New Blog At GigaOm, Focusing on Growing A Startup
by Michael Arrington on April 14, 2007

Found+Read, GigaOm’s newest blog, will be a must-subscribe to resource for many web entrepreneurs. It is edited by Carleen Hawn and will have on guest entrepreneurs and other experts come on and share their experiences in building companies. Malik says he is starting this becasue he’s gone through growing pains building his own business over the last year, and realized that most of the hurdles he had to jump weren’t new, just new to him. He’s hoping Found+Read can become a resource for others to get advice as they grow their companies. This just launched last night, so content will be light for a while until it builds up.

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  • E O Fall - April 14th, 2007 at 3:51 pm PDT

    This is just great. It seems to me that GigaOM and Techcrunch share a similar fan base. Everyone knows how to start a company ( just like starting a Ferrari ). The problem is how to get it moving ( If you’ve never driven a stick shift ), take from 0 to 60 with control and not crash it. That is what startups are about. That is why we do not look into Franchises, which are like automatic Camaros. All you have to do is put the pedal to the floor., and if something goes wrong you call AAA.
    Anywayz. Good thing GigaOM. Help us better drive our FERRARIS.

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  • Amy Wilsch - April 14th, 2007 at 3:57 pm PDT

    Mike, as you probably know from all my ranting over the past several months, I’m peripherally helping (and hoping to join) a start-up that’s launching soon. Even with a pretty well connected leader who has access to a lot of resources, a few things that we’ve determined after listening to all sorts of people giving us advice:

    a) everything takes a lot longer than you think it will, even if you plan with extra cushion time -whether it’s waiting on someone for an answer, a deliverable, the check to clear the bank, etc etc
    b) people know what they know and what worked for them, but that doesn’t mean it will work for you if the variables are vastly different
    c) advice is half the time directly contradictory to what someone else (whose advice you also respect) told you earlier
    d) there is no set path, you really have to find your own. This includes a lot of muddling, frustration, and making bad choices.
    e) Sometimes it’s about timing. Other times it’s about luck. Two things that can’t really be enivornmentally controlled.
    f) if you talk to people who’ve succesfully launched companies, they almost all say they made a lot of mistakes and “if I only knew then what I know now” musings, but if the circumstances had been different, that same path very well may not have produced a succesful result.

    That all being said, it’s nice if the community will really participate in the information b/c even one good kernel of advice given can possibly save someone else a big headache someone else already experienced and helped them avoid possible mistakes.

    But at the end of the day, if there were really a clear path on how to get from Idea to Profitability (acquisition, merger, IPO-whatever the flavor of the cycle is), then we would have no need for books and blogs and advisors and everything else.

    Most entrepreneurs I know are partially insane and rarely listen anyway :)

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  • Larry Chiang - April 14th, 2007 at 4:48 pm PDT

    I like the multiple perspectives.

    I also liked the analogy I read that starting up a company is like committing (and getting away with) murder. You’re a genius if you can figure out 350 of the 500 ways to get caught/ go bankrupt, so you’ll always need a little luck.

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  • Webomatica - April 14th, 2007 at 4:58 pm PDT

    I like this idea: the articles won’t be as time-sensitive, so their worth will hopefully have plently of long-term staying power.

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  • Mark Fletcher - April 14th, 2007 at 5:00 pm PDT

    http://www.startupping.com is another website that is focused on helping Internet entrepreneurs. We have a blog, a set of forums, a wiki and an aggregator of entrepreneur and investor blogs.

    It’s great that there are so many resources for Internet entrepreneurs these days.

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  • Dave Baker - April 14th, 2007 at 5:12 pm PDT

    Regarding “if there were really a clear path on how to get from Idea to Profitability (acquisition, merger, IPO-whatever the flavor of the cycle is)” … Here’s the traditional view. One gets to Profitability by having revenue (from selling a service or product) exceed costs (of producing and delivering the service or product). Acquisition, merger, IPO — those aren’t paths to Profitability, just ways for a venture capitalist to get a return on a speculative investment. They’re lousy business models. The decision-makers and workers who actually start and run a company must not lose sight of the true, basic definition of profitability, even in a Web 2.0 world.

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  • Bob - April 14th, 2007 at 6:33 pm PDT

    How do we determine that this is the “must read” startup blog with so many others out there?

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  • Michael Arrington (@arrington) - April 14th, 2007 at 6:54 pm PDT

    Bob – just try it, and see if you stick with it. :-)

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  • Zaid - April 14th, 2007 at 7:09 pm PDT

    Come on Mike. First challenge for a blog on growing a startup should be getting itself featured on TC. You’ve made it too easy for Om:)

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  • Richard Jones - April 14th, 2007 at 7:17 pm PDT

    This is a “must not read ” so far….That article on Dr. Dre ( along with the multiple off point blogs ) has a whiff shark jumping all over it.

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  • Bob - April 14th, 2007 at 7:33 pm PDT

    Thanks Mike – What were the characteristics of this one that you liked over the others? Meaning what was the factors that Wow’d you enough to promote this one from the others already out there?

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  • William Ryall - April 14th, 2007 at 8:11 pm PDT

    Things which say continue reading drive me nuts, I want it all at once. Please.

    With so many options out there for this type of stuff, there better be some meaty content soon. (Perferably with gravy, thanks.)

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  • patricia - April 14th, 2007 at 8:16 pm PDT

    @ bob, Om’s been a great voice in tech for a long time now. He used to write for Business 2.0 and then branched out into launching a pretty well read and respected blog (GigaOm).

    That he recognized and understood there’d be a trend of new media/blogs and launched one alone shows he’s a smart cat. :)

    I’m excited that people can interact and I already really like the articles. It was nice of you, Michael, to give him some exposure on TechCrunch.

