Why you should start a internet company today.
I found one of my notebooks from the late 90’s; - when I was working on starting my first company (skateboard.com). That notebook had a list of companies and websites that were offering productivity tools and start-up information. It got me to thinking about how starting a company today is very different than it was then.
There are so many reasons to start a company today, but the biggest one is because it’s cheap. You can now rule out having to pay Microsoft for anything because of open source software, like Linux and MYSQL, and all of the free - or almost free - productivity and communication tools like Basecamp and Skype. And, let’s not forget how inexpensive hardware and Bandwidth is. In 1999, we had to spend $500k to build a website that, today, would only cost $20k-$30k . Operational costs haven’t changed that much, but the point is it takes a lot less money than it did only 5 years ago.
Additionally, now with blogging taking hold, you have, at your fingertips, a vast resource of information from CEO’s, VC’s and programmers that you didn’t have then. That information, that you can get from blogs, basically gives you details on the tools to use in starting your business and, even ideas on what companies to start. Below is a list of some useful information that has been blogged about recently. With the vast amount of information and resources that are out there today, there is no reason why you shouldn’t be starting a company. So, why wait? I forgot to mention this when I wrote this earlier but, of course you also need a good idea.
Evan Williams CEO of Odeo, INC posted his “Ten Rules for Startupsâ€. Click Here to view the list.
Nick Denton Ceo of Gawker Media posted his links to what he calls his “Start-up Kitâ€. Click Here to view the list.
Michael Arrington from Techcrunch Posted a list of companies that he would like to profile but don’t exist yet. Click Here to read his post.
Business 2.0 magzine went so far as to interview VC’s and have them desicribe companies that don’t exist but they’re wanting to invest in. They even give the VC’s email info so that you can email them your Business plan. Click Here to read the article.
technorati tags: startup, web2.0, CEO, techcrunch, basecamp, odeo, gawker+media, tools
of course its cheap to start a website,
thats why everyone is doing it
supply/demand folks, no one is going to reward you for providing the 1001th solution in an overcrowded space, regardless of your startup costs.
Saying that everyone is doing it (referring to “starting a website”) and it’s an overcrowded space is like saying “everyone sells things” and there’s no room for more retailers. It really isn’t true.
Websites do different things - they sell things, they offer services, they offer entertainment - it’s just a medium. Amazon doesn’t compete with Slashdot, and Slashdot doesn’t compete with Hotmail. They do different things, and just because they are websites doesn’t mean they’re “crowding” one another out.
Even though there are many websites that, for example, sell computers, that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for more. You can make a fine living being the 3rd best computer seller, or 4th largest news aggregator. You needn’t be #1 to make money.
What I think you’re saying is the cost of entry is cheap. However that doesn’t necessarily make it the thing that everyone should do. A great idea, is a great idea whatever. The best things happen when great ideas collide with enthusiastic determined people. My other concern is that a lot of the discussion around the second wave is very US centric.
T: you cannot compare websites to selling oranges. oranges are a commodity product where locality counts. this is why there are people selling oranges in brazil and sweden who are not competing. the comparison to the web market is utterly fallacious.
and i agree with you that the market can absorb multiple competitors, but you must understand that ultimately this leads to razor thin margins in exactly the market you discuss - online retailing. not only can you make money selling books out of your apartment these days, you must - because your other ten potential competitors are also doing this.
once again, low startup costs typically imply low margins.
Why You Should Start an Internet Company Today
Chris Mullins started an internet company, skateboard.com, back in the bubble of the 90s, when things were different from they are today:
There are so many reasons to start a company today, but the biggest one is because it’s cheap. You can now ru…
It may be easier to start a company today, but the thing that so many forget is that the company they start should be something that they have an actual passion for. When I went into business with my brother, we both were looking for something that we love and that brought us back to the skateboarding and snowboarding industries.
We are doing very well for ourselves because we love what we do. Our websites (www.myboardshop.com and http://www.bladhboardshop.com) have become bigger than we would have imagined. The reason we are doing so well is because we love this industry, on a lighter note, I like what grumpY! had to say, “You needn’t be #1 to make money.” That pretty much sums it up.
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