Three areas which every start-up should focus their attention on

http://www.virgin.com/entrepreneur/richard-branson-launching-a-business-do-these-three-things-or-fail

by markcrazyhorse • 12 years ago

42 21 12 years ago

In short, the article says do these 3 things or fail...

1. have fun 2. differentiate from competition 3. nurture employees

The title of the article is over dramatic. There are lots of examples of businesses that don't do any of the above and yet they still turn a profit. Even then, you can do all 3 and still fail.

Solid advice nonetheless, just have to take it with a grain of salt.

sjtrny• 12 years ago

It's less advice and more PR.

soneca4• 12 years ago

I would say 0 advice and 100% PR.

The PR department who runs the blog thought would be cool to have some Richard Branson words there. So they sent up an email asking Mr. Branson to write a short advice post. He started writing easy stories he use to share every other interview or lecture, and create a title to make his particular case sounds like a general advice.

The blog guy thinks it is still necessary to put a little more context to make it sound like cool, wise advice. So he writes an intro that resonate with founders. That's it. Out of the microwave advice to generate traffic.

For me, not a single word of value for my startup management. The HN upvotes tricked me. Just some curiosities about how Richard Branson do business.

TheOtherHobbes• 12 years ago

Specifically, it's PR for nice lounges.

Maybe YC can found LoungeBase[tm] - my new start-up which offers lounge services for customers of other startups.

More seriously, I read Branson's autobiog recently. He likes taking chances, but if he hadn't had family resources to fall back on when starting out he would have been in jail.

So that helped too.

jaxytee• 12 years ago

Standard rah rah startup advice.

rtx• 12 years ago

We had a billionaire in India who followed his foot steps now he is pauper. His airline went bust and he had sell his beer factory.

trjordan• 12 years ago

I'd re-write these slightly:

1. Know your users. If you understand what they want, you can provide value or fun, and they'll both be well-recieved.

2. Know the problem you're solving. Starbucks was solving the problem of creating a "3rd space", and they monetized with coffee.

3. Nurture employees, I'd keep the same.

chadgeidel• 12 years ago

I've never heard that about Starbucks - I'm genuinely curious to know more. Do you have any recommended reading?

malchow2• 12 years ago

Area number one: not ending headlines with prepositions.

erex78• 12 years ago

My first thought...

soneca4• 12 years ago

Why not? (serious question from a non-native english speaker)

rhizome• 12 years ago

There's a decent discussion here with a variety of perspectives:

http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/16/when-is-it-app...

malchow2• 12 years ago

The Latinate syntactical construction norms that moved over to English included, among many others, one around prepositions (from the Latin prae, meaning before) being placed before the object with which it is linked, never after.

It certainly isn't a rule, per se; and ending a sentence with a preposition is not wrong. But it is stylistically less desirable.

Dryden hated that Ben Jonson occasionally ended sentences with prepositions. He gave the norm added power and it has lasted, since his 1672 criticism, another 250 years. Dryden never said that ending a sentence with a preposition was wrong, only that it was ugly.

(Incidentally, Winston Churchill never said that this was a grammar rule "up with which I will not put." See: http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001715.h...)

normloman2• 12 years ago

That "don't end sentences with a preposition" thing hasn't been a widely accepted rule of English for decades now. Why are you fighting a hopeless battle?

dang2• 12 years ago

And Churchill didn't even say the funniest line about it.

soneca4• 12 years ago

One question for HN moderators: Is flag the same as downvote?

For example, I think this is useless PR stuff, not interesting in any manner. So should I flag it like I would downvote a comment?

Or flag is mostly for more harmful things suchs as spammy or innacurate posts; and I should just hope less people upvote it and its buried?

dang2• 12 years ago

You should flag a story if you think it's off-topic for HN, i.e. you think it shouldn't be here. Since useless PR stuff shouldn't be here, that's definitely a legit reason to flag a story.

soneca4• 12 years ago

thanks!

normloman2• 12 years ago

Three things your start up is probably already doing, plus some pictures and stories that make Richard Bronson seem like some kind of visionary.

deanpeterson• 12 years ago

"Here's a record store... with a lounge." - success

"Here's an airline... with a lounge." - success

"Here's a bank... wait for it...... with a lounge." - success

InclinedPlane• 12 years ago

Pretty smart, and should be common sense. Retain your customers and talent by building strong and meaningful relationships with both. It's telling that this sort of shit is now practically rocket science for people who think they've found some new way to build businesses that work (using disruptive big data bump apps in the cloud or some horseshit).

Three areas which every start-up should focus their attention on

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