Reading the excellent Threadwatch this morning I came across a thread on How Would You Beat Google? which comments on a blog post by Rich Skrenta titled How to beat Google. He’s got an excellent point:

Grow a spine people! You have a giant growing market with just one dominant competitor, not even any real #2. You’re going to do clean-tech energy saving software to shut off lightbulbs in high-rises instead? Pfft. Get a stick and try to knock G’s crown off.

Why are so many VC funded startups developing off the wall products or service and not going after what is a massive market, which is growing at an amazing rate. It’s a bit odd really as most VC’s or Business Angels want to back business ideas with proven business model in a proven market – just look at how cautious the Dragon’s are in Dragon’s Den.

Skrenta also says:

Your core team will be 2-3 people, not 20. You cannot build something new and different with a big team. Big teams are only capable of duplicating existing technology. The sum of 20 sets of vision is mud.

Which as a techie myself I could not agree with more. If you want proof that a small team can build a compeitor then look no further than Gigablast built by Matt Wells.

To be honest though the big challenges are not technological it’s marketing and grabbing market share fast that would make such a venture work. You would need to create a real buzz, perhaps a job for someone like Mark Hughes and his Buzz Marketing approach.

If anyone with deep pockets fancies giving this a go I know some very very good C++ programmers.

Subscribe:
If you enjoyed this post and would like to be kept updated on future posts, then please Subscribe by Email or subscribe to my RSS Feed.