Video from Business of Software : Everything I Know About Startups

Written By: Dharmesh Shah November 5, 2008

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to present at the Business of Software conference held in Boston.

Here’s a video of that event.  Though I was a bit off my game (not enough sleep), people did seem to find it interesting and/or useful and the presentation was highly rated.

I’ll watch it along with you and add some notes to this article later today.  Enjoy (and please leave your comments and criticims).  Would love to hear them.

 

1.  Your idea can suck.  Just get started.

2.  You can be in the middle of nowhere and still build a great business.

3.  Not having cash breeds good behavior.  It’s helpful to have constratints.

4.  In defense of the modest outcome:  You don’t HAVE to build the next Facebook.  Modest liquidity events are highly under-rated.

5.  “I’m a complete introvert.  It’s not that I don’t like people, I just don’t like beind around them a whole lot.”

6.  Something’ changed here.  You don’t have to spend a lot of money to get your message out there.

7.  The real issue with VC is not the cost of capital (which is high), but how hard it is to actually raise it.

8.  You have to go through the 12 flaming hoops of venture capital.

9.  All the time you should’ve been spending solving your customer’s problem, you use to start to solve the VC’s problem.

10.  Write a blog, not a business plan.

Hope you enjoy the presentation.  It was a great conference and I had the pleasure of meeting with many of you there.  Look forward to the next one.

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