Thread: Is "FREE" the ultimate nail in the coffin

Originally Posted by Go Getter

EXACTLY!. As soon as I dump my life savings trying to get a working model, CL , ebay or some big fish could copy me, and take my business right from under me. Looks how many twitter copy cats there are. On top of that, there is no guarantee an angel would even be interested in what i'm doing. These two things are some big concerns.



maybe there is a way for me to trademark the ways im different? so no one can copy my process?

Mark Cuban wrote a great blog posting about this very topic. I will send you a link in a private message.

Trademark? You mean patent?

No offense... But until you're making millions don't expect the big boys to up and change their gameplan because they think you're going to take their business.

Stop worrying, get something working, then start getting excited about successful it will be. Millions have ideas, you gotta' make something work first.

Best of luck.

there is plenty of opportunity in niche offerings - if you're doing something classified related, and you can find a good niche, you could find a market.

what does niche mean in this case? focus on selling something very specific; focus on an aspect no one else does (customer service); etc, etc.

big guys are big - and they are slow - and they don't care about $1M markets b/c they've got their eyes on $1B markets. makes it easy for little guys to come up.

- chuck

and, as a small start-up, what's the *best* thing that can happen to you?

a large company like Goog or eBay come into your market. why? it validates the market, brings free attention to it. and they are slow, you should be fast, you can out-execute them.

and then if you're all that, they'll buy you. it's cheaper to buy than build - capex is "cheaper" than opex most of the time b/c you can amortize the cost over many many years.

- chuck

Originally Posted by carendt242

and, as a small start-up, what's the *best* thing that can happen to you?

a large company like Goog or eBay come into your market. why? it validates the market, brings free attention to it. and they are slow, you should be fast, you can out-execute them.

and then if you're all that, they'll buy you. it's cheaper to buy than build - capex is "cheaper" than opex most of the time b/c you can amortize the cost over many many years.

- chuck

1m dollar markets can become 1 billion dollar markets. Look at online movies like netflix...they started small, and there is no end in sight.

And what do you mean by "I can execute easier" ? Not without a lot of money. The big guys can do in a month, what would take me a year in terms of development. They got the money, skill, and the labor to get it done.

Why would I ever want to sell out? Steve Jobs still runs his company like its 1976.

Originally Posted by Go Getter

1m dollar markets can become 1 billion dollar markets. Look at online movies like netflix...they started small, and there is no end in sight.

And what do you mean by "I can execute easier" ? Not without a lot of money. The big guys can do in a month, what would take me a year in terms of development. They got the money, skill, and the labor to get it done.

Why would I ever want to sell out? Steve Jobs still runs his company like its 1976.

do you really just like to blabber all day? did you read what i wrote?

Google does not look at $1M markets - they look at $1B markets. they can't afford to look at $1M markets - like everything else - it doesn't scale. it's not worth their time.

they look at things that will be $1B markets - that's where their radar starts. if you adopt a niche approach, like i said, it will not be a $1B market - that is not a niche. and if you grow it, and are successful, then you become a buy-out target for 1 of 2 reasons: a) people realize that "hey, this could be a $1B market" or 2) your business has steady cash-flow that can be bought & leveraged in a larger organization.


if you can't execute faster than a larger company, you will not win. case closed. that's your advantage - no multi-national teams, guided by committee, watered-down products to appeal to mass markets.

if you can't win that battle - you lose. it's your main advantage as a small company.


then don't sell out. i don't care. i may impose a new rule on myself - i will only answer one of your threads per day.

- chuck

I see your dilemma but agree you need to get a working model and have a business plan all laid out. Attack the plan as if your worst critics are attacking your idea. Have a response for every point possible that can be raised.

Sometime just knowing your idea, having it laid out and most importantly being able to spit out a valid rebuttal to some smart ass who is trying to down your idea is often a way to actually get some doors to open. You have to first do the work

Good luck

Originally Posted by carendt242

do you really just like to blabber all day? did you read what i wrote?

Google does not look at $1M markets - they look at $1B markets. they can't afford to look at $1M markets - like everything else - it doesn't scale. it's not worth their time.

they look at things that will be $1B markets - that's where their radar starts. if you adopt a niche approach, like i said, it will not be a $1B market - that is not a niche. and if you grow it, and are successful, then you become a buy-out target for 1 of 2 reasons: a) people realize that "hey, this could be a $1B market" or 2) your business has steady cash-flow that can be bought & leveraged in a larger organization.


if you can't execute faster than a larger company, you will not win. case closed. that's your advantage - no multi-national teams, guided by committee, watered-down products to appeal to mass markets.

if you can't win that battle - you lose. it's your main advantage as a small company.


then don't sell out. i don't care. i may impose a new rule on myself - i will only answer one of your threads per day.

- chuck

just to add to this....selling out doesnt mean that you lose control. just means that you go from owner to employee....a rich, employee who calls all the shots and has a compensation package from hell.

my dads started a company (civil engineering calculation tools dealing with natural gas plant buildings) that he sold but became CEO of....he used the funds from that compensation to start another company...sold that and started another.......there came a time where he was ceo or coo to a all of them (4)at the same time....you are spread thin...but if you love the work..you dont care. just make sure you are not competing against yourself. that gets bad...

Originally Posted by Bignmz04

just to add to this....selling out doesnt mean that you lose control. just means that you go from owner to employee....a rich, employee who calls all the shots and has a compensation package from hell.

my dads started a company (civil engineering calculation tools dealing with natural gas plant buildings) that he sold but became CEO of....he used the funds from that compensation to start another company...sold that and started another.......there came a time where he was ceo or coo to a all of them (4)at the same time....you are spread thin...but if you love the work..you dont care. just make sure you are not competing against yourself. that gets bad...

Confused. How do you sell the company but become the CEO?... your CEO from the start.

Originally Posted by Go Getter

Confused. How do you sell the company but become the CEO?... your CEO from the start.

no..you are not always ceo from the start. chief executives are people who executes....get the job done but their most important role is to drum up more business using his strategy to guide and lead. are all owners in that role? nope. are their companies failing...nope.

one thing my dad always preaches:
ownership= philosophy
executive"ship" = strategy.
operatorship (coo)= dilligence
cfo= risk management.

look at it this way


microsoft buys gogetter.com from you for x amount. but they need somebody to run gg.com...who will they hire? who knows gg.com better than you (the founder). who is jobless, and needs a new job becaue he sold his company?