Why not keep it simple?
In May I publicly announced that my startup had failed.
I bring this up so that the rest of this post doesn’t come off as sounding like I’m pretending to be a wizened entrepreneur who is handing out advice based on his past successes. I’m not. But, with that said, I have learned a few things over these past 18 months.
The one thing that I have learned above all others is “keep it simple”.
Despite the fact that my startup never turned into a profitable company (at this point it pays for itself and a couple of nice dinners per month) we were able to launch in three months and gather about 5000 active users within 4 months. Nothing remarkable at all, but solid numbers that showed an interest in our site. Aside from my partner and I’s time it also only cost us a couple of thousand dollars to build out our site. We were able to do all of this because we kept the site simple and focused on releasing quickly and then building on it from there.
The advice that I’m trying to offer here isn’t anything revolutionary. Quite the contrary, it’s a whole development meme and has been for a couple of years now. Buzzwords like “MVP” and “fail fast” are heard all over the place, and “keep it simple” is no different.
So why do I still see so many people investing so much time in something without trying to put a simple product in front of their customers? I personally know several people who have sunk huge sums of money and months, if not years, into a product that is always on the verge of launching, or is now open to a small group of “beta users”, but is never quite ready to be released to the world.
Everyone I know working on a startup like this is a smart person. Definitely smarter than I am. So why haven’t they launched yet? This isn’t a question I feel like I can just ask outright to an acquaintance.
Me: “How’s xxxxxx coming along?”
Them: “Good, we’re really excited about a couple of new features we are adding, but it’s going to take a month or so to have them ready?”
Me: “So why don’t you just launch with what you have?”
Them: Awkward glare.
Instead I’ll ask the question here: If you are one of these people please share with me and help me understand why not keep it simple and just launch already?
Or, if you know one of these people, and know why they keep pushing off their launch date please tell me. I really want to stop squandering so much of my own limited mental powers thinking about this.
