top | item 35762589

Spinning the Decks and Startup Success: A Lesson from My DJ Days

16 points| camwest | 2 years ago |cameronwestland.com | reply

12 comments

order
[+] khazhoux|2 years ago|reply
Running a startup is in many ways not much different than writing a blog post about running a startup. There will be no shortage of opinions from friends and investors on the direction of your blog post about running a startup. Sometimes your opening paragraph winds up being very different than the middle section, and you need to be open to that. You will be tested in ways you never thought possible, as your runway narrows and you race to publish your effort to the world. In the end, the blog post about running a startup is not just your journey, but that of the many people who trusted you to bravely steer the ship towards a successful blog post.
[+] chiefalchemist|2 years ago|reply
DJ'ing - not the wedding or corporate event type - is two things:

- Sometimes you give the room what it wants

- Sometimes you give the room what it needs

The better you are at the latter, while leading the room to believe it's the former, the more you're able to make a name for yourself.

On the other hand, simply banging out the obvious, with no story, no journey isn't special. It will only get you so far. Who is going to champion average, if not forgettable?

Yeah, I suppose startups are the same. Safe will only get you so far. Better to skate to where the puck is going to be.

[+] camwest|2 years ago|reply
I think you've hit the nail on the head. Balancing is crucial, and taking calculated risks can help set you apart. It's all about skating to where the puck is going to be, as you said.
[+] turtleyacht|2 years ago|reply
Question is whether one's product is for "my one thousand true fans," or every such user in the problem space, or a mix?

If we accommodate both power-users and beginners? And provide a path from one to the other.

Whether the product is itself the means to the end, if the product is content itself, or the tool that empowers that creation.

Author explores requirements gathering further in a link from that post:

https://www.fforward.ai/blog/posts/unleashing-creativity-my-...

[+] camwest|2 years ago|reply
Great question.

Thanks for sharing the link to the post on unleashing creativity—I hope others find it helpful as well.