Feeling Lucky Is Not a Strategy

Some startups just “go for it” and pursue their vision without any real strategy. In the same way that the losers are never interviewed after after the lottery numbers are announced, press and pundits draw startup lessons by restricting their focus to the winners. It’s bullshit.

Feeling Lucky Is Not A Strategy

“Luck cannot be duplicated.” Richard Kostelanetz

Go Game: an example of strategyRiffing on a Nov-2-2013 TechCrunch post by Cowboy VenturesAileen Lee (@aileenlee) “Welcome To The Unicorn Club: Learning From Billion-Dollar Startups” Ryan Hoover suggests that you should “Forget What You Know: There is No Right Way to Start Up”[1][2]

“They didn’t talk to people. They didn’t do market research. They didn’t create a landing page to see if people would enter their email. They just built it. For the past year, they invested in the team and technology to prioritize speed of iteration with disregard to traditional methods of customer development and company building.”
Ryan Hoover in “Forget What You Know: There is No Right Way to Start Up”

This is not a methodology, it’s hoping to get lucky. The article cites several startups that may have gotten lucky as proof of…I am not sure, I guess that it’s possible to get lucky.

“Lean methodology and the startup community at large, espouses customer interviews, landing page tests, concierge experiments, and other tactics for testing hypotheses and measuring demand before building a product. In many cases, this is good advice but sometimes it’s a waste of time or worse, directs entrepreneurs away from something truly great.”
Ryan Hoover in “Forget What You Know: There is No Right Way to Start Up”

For every team that gets lucky I wonder how many thousands run through their savings in search of the “truly great” (why not “insanely great” I wonder, why the compromise)  without talking to customers or testing their hypotheses. Perhaps a more careful and detailed analysis will uncover ways to duplicate the success of some of these startups but I worry that it may be like trying to select the winning lottery ticket: the fact that some people do it does not change the fact that on average it’s a terrible investment strategy.

“Diligence is the mother of good luck.”
Benjamin Franklin


Ryan’s essay also appeared on LinkedIn and TheNextWeb:

I don’t think this “Forget What You Know” post is representative of the quality of Ryan’s insights. Here are three blog posts by him that I have found very useful and recommend reading:

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Image Credit: copyright Peerayot To-im  (RFID Image ID : 26778614)

2 thoughts on “Feeling Lucky Is Not a Strategy”

  1. Pingback: SKMurphy, Inc. » Quotes For Entrepreneurs–March 2014

  2. Pingback: SKMurphy, Inc. A Half-Fast Entrepreneur with Half-Vast Experience - SKMurphy, Inc.

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