YouBundle

Which Startups will Beat the Economic Depression?

These days we cannot help but to hear about the current US and Worldwide Economic woes.    And for those in the industry this has trickled down to warning winds, fears, newsletters and blog posts on how this crises is going to effect the innovation and movement of the Web 2.0 Tech Startup Industry.

While the sky may not just yet be falling,  we believe that what is in store is actually going to be a good thing for the health of the industry as a whole.   (And consequently YouBundle)

But before we get into who will survive and why - lets first examine historical data to see what are recurring factors in success and which factors seem to be important on the surface, but at the end of the day do not define the difference between winning and losing

2 Factors to a successful startup

• Your Team is Pyramid shaped, self motivated and happy with their roles
  • Pyramid Shaped means that while there may be much discussion, advisers and consensus, in the end One Guy (or Gal)  is the boss.   This is most often the same person with the grand vision, drive and idea.   One of the Primary reasons that effective startups can run circles around existing corporations is that vison is not snuffed by bureaucracy.   All it takes for a successful product is one bull-headed person to believe in it and do it.
• Your Team (CEO in Particular)  is focused on winning - not just ‘giving it a try and collecting a salary.’
  • I think that Peter Thiel simplified this to its root value when he said that the best objective indicator of startup success was low CEO pay.
  • We can dissect this statement even further to the mentality behind it which is that Founders of start ups need to be in it to win - not just to exist
  • The issue with technology bubbles like the ones we have just passed though is that people are making money - so you have Mr.  Senior Level Management from MSYazoogOL  who sees that somebody jsut sold their virtual friendship bracelet startup for 60 million and he wants a piece of the action.   So he goes to his buddy from college who is a VC up on Sand Hill and they decide to ‘Try to see if they can‘ make it too by starting a virtual friendship anklet startup, but with a facebook app included.    So the get 2 million in funding -  Mr.  Senior Level Ligament gets a raise and a nice monthly salary, office in Union Square and the burn begins.
  • The fact is that they are taking this money to ’support or improve their current lifestyle’ and not to crunch to the limits of innovation.
  • A great way to weed those that are going to succeed and those that are going to fail is the future successes will work on and develop the project (to a certain extent at least)  without a cent of funding.   they will burn the midnight oil, max their credit cards and do handstands to get their idea off the ground.    Sure funding may come - but they would fire on their idea regardless of funding or not.    There are different ways this can show itself and not on the surface but they all point to the same thing
  • The Founder and Staff believe in the success of the idea so much that they don’t need anybody Else’s approval to throw their lifeblood into the project.   They know they have a good thing going.
    
• Other things, such as idea, market timing and such are very important,  but without the correct mentality on the team at hand, then your startup just becomes another statistic.

All this meaning that this coming downturn,  while it will weed out those who do not qualify, it will also give those with the true fire in their bellies to have a place in the arena to take the net by storm.

That is what we are doing with YouBundle and we hope that you will enjoy the ride!