Comments on: How I Spent My Summer Vacation

By: steveblank

steveblank — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 01:32:43 +0000

Shawn,

The feeling is mutual.

steve

By: Shawn Carolan

Shawn Carolan — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 01:08:54 +0000

Thank you Steve. Jennifer and I didn’t realize how lucky we were to be at Lake Merced the night you and the girls rolled in on those mules! You’ve been an incredible mentor to me.

By: ss

ss — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 21:05:33 +0000

feedback on your book:

1. Great.

2. New market concept could be explained a bit more. The chart in innovators… made a good job in explaining that a product can be partly in a new market and partly in existing etc.

3. Use more “internet ventures” as examples. Selling software to big companies, one at a time is a bit boring. Maybe more fun for old people.

4. More info on how to measure product/market fit.

5. If I could repeat the message in your book, in one sentence, I would say “run your start up like a tight poker player. Only bet when you see that you have a strong hand.”. Ok, 2.

The problem is that it cost to test ideas in time and money, (risk of running out of blinds).

I read somewhere that only 1 in 1000 star ups make it. Not sure if its true. But if you wanna play along then you have to have enough money and time to start 1000 start ups..

Maybe a discussion about this in the book.

6. I recently planned to buy a big portal/community/forum site and use it to sell a service branded under the sites name. This has worked for me before in other areas. And my gut feeling said it work in this area as well.

I cancelled the deal becuase of your book. Becuase I hadnt tested my gut feeling. The problem is that I cant test it. The owner wouldnt let me. And if he did, he would probably not sell it afterwards.

What should you do in situations like that? Maybe something about that in the book.

Should I just say fuck it, and bet on a 10-10? Or fold and risk of running out of chips due the blinds?

I dont expect any answers. But there seems to be alot of smart guys reading here. If Anyone could tell what they would do in the situation in point 6 I would be very greatful. Dont worry about looking stupid.

By: paolo marenco

paolo marenco — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 05:42:37 +0000

Steve…I also go to the past to link to the future…amazing story and contents! My next SVST is on the way to start: I guess when you will have 1 hour for our group of 20 grads and undergrads of 5 Italian Universities. We will be in Stanford August 23 in the morning but we can be there also late afternoon, and in Berkeley August 25 , afternoon, by Alberto Sangiovanni Vincentelli ( founder of Cadence and Synopsis, he doesn’t know you, you have to meet! ) Could one of these 2 days comfortable for you??….moreover I have to involve you in our Int School of E. in Torino Politechnic ( feb- june 2011)…i think we have to talk ( my Skype paolomarenco)

By: JohnnyW

JohnnyW — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 17:24:57 +0000

Lol. Any idea why the story went down so badly? You’d assume it would have worked perfectly… Weird!

By: Mark Essel

Mark Essel — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:22:16 +0000

Glad your summer world tour went well Steve. I’ll sort through your slide decks when I have time later this week.

Enjoyed your hiking story of meeting Shawn, and how he later invested in Eric Ries at IMVU. You’ve built a wonderful network of friends and associates. That alone is incredible.

Sorry to hear about the Tel Aviv talk sinking, hehe. You can’t please all the people all the time.