Top Ten Innovation Mistakes
Oct 3rd, 2006 by Dan Blank
Ron Garret has a great post about the “classic mistakes that geeks make when trying to raise money for a new business.”
I thought these spoke directly to challenges that publishers and media companies have when recreating their business model online. The myths are:
- A brilliant idea will make you rich.
- If you build it they will come.
- Someone will steal your idea if you don’t protect it.
- What you think matters.
- Financial models are bogus.
- What you know matters more than who you know.
- A Ph.D. means something.
- I need $5 million to start my business.
- The idea is the most important part of my business plan.
- Having no competition is a good thing.
“If you build it, they will come” is often a hope that I find people have. However, it undermines the true nature of the web: the fact that it is inherently social. People will not automatically gather themselves around you because you have allowed them to, just as people don’t crowd themselves around you when you walk into a party.