"7. What’s your secret sauce? ... We hope to come up with Something Big in 2010."
Hmm. I harbor hope that he's kidding. I'm more and more a believer that the only secret sauce that matters is relentless execution and incremental improvement over many years. Sure, some companies will happen upon the magical product-technology-market puzzle piece that ends up being worth a billion dollars, but that's playing the lottery, not running a business.
There is a lot more secret sauce out there than you hear about. By definition you don't hear about it. There's rarely any incentive for companies to talk about it. Many people inside a company might not even realize what it is at their company!
A great example is PayPal. According to Max Levchin their custom fraud detection system was the only reason they were able to stay in business.
Comments
"7. What’s your secret sauce? ... We hope to come up with Something Big in 2010."
Hmm. I harbor hope that he's kidding. I'm more and more a believer that the only secret sauce that matters is relentless execution and incremental improvement over many years. Sure, some companies will happen upon the magical product-technology-market puzzle piece that ends up being worth a billion dollars, but that's playing the lottery, not running a business.
There is a lot more secret sauce out there than you hear about. By definition you don't hear about it. There's rarely any incentive for companies to talk about it. Many people inside a company might not even realize what it is at their company!
A great example is PayPal. According to Max Levchin their custom fraud detection system was the only reason they were able to stay in business.