Do Great Ideas Matter?

[akula]

“Our research shows a somewhat negative correlation between pioneering a great idea and building a great company. Many of the greatest [companies] started with either no great idea or even failed ideas. Sony started with a failed rice cooker. Marriott started as a single root beer stand. Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard’s great idea was simply to work together - two best friends who trusted each other - while their first four product failed to get the company out of the garage. They followed the ‘first who’ approach to entrepreneurship: First figure out your partners, then figure out what ideas to pursue. The most important thing isn’t the market you target, the product you develop, or the financing, but the founding team. Starting a company is like scaling an unclimbed face - you don’t know what the mountain will throw at you, so you must pick the right partners, who share your values, on whom you can depend, and who can adapt.”

http://lsvp.wordpress.com/2007/03/05...bout-the-team/

[ProLogic]

Nice post, very interesting.

[virginfootsteps]

i agree life is full of swings and roundabouts, but for the amount of companies that started out on failed ideas, there is also i vast number of companies that had an idea and just progressed on thier original idea, i.e Virgin.

[Moxie]

You definately don't need a great idea for a business. If there is room in your segment, then you can do what other businesses do. But it is easier to be plenty more successful with an original idea. It might be harder to get it off the ground, but once your get past the initial steps, if your product is truly innovative - it could sell itself.

[zoobie]

For a great idea to work you need to couple it up with great work.

Maybe some companies didn't have a great idea but at least they really worked hard to make their companies prosper.

[syia]

great article, having a partner which compliments each other skills is very important

[SAMG]

I agree 100%, You can have the best idea in the world, but if you don't know how to make the idea work, it doesn't matter.

[virginfootsteps]

You definately don't need a great idea for a business. If there is room in your segment, then you can do what other businesses do. But it is easier to be plenty more successful with an original idea. It might be harder to get it off the ground, but once your get past the initial steps, if your product is truly innovative - it could sell itself.

i agree .......

[chriswick]

So you think that anyone can make a business out of an idea? I know some people that think of a great idea everyday, but because of who they are they will never turn that into a working concept because they are just day dreamers, and I know down to their attitude that they just don't have what a start-up needs.

I speak with these people and they tell me that they have great ideas, I just say “Great stuff! Now do something about it!” I can almost put money on the table that they will not.

Just my personal thought.

[akula]

the point of the article (as I see it) is that founders need to formulate their own investment thesis, or there's no way they'll be able to attract other suitable cofounders

it's near impossible to be able to effectively network with other entrepreneurs/investors unless there's an agreement on the exact criteria for the opportunities you are collectively willing to explore

If any of you guys (for example) develops an investment thesis, comparable to Fabrice Grinda's, or Union Square Ventures, your chances of building a team with an aligned sense of purpose, expectations and risk capacity will improve dramatically

Having a great team of cofounders is critical, but it's not gonna happen if people are not on the same page

Good luck drafting your thesis!

I mean it :-)

[Mikey1205]

I would say this can work both ways, great teams with great ideas will almost always be successful. Great teams with a not so great idea can still become successful just as a relatively poor teams with a great idea can become successful the latter two will be much shorter lived.

[Aletheides]

I dont believe you need a great idea for a successful business, only a great system..

[silversurfer]

It all depends what you want to do in life.

If you want to create a great idea then obviously they matter. If you want to create a great company then they might not matter so much.

Some industries, like the internet, have so little effort associate withe execution that it's all in the great idea. Other industries, like restaurants or bars, have almost all the great ideas already created, so those who succeed do so on other concepts, like location and price.

If your goal is to transform money into more money then there are many low-tech solutions. A high school friend hires immigrant laborers to mow lawns for a living, pays them $5 per hour and pockets probably $100 per hour. absolutely terrible idea, lousy idea that I have no respect for, but he transforms money into more money. If that's all you want out of life then you don't need a big idea.

I agree with Akula, who almost always has sensible posts. Those ideas he linked to made perfect sense to me.

SS

[usakos]

In short; partnership is just like a marriage... you complete the sentence... I'm too tired to type.

[zumzug]

Trivia: The Sony rice cooker was made of wood(like the japanese rice bins) and just had a metal heater inside.