Jun 24 2009
What’s the big idea?
I’ve been working on a company I started with some old friends and co-workers called Dipity. Over the past 2 years we’ve done a lot. We’ve raised money. We’ve built up the team, shipped a product (which is where a lot of startups drop the ball) and we’ve iterated quickly, learned from our mistakes and made adjustments to the product, company and business as quickly as possible.
When we started we had a ‘Big Idea’: Own When. What we meant by that, is owning the organization of information using time, in the same way that Google Maps now owns ‘Where’ or Wikipedia owns ‘What’. Ideally, we’d create a platform for organizing and displaying information where time was the central, but not sole, organizing principle. In addition, we’d take this platform and let users create what ever they wanted with it. The net result was a robust platform for timelines, with a dash of social media so people could collaborate among common interests.
In the past year or so, the ‘Big Idea’, has been pushed to the background. We’ve taken on the realities of running a pre-revenue company in the face of the worst economic downturn since the 30s and in the sizable shadow of companies like Twitter and Facebook. We’ve focused on the basics, keeping the lights on, making something users love and people will pay to use on their site. We’ve prioritized making sure people get paid and that health care insurance checks don’t bounce. The tactics of running a business.
We’ve got the blocking and tackling down, now is the time to take things to the next level. Re-focus on the ‘Big Idea’, see if it still fits or needs to be changed. Basically, start thinking bigger then where we are today.
Looking forward to it.