It must really suck to be an entrepreneur in an area where one of the competitors might just be Google, depending on whether they put their minds to it.
Scrybe looks really nice, but while they will be trying to lure enough users for a business model, along the way trying to figur out what that business model might be, Google will just solve the problem themselves, offline emailing too. The way Google has spawned little ideas, all financed and networked around the ad-model, it really puts a lot of pressure on entrepreneurs to think their ideas further than they had to in the past. Sure, a good product is at the core but nowadays one has to make sure that the idea is more than just a stonethrow away from Google’s interests.
Technorati Tags: google, entrepreneurship
2 Comments
Kevin Merritt
Sebastian,
There’s always been a Google of one form or another. In the 90’s, VC’s always wanted to know how you would avoid head to head competition with Microsoft. In the 80’s it was IBM. While I’d never encourage a startup to spit in the face of an industry giant, it’s been shown that startups do better when their employees unite against a known (identified) competitor.
I do agree that entrepreneurs need to think through the business model of their businesses, but it’s no different today with Google than it was in any other period. The big mistake I see today is companies spending money to acquire users with no clear and understand path for monetizing them. It’s a mistake to assume you can figure that in time. I’m not thrilled with entrepreneurs delaying monetization, but if they do so willingly and knowingly with a clear path to revenue and profit within a predetermined time and milestone timeline, that’s not necessarily a bad approach.
As to your offline/online thoughts, while I think the prosumers and key users of core apps will benefit from offline capabilities, those capabilities are counterintuitive to Google’s own business model. If you aren’t online, you can’t be served ads, and can’t click on those ads. It breaks the monetization story. That’s why Google is investing heavily in ubiquitous Internet access.
Cheers.
Sebastian
Thanks for your thoughts Kevin. Sure, there has always been a Google of sorts. However, it seems to that Google is a much more mobile “giant” than the others you mentioned.
I think we agree on how to start a business. In general I meant one has to be very thorough when starting a business in an area which is close to Google’s assets.
Finally, the offline features. You are certainly right about the long run, but I think offine capabilites is just a byproduct. Nobody will use Gmail offline to get rid of the ads. The offline features are just a retainer imho until there is network access everywhere.