How to fail... gloriously

You can see the full talk here: http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?author=3...

Having wasted $65M of VC money and failed spectacularly on my first startup because I managed to execute flawlessly on a flawed business plan, I can completely related to this video. Time is different now. What I have learned from my second and successful startup is that entrepreneurs need to defy Silicon Valley VC myths. Instead of innovating, we need to "nanovate". Instead of vision, we need to have peripheral vision. Instead of thinking outside of the box, we need to think inside the box. Instead of supersizing our business with VC money, we need to sacrifice growth by making sure that our early-adopter customers are extremely happy. VC's always want us to aim high, but for bootstrapping entrepreneurs, it is best to shot low. Focus on our current customer base and make sure everyone is happy. The cost of acquiring a new customer is extremely high in a down market. A perfect defense is our only offense. We must ignore our competitors and focus exclusively on our existing customers. Don't look for the knee of the hockey stick. Instead, wait for the pivot that would get us onto a different game. No sailboat ever won a contest by staying in the dry dock. Got to stay in the game before you know what the real game is.

Chip Morningstar wrote a nice piece about this idea a few years ago: http://habitatchronicles.com/2006/12/smart-people-can-ration...

Eric Ries also did a good blog post earlier this year based on the same experience:

http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2009/01/achieving-failu...

If I follow your logic Madoff was a brillant startup founder? I.e. he convinced ppl to give him money :)