I was just reading about craigslist, it started as a mailing list about social events of interest to software and internet developers living and working in San Francisco. Today craigslist operates in 450 cities all over the world, providing information about almost everything, from classifieds to pets to jobs to personals.
What amazes me about the whole story is the evolution of a simple mailing list into a website with 5 billion page views per month. I wonder if Craig Newmark even in his wildest dreams thought of craigslist growing into what it is today. Its the story of almost all the big companies. Most of them started with a simple idea they had and on their way they found problems and opportunities . They worked with them and grew on to what we know today as huge companies with a wide and varied portfolio.
When i hear people talking of scope, business plan, exit strategy and all the business jargon. I am just caught wondering may be the route to a successful startup is going out there with your idea and just starting up. May be the rest would follow.
Keerthi Kiran (Keki)
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It is said, "Do whatever you like, and everything else would follow", and really speaking, although this way of starting-up may be slower and tougher, but you would make it. At the same time, you should notice, Craig never tried earning a lot of money from craiglist.
Business-plan is for you, and its main purpose should be to help you plans things. If you are using somebody else's money, better tell him what are you using it for, and how you are going to return it. And this is what we call, B-plan and exit strategy for investors :)
Abhinav
Thursday, August 02, 2007 6:31:00 PMhoy mate
i was also talking about many other big business houses which are out there making big buck.
i guess business plan and exit strategy are based on a lot of speculation and by the admission of many entrepreneurs who have made it big aren't very useful in navigating in real world. but i do accept to your point that b-plan is for you, it does bring in clarity, but you pay a price for it!
Keerthi Kiran
Friday, August 03, 2007 10:37:00 AMWell, what I meant was, when you start your venture, you need to seek money from investors, and therefore you need exit strategy etc. for them. Not all ventures make money, and those who do, many a times, make money beyond their imagination. Nobody can't predict what you gonna face in the real world. Google guys were ready to sell their technology in 1 million dollars :)
Abhinav
Friday, August 03, 2007 6:33:00 PMHey guys,
If you didn't know about this already, there are some interesting case studies about startups at http://www.startup-review.com/ which are worth reading. They have a detailed case study on craigslist as well.
Best,
Madhur
Anonymous
Thursday, September 13, 2007 10:05:00 PM