A Litmus Test for Entrepreneurs | Hacker News Reader

A Litmus Test for Entrepreneurs

hbswk.hbs.edu

21 pointsTerhorst6 comments

What's so odd to me is that reading through the working knowledge section and others on the site is that the Harvard Business School just doesn't seem to get a lot of things about web business anymore.

This article comes off as being written by someone who, while incredibly credentialed, just seems like an outsider. It seems like an article my parents would write and they dont necessarily have a great grasp on the way business is evolving.

I'd much rather read certain blogs than the stuff coming out of hbs these days. Its odd but they're missing developments almost as badly as traditional media.

Note this semi-rant is directed on the whole at hbs' working knowledge site and only a little bit at this specific article.

Well, in their defense the article was written in 2002. ;)

"... This article comes off as being written by someone who, while incredibly credentialed, just seems like an outsider. It seems like an article my parents would write and they don`t necessarily have a great grasp on the way business is evolving. ..."

I'm a long time sceptic of HBS business case studies and a fan of watching & re-watching Startup.com.

    "... GovWorks's failure is a textbook example 
    of the perils of grandiosity. Smart entrepreneurs 
    recognize that start-ups cannot afford to pass 
    on any opportunity, no matter how small. ..."

But when I read points like the above quote I think the author is right on the nail. There are a lot of things GovWorks got wrong [0] but this observation strikes pretty much to the heart of it. To not even entertain the idea, meant saying no to any potential cash-flow. Lack of cash-flow caused the eventual sell-off.

[0] Lets see growing big, fast with other peoples money, letting non-tech staff dictate the development & having a co-founder who wanted to call the company "come on to Caesar dot com"

The section on "Do you have the patience to start small?" reminds me of pg's recent comment:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=116280

All the talk of "are you a closer?" reminded me of Al Pacino's speech in Glengarry Glen Ross: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TROhlThs9qY

Yeah, Alec Baldwin was brilliant in that role.

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