This is a valid criticism, but is mitigated a little by the fact that some of these success stories include within them wisdom from preceding (or competitive-contemporaneous) failures.
This is even the case, indirectly, where the Startup School presentation can't fit the speaker's whole story.
For example, I think the Travis Kalanick presentation about Uber at Startup School was great. (I'd love to see the time-unconstrained 'two-hour' version of the same talk.) But, it was just about Uber: a current big success.
Kalanick also did a shorter -- and perhaps even better -- talk about his previous ventures at the 2011 FailCon:
Combined with the SS12 Uber presentation -- indeed, perhaps best viewed just before -- it provides real context, and a much better idea of the range of outcomes and challenges startups face. And, of the entrepreneurial qualities that gave Kalanick repeated chances at Uber-like success.
Comments
This is a valid criticism, but is mitigated a little by the fact that some of these success stories include within them wisdom from preceding (or competitive-contemporaneous) failures.
This is even the case, indirectly, where the Startup School presentation can't fit the speaker's whole story.
For example, I think the Travis Kalanick presentation about Uber at Startup School was great. (I'd love to see the time-unconstrained 'two-hour' version of the same talk.) But, it was just about Uber: a current big success.
Kalanick also did a shorter -- and perhaps even better -- talk about his previous ventures at the 2011 FailCon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QrX5jsiico
Combined with the SS12 Uber presentation -- indeed, perhaps best viewed just before -- it provides real context, and a much better idea of the range of outcomes and challenges startups face. And, of the entrepreneurial qualities that gave Kalanick repeated chances at Uber-like success.