Start-ups? We need more finish-ups

The other quote one should keep in mind is 'The last 10% of getting it done takes 90% of the effort.' One of the systemic problems in open source is that the last 10% is both no fun, and not well regarded in the community (this was a cultural challenge at Google as well when I was there)

In the start-up world you can think of those companies that had a good idea, but couldn't get themselves to finish it, as the primary food source for patent trolls. One need only look at patents assigned to your favorite 'non-practicing entity' vs for whom they were originally filed to see a long list of start ups the flamed out before achieving orbit.

This is also why there are only a limited number of deals available for 'untested' entrepreneurs, sort of the VC/Angel equivalent of 'frequent flyer seats'. Extra risk don't want to over weight the portfolio with them.

So perhaps a good way to start is to think about how you're going to finish and work backwards from there. If you define 'finish' as 'make a lot of money' and you're one of the principals in the start up, correlation suggests you are less likely to reach that goal. If you're the type that can stay focused on the delivery and not the results of the delivery (financially at least) it seems you will be more likely to succeed.

"We need more finish-ups" is a nice turn of phrase but it seems more like a 37signals message than a Google message. Is failure okay or do you want to prioritize survival -- "finishing up" into a mature company?

We all know the startup model that Google has influenced and nurtured, and it's not about finishing up. That's clear from the "60% of the impossible" quote. To oversimplify, it's about ignoring revenue and giving away value in order to build huge amounts of usage. I am not criticizing that, and it has a lot to recommend it. But start-ups with that model are not going to finish up very often, just because they're risky.

So I'm a little confused. Are start-ups failing because they're trying to do the ordinary, and instead they need to aim for the impossible? Maybe this is the zen of Google.

"achieving 60% of the impossible is better than 100% of the ordinary"

A great quote!

I've been toying recently with the idea of a fail-up, Ie a failed start up which ultimately gets you closer to finishing your next startup. Or perhaps fail-ups are every start up you failed at until you hit success, each one getting you incrementally closer to that success.