I'm not bitter or upset but I'm thinking: Why can't I think of stuff people want? Maybe I don't know how to listen? He's a human, just like me, but I can't do anything. Maybe asking this question is a first signal of failure, or at least that I'm of a wrong mindset, that separates a good entrepreneur, whom wouldn't ask that question and just go do it, from people like me.
If his WP page is accurate, it's not like he didn't have startups that didn't work out but he still made it.
It's never been clear to me to what degree Jack is coming up with good ideas versus being very fast at adopting other people's good ideas. But I guess the distinction may not really matter- most of us don't even recognize good ideas until success is already certain.
Count me amongst those who shared that impression...my impression hasn't changed much! It obviously isn't completely stupid or completely useless but its utility is still shockingly low especially when you consider its stock market success.
I am on twitter mainly as a way to promote my company and connect with prospective people, but otherwise the utility of twitter still strikes me as rather low.
It is a good medium for one-to-many (aka broadcast) communication but there aren't enough interesting people in the world to make that a viable option. Not to mention once you start to follow more than 20 people your stream becomes a fire-hose that is not really consumable.
I guess now that it is a public company we'll have to wait and see if it can turn the amount of profit that matches its valuation.
Also stupid/useless and success are not necessarily mutually exclusive, we are talking about humans after all :)
once you start to follow more than 20 people your stream becomes a fire-hose that is not really consumable.
I only feel like people discover the "true" nature of Twitter after they go above 200 follows - it is intended to be saturated consumption like TV, something that can be consumed habitually at any idle moment. There is a Matrix-like quandary in this, in that users who want to filter stop themselves from reaching the point where they see a net-positive outcome. IRC is very similar in that getting the full effect out of it means keeping dozens of channels open.
Maybe you need to get out of the tech-site bubble :)
Yeah, maybe. i don't use social stuff too much, but I'm mostly experienced with enterprise stuff. Not sure how to talk to them, too, or even what their problems really are.
Would you say that you have tried coming up with ideas yourself really hard, have given it your all for months or years?
Because that's what Jack did and what all other oh-so-famous entrepreneurs did to become successful.
One doesn't have that idea and then it just works out "overnight". It's a long long process over several years of unpaid hard work.
So don't wonder why can't you just have that billion dollar idea. You've probably had 5 billion dollar ideas already, but then someone else actually did it. So you need to do them.
Maybe narrow your scope. Dorsey created two services that millions of people want. Could you create something that only thousands or even hundreds of people would want (and pay money for)?
Square has about 40,000 active customers. They "have a plan" to be profitable by 2015.
"Millions" of people don't want Square, a handful of underserved merchants do, and not being profitable means their customers aren't "paying" for the service yet.
If you hit it out of the park with a Twitter or Facebook or Google, you can get enough investors on board to make your next venture seem successful regardless of actual traction.
I'm not saying Square isn't awesome, you've just had too much kool-aid.
No Kool-Aid, I just believe that there's more than a million people in the world who want Square (yes, under served merchants), regardless of the current group of 40k. Give Square a few years and I think you'll agree.
It surprises me the "be profitable by 2015" plan. Square has a front row seat at money, I would've probably bet that they were profitable from day one.
Can you shed some light on to why they are still not profitable?
Square is basically trying to buy marketshare right now.
Everyone regardless of size pays the same base prices to Visa and Mastercard [1] and makes up profit in markups. A large processing network can charge lower markups because they process many more transactions, where smaller processors needs to make more on each. Smaller processing networks also make money on fees (chargeback fees for example), but Square does not.
The only way to profitability would be to try and shift transactions off the processing networks (like with Square Wallet), or to 1000x transaction volume.
Comments
Kudos to him.
I'm not bitter or upset but I'm thinking: Why can't I think of stuff people want? Maybe I don't know how to listen? He's a human, just like me, but I can't do anything. Maybe asking this question is a first signal of failure, or at least that I'm of a wrong mindset, that separates a good entrepreneur, whom wouldn't ask that question and just go do it, from people like me.
If his WP page is accurate, it's not like he didn't have startups that didn't work out but he still made it.
