| "never waste time trying to raise money or build a product nobody wanted to pay for." I have to (somewhat) disagree. The problem with Steve Blank's advice (and I say this as someone who thinks it is very good advice) is that the more innovative/ game transforming companies don't get created this way. "By asking them if they'll pay for it, and iterating until you come up with something they will?" Take Google.
If in the hey day of Lycos and Alta Vista and all those vanished search engine companies, Larry and Sergei had started looking for "customers" and "asking them if they'll pay for it", they would never have built Google. "Would you like better search" "yeah sure" "So how much will you pay for it?" "Uhh ...Nothing". Sometimes the "how to make money" becomes obvious after you make something cool. Steve's advice is good for a certain kind of startup. Not all of them. That said, the book is (very) worth reading as long as you don't blindly accept everything he says. I for one found parts of the book too "marketing organization" centric. Which is all right, because I as a discerning reader am supposed to think for myself. |