Product vs. Feature vs. Company
There seems to be a lot of talk around Silicon Valley these days about whether all these Internet companies that are springing up are really companies (check out TechCrunch for your daily dosage of new companies).
Most people claim that the vast majority of these companies are really just features. Although some of them are really just features built onto larger products like MySpace (e.g. mywhatspace.com), I think most of this rhetoric is meant to be undeservedly demeaning. Even these features are frequently significant enough to be considered products that simply interact well with a much larger product.
In my opinion the vast majority of companies springing up right now are simply developing products, just like every other company has done in the past. Just because any one of these products may not have enough potential behind it to power a significant company, doesn't mean that a given company might not produce another product as well, or improve a given product until it does have that potential.
If, at the end of the day, the entrepreneurs just sell their company before it becomes profitable or really even leaves the product development stage then that is fantastic. The fact of the matter is that people in the valley are taking more risks by developing 8 different versions of a given product. The few that stick the most get bought up by larger companies, leaving the entrepreneurs with a healthy profit. I think it has the makings of a very healthy and exciting economy. If, at the end of the day, the entrepreneurs are able to build their company into a self-sustaining entity, then all the better.
If, in the worst situation, their product does not really stick, then they move on to the next product, using the lessons they learned from the first time around to do a better job the second time around.
The only real loss is when entrepreneurs get discouraged by the demeaning rhetoric you hear so often. Maybe their product only has one innovative feature, but that innovation is then adopted by other products as well, creating a better product in the end. Even if the entrepreneurs never make a dime I guarantee you that the experience was more valuable than any typical salaried job will ever be.
Most people claim that the vast majority of these companies are really just features. Although some of them are really just features built onto larger products like MySpace (e.g. mywhatspace.com), I think most of this rhetoric is meant to be undeservedly demeaning. Even these features are frequently significant enough to be considered products that simply interact well with a much larger product.
In my opinion the vast majority of companies springing up right now are simply developing products, just like every other company has done in the past. Just because any one of these products may not have enough potential behind it to power a significant company, doesn't mean that a given company might not produce another product as well, or improve a given product until it does have that potential.
If, at the end of the day, the entrepreneurs just sell their company before it becomes profitable or really even leaves the product development stage then that is fantastic. The fact of the matter is that people in the valley are taking more risks by developing 8 different versions of a given product. The few that stick the most get bought up by larger companies, leaving the entrepreneurs with a healthy profit. I think it has the makings of a very healthy and exciting economy. If, at the end of the day, the entrepreneurs are able to build their company into a self-sustaining entity, then all the better.
If, in the worst situation, their product does not really stick, then they move on to the next product, using the lessons they learned from the first time around to do a better job the second time around.
The only real loss is when entrepreneurs get discouraged by the demeaning rhetoric you hear so often. Maybe their product only has one innovative feature, but that innovation is then adopted by other products as well, creating a better product in the end. Even if the entrepreneurs never make a dime I guarantee you that the experience was more valuable than any typical salaried job will ever be.
posted by The Entreprexplorer | 10:15 AM
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