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Never Knowing when to shut up!
For one reason or another I didn’t see this interview with Walter Higgins of PXN8 fame until today. I can’t believe the low number of impressions though. I can’t help but thinking that for all this talk of how you don’t need to be in the Bay Area anymore you do — I bet if Walter was there he’d be turning down Venture Capitalists on a regular basis. Wow, that’s two posts complaining about support for ideas in Ireland in a row!
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Met him today at the IT@Cork event. Really nice guy. I think you’re very right about online reviews are not good enough. Face to face and print media are far more powerful to get you attention.
The interview was conducted back in early january. The average page impressions now is closer to 2k per day (still low I guess but heading in the right direction
As for the bay-area debate, here’s two opposing views…
http://www.caterina.net/archive/000965.html
http://37signals.com/svn/archives2/its_a_great_time_to_start_a_business.php
Yeah read both those interviews today. I thought Jason Calcanis did a great analysis of both schools of thought.
Glad things are on an upwards spiral, I’ve been doing my best to hype you! As I’ve said before it’s a fantastic product.
Thanks Dave.
Excellent interview Walter! I’ll tell you what, I’ll move to Cali and be your eyes and ears out there as long as I get time off every time there’s good surf, how’s that sound?
Firstly I know Walter for a number of years and I know he deserves great success with PXN8. Great technical guys and always had a great vision of where things are going.
Creating a successful company doesn’t require VC. It may require investment and there are many sources for this. My preference is for smart private investment, particularly at the early stages, from people who have created their riches from their business instincts and ability to get things done. Some milestones should be met to validate the business model before investment is sought. This is not the valley.
It is always a good time to start a new business. Too many people analyse their business idea to death, almost looking for reasons not to do it. It’s good to be prudent but fear might be the greater driver here. There is a point at which you should trust your ‘gut instinct’.
There are many great ideas but a great shortage of those to will put the effort into making them work.
If you want to build an international business, the web has opened up many great opportunities.
What’s the next industrial revolution?
What’s the next Model T?
I agree with you Donagh to a point. You definitely don’t need VC to have a successful company but if your competitors do have VC then I’d argue you probably do. I’ve lost count of the times the early innovator/creator has lost out to a better funded second to the marketplace venture.
I agree with the main thrust of your post though and I probably should have been a bit clearer when I mentioned VC, I meant any early stage investment, be it an angel investor or venture capitalists.
If you choose to compete head-on with another company, particularly one better resourced or funded, you better have some decent winning point to compete on.
You dont need big investment to compete against well funded or large companies.
At a recent IT@Cork event, Kevin O’Leary of Qumas spoke of how his company competed against major US companies to win business in the pharma sector. You generally can’t compete head-on with these guys they. You need to find something else.
In Vistech days, I beat off larger companies, because as the MD I was able to make faster decisions and commitments that the sales guy of a larger company. The buyer then felt more in control of the process.
On another note, it doesn’t manner how good the idea is, it take significant effort to get a business generating success.
Ideas that fall into any of the following add a greater difficulty and take longer to make successful:
1) New Concepts - selling the concept and then selling your service - look how slow blogging is taking to be widly adopted.
2) Expecting consumer habits to change quickly - dangerous assumption - Grocery Shopping online - I hear Tesco online is currently making money now.
3) Businesses that threaten to change industry structure or balance of power - could a small car manufacturer have introduced a hybrid car successfully? It needed a Toyota to do it.
4) A Product or Service completely dependent on multiple dispersed reseller partner channels
…to name a few…
All excellent points Donagh, you should write a book on this stuff! In the end I don’t have 1/10th the experience in these matters that you do so I suppose I’m guilty of going with the popular idea of the companies I read about online, i.e. get an idea, grab a load of capital, hope for the best!
»»Too many people analyse their business idea to death, almost looking for reasons not to do it. It’s good to be prudent but fear might be the greater driver here. There is a point at which you should trust your ‘gut instinct’.
Amen. I obviously don’t have as much experience as Donagh but my gut tells me that if you fall into the trap of thinking “We need VC funding or our VC funded competitors will eat our lunch” then you’ll spend all your time chasing VCs instead of developing your product and you’ll never get your business off the ground.
Never underestimate the energy of a person with capability and a solid belief in their goals, regardless of their age or experience.
You can always hire experience. There are many instances where the CEO is much younger than the COO and the CFO.
I spent too much time chasing VC funding and thought afterwards “if only I had spent that time with potential clients”.
Client money is the best funds and it is possible to start and grow a business on that basis.