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  • Zaid - April 14th, 2007 at 8:34 pm PDT

    Om should have started out simple like TechCrunch. I really would visit it more often if it was one blog with primarily Om’s takes on things.

    Right now with a dozen blogs and a dozen writers the whole network seems to lack any identity of its own that TC has with Mike. But then again this could all be a strategy by Om where he doesn’t want to create loyalty for his own name but rather the entire network avoiding the problem Mike has if he can’t commit time to TC.

    There is a reason I can tell an Arrington post after two sentences from all other writers on TC.

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  • Otis Gospodnetic - April 14th, 2007 at 9:15 pm PDT

    Dave Baker:
    You are assuming there are VCs involved. That’s not necessary. Click on my name for a VC-free example.

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  • RaJ - April 14th, 2007 at 10:06 pm PDT

    Yeah its a wonderful idea. Even am covering the same type of concept in my blog, but for different field though. Its called as suggest usability. It talks about usability of the web or any application. User can post any of the screens in this blog & will get experts opinion. And all those opinion will be consolidated and updated in the same space.

    http://www.sugg...stusability.com

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  • Jason Alba - April 14th, 2007 at 10:28 pm PDT

    I think it’s great to have another authority/heavy-hitter contribute in this space. And I can’t imagine Om is going to let the quality be less-than-desirable for long. I’ll be following this for sure.

    Jason Alba
    CEO – JibberJobber.com

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  • Ape - April 14th, 2007 at 10:54 pm PDT

    Why use fake names on TC board?

    remember nazi times they look for jewish names. Just like corporations they look for angry posters. They fire people.

    TC is pure genius. There is no way corporation can overkill TC posters.

    TC is very rare and powerful…

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  • Scott Taylor - April 14th, 2007 at 11:29 pm PDT

    Thanks for pointing it out, I’ll keep my eye on it :)

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  • Ryan - April 15th, 2007 at 1:38 am PDT

    What is “becasue”?

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  • km4 - April 15th, 2007 at 6:53 am PDT

    Arrington and Malik pumping up the hype meter with another ‘must read’ blog of re-purposed content with little to no new perspective.

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  • SorenG - April 15th, 2007 at 7:25 am PDT

    Time will tell how much the and the authors actually know about starting a company. It is a good idea, I am just not sure if they are the ones who are the best to do it. Starting a company as a “someone” in the blogging world certainly makes his experience unique. Doubt he lived in rice and beans for a year to do it. Still, we shall see what they have to offer — maybe they will surprise me.

    Also, interesting to see many efforts like this try to incorporate more sections (Questions/Answers, etc)

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  • Rrajesh P Bathija - April 15th, 2007 at 7:53 am PDT

    Malikbhai,

    Thankyou.
    A very noble thought on starting your new venture.
    Regards
    Rrajesh P Bathija

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  • Owen Davis - April 15th, 2007 at 9:42 am PDT

    There are a number of these things out there including one I run called http://www.companylessons.com. The idea is good but exection and expert contributions will be the differentiator. See also startupping.com, Brad Felds Ask a VC, etc… as well.

    Yours,

    Owen

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  • Chad - April 15th, 2007 at 10:24 am PDT

    Thanks for the pointing me to Found+Read. Looks promising.

    #2 (Amy Wilsch): I thought your comments was particularly insightful. My experience with entrepreneurs fit with yours. I would add that most also have a touch of narcissism or megalomania.

    Chad
    http://www.wtfShouldIDo.com

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  • dave - April 15th, 2007 at 8:57 pm PDT

    seems all wrong…this content should be incorporated directly into one of hte many other gigaom blogs covering startup related items/issues…too thin, too many urls, too many feeds…just no point. this ain’t sugar…it’s om and a handful of others running so many sites that at least twice a day we see a post on gigaom like ‘check out what’s on (my other blog)” – that gets tired.

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  • Wes - April 15th, 2007 at 9:12 pm PDT

    I will give a site like this some time before suggesting that it is a must read.

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  • Mac - April 15th, 2007 at 9:41 pm PDT

    just read these posts and this sounds like it could be too hard to visit. i.e. Don’t have the time/spare energy to be gallavanting around everywhere – hard enough to check-up on TC now and then. Thanx for the info tho’ :)

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  • pallet jack - April 16th, 2007 at 7:01 am PDT

    Well based on his Resume – His TC’ed status is deserved. Although it might have been a little early

    – I am sure he has setup a staff – etc; and in doing this, his blog is launched full blown –

    – I think it would be cool; if he would’ve launched his blog like a startup – with minimal money etc … then let it explode – into the main stream – maybe even hide his identity for a while

    – Even submit his blog to TC – without his name attached and see if it gets covered –

    -RB

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  • RCOZ - April 16th, 2007 at 7:31 am PDT

    I have to agree with most comments here, that “must read” is not proven yet. However, a site to check in on periodically it certainly appears to be. I also am blogging my way through my new start-up, however I do not have the web savvy most of the bloggers doing so do (my background is in the defense industry), any help in starting a business is worthwhile.

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  • Colin Dowling - April 16th, 2007 at 5:55 pm PDT

    I read it today and I disagreed with many of the points. Even more importantly, I found many of the topics and much of the content remedial to a fault. For example, one of the posts (the Dr Dre post I think) talks about not launching a product/album until it’s perfect. In my opinion this is literally the WORST piece of advice a web entreprenuer can recieve. I know many people (myself included) who have killed otherwise great ideas and products just because they waited until everything was perfect.

    I’ll keep reading b/c I like GigaOm and think the model will get sorted out, but if this were a free standing blog, I would probably would not go back.

    reply

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