The Financial Times has a profile of French (now Silicon Valley) entrepreneur Loic Le Meur today.
Loic is an accomplished entrepreneur – he founded uBlog (merged with Six Apart), organizes the annual Le Web conference and has now created Seesmic (note that I’m an investor in Seesmic). So even though he’s French, his advice, when given, is worth listening to.
Included in the article are his ten rules for startup success. Reprinted below.
- Don’t wait for a revolutionary idea. It will never happen. Just focus on a simple, exciting, empty space and execute as fast as possible
- Share your idea. The more you share, the more you get advice and the more you learn. Meet and talk to your competitors.
- Build a community. Use blogging and social software to make sure people hear about you.
- Listen to your community. Answer questions and build your product with their feedback.
- Gather a great team. Select those with very different skills from you. Look for people who are better than you.
- Be the first to recognise a problem. Everyone makes mistakes. Address the issue in public, learn about and correct it.
- Don’t spend time on market research. Launch test versions as early as possible. Keep improving the product in the open.
- Don’t obsess over spreadsheet business plans. They are not going to turn out as you predict, in any case.
- Don’t plan a big marketing effort. It’s much more important and powerful that your community loves the product.
- Don’t focus on getting rich. Focus on your users. Money is a consequence of success, not a goal.
Fantastic advice!
#1 and #10 – best advice.
Thanks Michael. Loving the “even though he is French” ahaha
Great profile Loic. I like #6- be the first to recognize the problem. It is helpful to have the advice of others to guide you through your mistakes. It’s not about the mistakes we make it’s about how we make up for them that counts.
thank you captain obvious!
YOUR A JERK
The little snide french insult diminishes you (yes I know it was a joke – not funny)
I always liked
“any idiot can come up with a great idea, it takes a genius to recognize it”
I would hardly call this extraordinary information.
It is all true…but kindergarten level stuff.
MA’s, “So even though he’s French, his advice, when given, is worth listening to.”
Always putting down others. It’s now your trademark, Michael. Your character is now so transparent… sad little man.
Goodbye TC, this reader has had enough.
I want to say that this is GREAT advice…but I will hold off for a few years and if this comment chain is still open, I’ll let you know.
great idea, I fully agree!
And the Eleventh Rules reads: “Pray”
Pretty interesting that lots of English speaking people listen to the advice of a French. If we see what people comment the Le web 3 organized by Loic Le Meur, 90% negative, just two words: good luck!
it’s 100 mahalo posts for jason and now we will see 100 posts for seesmic – already had a loicweb conference post this week.
Good advice but does selling (for presumably not that much money) to SixApart and putting on a conference qualify you as a “success”? Surely more successful then most, but not exactly setting the world on fire. I’d like to also hear advice like this from people who have taken multiple startups to either liquidity or to some sort of broad recognition.
people say those are obvious points, yet most – if not all, fail because of one or more of those they commit
Salut Loic, très bon article. Je ne savais pas que tu étais déjà rendu à la mise sur pied de ta cinquième entreprise.
Les points 7-8 et 9 sont d’excellents conseils pour les entrepreneurs qui n’ont pas les mêmes moyens que ceux financés avec l’argent des VCs.
Bon succès avec Seesmic et LeWeb.
Damn good words of wisdom. Now if only someone can train the VCs to think like that, I might have a shot at getting funded
Simple and nicely put.
I totally agree with this wisdom. Simple wisdom we sometimes complicated it.
Nat
http://www.workersinc.com
#8 (and others poo-poohing the list): If this is such kindergarten advice, what do you consider to be high-school level tips? College?
It’s one thing to be condescending, it’s quite another to do it from a position of knowledge. Do you have any?
yes, captain obvious, but worth repeating none the less
‘7. Don’t spend time on market research. Launch test versions as early as possible. Keep improving the product in the open.’
Couldn’t disagree more, this becomes an excuse for laziness, cutting corners, and ultimately hurts the experience for early adopters. Rapid-prototype cycles may be a great development practice, but only isolated far from any production/public systems.
‘9. Don’t plan a big marketing effort. It’s much more important and powerful that your community loves the product.’
This statement is very optimistic at best and naive at worst. Nothing is more proven for wide-spread brand promotion than a fairly sophisticated marketing scheme (e.g. media ads).
good reminders. like I always have to remind myself my mom is a woman and the sun rises from the east. is it still?
Snore! @ “even though he’s french”. Go eat some more freedom fries!
“even though he’s French”
That was not needed…
It’s very funny to see Loic Le Meur and Sam Sethi on the same page of TechCrunch but not on the same article!
That “even though he’s French” comment was random, in pretty poor taste and not really funny.
Wow — and I thought I was cynical.
Thanks for the post Mike.
@18: No doubt. I never presented before a VC that wasn’t focused on money.
If your business doesn’t require start-up cash = low barrier to entry. If you have your own cash (Loic’s prior exit), it is easy to say “these 10 things all are you need”.
RULE #1
Partner with Microsoft!
