The quickest path to $50m in revenue? Build fun.

[jdrock]

Doesn't include data on % of companies in each category that fails.

[nod]

Should it? Isn't that irrelevant to how fast the "best of the best" can get to 50 Mil?

[nabeel]

This was starting with the premise of "success" -- let's assume it's a world class idea and hits $50m in revenue, goes public, and becomes one of the top 100 software companies in the world (in terms of capitalization). How long does that kind of amazing success take?

If you're wildest predictions about growth of your startup are off from what the historically most successful companies public today are doing, that's worth looking at.

[callmeed]

3 things I noticed (not sure if it affects the conclusions):

1. Interesting that neither article (this or the WSJ post) seems to include data on mobile carriers or handset providers. Not sure why that is.

2. Entertainment seems to be the only category that's primarly B2C companies. Almost seems like it doesn't fit. If you're going to include video game makers, why can't you also include Netflix and other such companies.

3. I wonder how much acquisitions have affected these numbers.

[nabeel]

Yeah, the data was just software companies. So no Apple, Nokia. They also didn't have Google or Yahoo, which was unfortunate. Still, in terms of top 100 software companies, it's a valuable sample.

[Tichy]

Seems very unlikely to me that parallels can be drawn from the past to the present in that way. Markets go through different phases.

[mishmax]

Yep, and did he just draw a general rule from just one example (Activision)?

[mkull]

No ecommerce on the list?

[rokhayakebe]

Zynga, Facebook, Myspace.