Reid Hoffman: My Rule of Three for Investing
April 22, 2009
Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, describes his first three criteria to evaluate the business idea of a startup:
As a serial investor, I’ve enjoyed backing some good Web 2.0 companies, and it’s helped me develop a shortlist of criteria to cut the wheat from the chaff. After five minutes of a pitch, I know if I’m not going to invest, and after 30 minutes to an hour, I generally know if I will. Many entrepreneurs are product-focused, which leads them to pitch the brilliance of the product. Others are money-minded, so they can over think the business plan. But neither of these approaches answer the first few questions I want to know as an investor:
1. How will you reach a massive audience?
2. What is your unique value proposition?
3. Will your business be capital efficient?
Read the whole story at TechCrunch…
If you want to be a bad product manager, start developing a product and release it as soon as possible. If you’ve got a good idea for a product, why wait? You need to get it defined, get it developed as quickly as you can, and then release it right away, without any delay. Everyone knows that the first product to market usually wins, and the sooner it’s released, the quicker you’ll be profitable.
If you want to be a good product manager, consider your market window as part of your product strategy.