A reminder that entrepreneur is, after all, a French word.
Loic’s Frenchness is part of his charisma. Along with his optimism, imagination and humor. He’s just a very appealing …um… melange.
And his ten rules reflect the simplicity of approach that’s been quite successful for him in the past.
Michael, your advice is sometimes useful, even though you’re an asshole.
This was a really good post. Probably most appreciated by people who have started companies. Though there should have been a #11 and #12.
#11 – do NOT take Venture Capital.
#12 – see #11.
btw- imo, #5 is where most young companies fail. Oh, and I don’t mean bring in a Harvard CEO either. I’m talking about the day to day warriors.
Lastly – …”So even though he’s French, his advice, when given, is worth listening to.”
***beautiful line:)
@32 Phil
Thanks for letting us know that.
But, did you know that “Freedom” is an American word? Yes, we bailed out the frogs in World War II. Otherwise, they would be speaking German.
I agree with 23 regarding points 7 and 9, as well as 2:
“2 – Share your idea. ….Meet and talk to your competitors”.
While it is good to get as much feedback as possible, this is silly advice if your idea is unique but easy for others to implement.
Good luck trying to raise capital if you follow this advice.
The only thing I can respond to the sarcastic remarks before is the following:
There is a huge difference between common sense and common practice.
Knowing without practicing gets you nowhere.
These are great points.
However, I have to disagree on point no #2 “Share your idea. The more you share, the more you get advice and the more you learn. Meet and talk to your competitors.”
Please. This is one of those “do as I say, don’t do as I do” things.
We all would love to hear our competitor’s ideas before they’ve been launched, right?
@30
Not necessarily. Barriers of entry can encompass many things, such as not having prior relationships in the market, lack of technical or market expertise, some physical necessity not present in your region, such as a resource regional necessities, etc. Also, everybody focuses on money, but the fact is that the large majority of start-ups never receive VC or angel funding. Despite this, a lot of companies have been very successful. That tells me that the low cash requirements doesn’t necessarily equal a non-feasible business because of lack of barriers of entry.
This list is great but it doesn’t mention the most crucial topic:: MAKE USE OF YOUR AVAILABLE RESOURCES!!
By the time you get to a VC for funding or whatever route you take, they’re gonna grill you. If you have a big idea, great. If you haven’t exhausted every possible resource in your control, not great and you blew the meeting.
An example?
Well, Sun Microsystems has a whole program for startups that include x64 servers, scalable solutions, free tech support, events etc. Any startup should check this out before they put together a presentation. You could be up and running for months this way. Think about it— http://www.sun.com/startup
Yes Phillip, you’re right. Thank God you pointed that out. Now THE truth is finally straightened.
Great advice that sounds too romantic. But where is the money? Simple exciting space just do not cut it.
No market research? How do you know it the service or site can get the mass it requires?
What about the addendum to point #2:
#11: If the person who happens to give you advice is named Duncan Riley, do the exact opposite of what he says.
Here 10 startup success.
1. Choose your one company that you like to get acquire (Microsoft, Google, Yahoo or ASK.)
2. write coolest product what competitors can’t beat.
3. Avoid VC or getting Angle money.
4. More creative destruction can hurt billion dollar company.
5. Always use GPL.
6. Never use your real name. Reason, Cyberbullies… Assassination… Ramson…
7. Contact your college buddies to help you test drive the product.
8. Don’t forget to advertise
9.Wait for email or phone calls from Microsoft, Google, Yahoo… Money will come.
10. Don’t forget to get lawyer. you own 10% of company. Never sell yourself full.
After successful agreement. You have too options: Keep million or keep billion dollar.
If you choose to keep billion dollar. Don’t forget to buy bodyguards. You really really need one. Rememeber:
Mahatma gandhi… bang..bang…
Bill Gates pie in face.
As a staunch New Zealand rugby fan, I have resistance to anybody from France this year, but Loic is one of the few exceptions…
I have been following the Seesmic development and find Loic’ insights and advice inspirational. Much of what he suggests goes against convention, yet seems to be working really well for him.
I look forward to hearing, watching and reading more on what he achieves. All the best.
Timelord
We see this kind of wisdom a lot. They are good ones, but there shouldn’t be that many rules.
At the end I believe in only 2 things. An idea for some and a passion. The better the idea and the more persistent the passion, the better chance of success.
Any thing else, you can break “rules” – took too long time to launch, surveyed so many people – but still can succeed.
Luck must be the third, but you cannot control it.
Mike, what do you mean by “by even though he’s French”
I would also add to that, don’t take on debt, and if you feel you must, do it sparingly.. the new Jag can wait. Pay Cash, Less Risk.
I just started my own company. w started with no capital but I believe I have great products/services lined up. I true-ly believe what you have just said.
years ago I would have been afraid to do anything about it, and it gotten to a point that if i don’t do it. someone else will, and benefit from it.
I sincerely appreciate sites like yours. It has been my motivator and moral support and gave me the strength to leave and start on my own.
Thank you.