d_welsman

This really depends what is driving you to start your own business and what you are passionate about.

Are you happy with a $2million revenue a year business, or do you want to be the next unicorn?

You might find a large problem to solve, but is it some thing your are passionate about? Or perhaps you love selling antique nail clippers for example, which is probably a very small market, but you love doing it and supplementing your day job income.

Find a problem, decide if you are passionate about solving it, can you make money from it or not, then build a solution.

Great marketing tool though, and taught to many budding entrepreneurs practicing their 40 second pitch as a way to get their meaning across super fast. Uber for banking means 'crowd-sourced' banking or banking provided by the masses -- was informative for me.

Assuming the figures that Conrad is saying are correct, it is still an amazing company that is growing quickly. Just investors are starting to take a more realistic view on valuations, and readjusting those valuations in their books.

Just because super ambitious growth targets aren't met doesn't mean the company is about to go under...

I wasn't equating ego to meanness, more a disregard of what other people think about them, not being afraid to fail also not to compromise their product to make everyone happy and ending up with a washed down product.

Ego is essential to breaking through those tough barriers and new opportunities. Disregard for risk. Is this really what is needed when Google is being criticized for falling behind its competitors in innovation.

How do we know 'life' can't evolve in some other way? I find it interesting how scientists are always looking for 'earth' like planets... then again it is a good place to start.

Fantastic comment. Totally agree. Biotech, pharma, you're a zero revenue company until that massively expensive FDA approval comes through. Investors are aware of this, and it is an all or nothing play.

It's a great time to tap into such a massive user base at a huge discount... should Google come knocking, Steve will be dancing.