Do not fall for the Survivorship Bias: http://youarenotsosmart.com/2013/05/23/survivorship-bias/
good point and taken. thank you.
It's never been clear to me to what degree Jack is coming up with good ideas versus being very fast at adopting other people's good ideas. But I guess the distinction may not really matter- most of us don't even recognize good ideas until success is already certain.
Well if you think back to the release of twitter the overwhelming response on most tech sites was that it was stupid/useless/waste of time, etc...
("Why would I want SMS restrictions on the web?!")
Maybe you need to get out of the tech-site bubble :)
Count me amongst those who shared that impression...my impression hasn't changed much! It obviously isn't completely stupid or completely useless but its utility is still shockingly low especially when you consider its stock market success.
I am on twitter mainly as a way to promote my company and connect with prospective people, but otherwise the utility of twitter still strikes me as rather low.
It is a good medium for one-to-many (aka broadcast) communication but there aren't enough interesting people in the world to make that a viable option. Not to mention once you start to follow more than 20 people your stream becomes a fire-hose that is not really consumable.
I guess now that it is a public company we'll have to wait and see if it can turn the amount of profit that matches its valuation.
Also stupid/useless and success are not necessarily mutually exclusive, we are talking about humans after all :)
I only feel like people discover the "true" nature of Twitter after they go above 200 follows - it is intended to be saturated consumption like TV, something that can be consumed habitually at any idle moment. There is a Matrix-like quandary in this, in that users who want to filter stop themselves from reaching the point where they see a net-positive outcome. IRC is very similar in that getting the full effect out of it means keeping dozens of channels open.
Yeah, maybe. i don't use social stuff too much, but I'm mostly experienced with enterprise stuff. Not sure how to talk to them, too, or even what their problems really are.
Would you say that you have tried coming up with ideas yourself really hard, have given it your all for months or years?
Because that's what Jack did and what all other oh-so-famous entrepreneurs did to become successful.
One doesn't have that idea and then it just works out "overnight". It's a long long process over several years of unpaid hard work.
So don't wonder why can't you just have that billion dollar idea. You've probably had 5 billion dollar ideas already, but then someone else actually did it. So you need to do them.
Maybe narrow your scope. Dorsey created two services that millions of people want. Could you create something that only thousands or even hundreds of people would want (and pay money for)?
Square has about 40,000 active customers. They "have a plan" to be profitable by 2015.
"Millions" of people don't want Square, a handful of underserved merchants do, and not being profitable means their customers aren't "paying" for the service yet.
If you hit it out of the park with a Twitter or Facebook or Google, you can get enough investors on board to make your next venture seem successful regardless of actual traction.
I'm not saying Square isn't awesome, you've just had too much kool-aid.
No Kool-Aid, I just believe that there's more than a million people in the world who want Square (yes, under served merchants), regardless of the current group of 40k. Give Square a few years and I think you'll agree.
Nice info you got there.
It surprises me the "be profitable by 2015" plan. Square has a front row seat at money, I would've probably bet that they were profitable from day one.
Can you shed some light on to why they are still not profitable?
Square is basically trying to buy marketshare right now.
Everyone regardless of size pays the same base prices to Visa and Mastercard [1] and makes up profit in markups. A large processing network can charge lower markups because they process many more transactions, where smaller processors needs to make more on each. Smaller processing networks also make money on fees (chargeback fees for example), but Square does not.
The only way to profitability would be to try and shift transactions off the processing networks (like with Square Wallet), or to 1000x transaction volume.
1. http://usa.visa.com/download/merchants/visa-usa-interchange-...
That certainly seems doable. Thanks for this tip.
It's not about good ideas, its about their implementation's good design.
That's true, and I've heard it often. But I have to have some idea to do, and the skill or smarts to pull it off.
Read James Altucher's blog, and his books. Among other things, he recommends a daily exercise of coming up with ten ideas on some topic.[1]
Do it. Every day. And see what happens.
(Yes, I do it. Every day.)
[1] http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2012/10/how-to-become-an-idea-m...