Jonas Brandon

Cofounder StartupNorth. Serial Entrepreneur. Venture Investor.

Startup’s Razor

Here’s is a lesson I (almost) learnt the hard way.

Back in 2006, I met a talented developer who had built a novelty web telephony product. We caught up for a tea and discussed applications for the technology. One ambitious idea was to create something akin to Yahoo Pipes with the Asterisk open source PBX. Pretty awesome, right?

With one developer and one designer we got started with a simple proof of concept. Then he broke (and almost lost) his leg snowboarding – out of commission for months, the project got dropped. Had he not wrapped his leg around a tree, in retrospect I am fairly certain the project might still have been left in the dust… read on.

There is a principle known as Occam’s Razor, which has been tabled by many great minds. It goes something like this:

Frustra fit per plura quod potest fieri per pauciora. – William of Ockham

Make things as simple as possible, but not simpler. – Albert Einstein

Keep it simple stupid. – Kelly Johnson

Fast forward to 2009, along came Twilio, an IP telephony platform exposed as a service via a simple API (it rocks, check it out). Fact: an API is far less complex than building a drag and drop pipes type solution.

The simplest solution, all else being equal, wins.

Why? The simplest solution is fastest to implement (aka Minimum Viable Product). The simplest solution addresses the broadest possible set of customer use cases. The simplest solution leaves the most capital to direct into the drivers of growth other than product development.

Can your product be too simple? Can you cut too much? Sure. That said, I’d bet you need to keep shaving (we did).

 

Hunting Elephants

Recent news of the GoDaddy Elephant Hunt (warning graphic video) offers two lessons for startups. The first is obvious, as CEO your personal brand is inescapably linked to your company. The second is perhaps somewhat less obvious in the cloud of outrage… YOU SHOULD BE HUNTING ELEPHANTS.

Allow me to explain:

1. No one will care if you go on a mosquito hunt. If your startup is pursuing a tiny market, no one will notice, no one will invest, and no one will join the hunt.

2. The elephant hunt will feed a village. Even if your startup is successful, if the market is minuscule you have failed.

3. An elephant is easier to see than a mosquito. Finding customers for your startup is half the battle.

4. Elephant hunts are more dangerous. There is nothing quite like the thrill of competing in a dynamic market.

5. You will love telling the story about the elephant stampede through camp. Even if you don’t end up revolutionizing a market, you’ll learn an industry and build a strong network.

Are you hunting elephants?

 

In case you missed the point entirely, this post was about markets not mammals. Species and habitats are essential to a healthy planet. Please don’t go around shooting elephants with artillery for sport, there is nothing sportsmanlike about it. Instead consider making a donation to the World Wildlife Fund and become a partner in conservation.

Rewardli in first 500 Startups accelerator class

The first cohort to join 500 Startups accelerator has just been announced. Included is a Canadian team led by George Favvas who is working on a project called Rewardli. Not many details on the startup yet, but the focus is “helping small business owners leverage their social graph in interesting ways.”

George had this to say: “We are incredibly excited to be a part of the first batch of startups to go through the program. Dave McClure is obviously a very visible leader but there is an entire team behind him, not to mention a network of over 100 mentors who actively help and hold office hours in the accelerator. Unlike YCombinator, all 500 Startups accelerator companies share physical office space in Mountain View, which I think is a good idea as you can sense the energy just by walking into the room. There are events, talks, and workshops which often focus on the core themes of design, data and distribution. At the end of the program, we expect to have iterated enough to have a minimum viable product that addresses a real pain point, and raise a round of follow on financing.”

Update: Real Ventures is participating in the seed round as well.