the problem versus hacking the solution. One will get you to product market fit while the other will get you to your minimum viable product. Reminds me of the old Zappos story where they would actually purchase the shoes from Foot Locker and shop those out.