I think the most important advancements in history were done with a Long Grind before a huge success. Einstein worked away in mediocrity, living what to most people must have looked like a sub-par life on the surface. He toiled away on his own for years, then came his stratospherical rise to the upper echelons of human thought.
Kant is another example; he spent 10 years alone in thought, publishing nothing in that time, before coming out with what turned out the be (arguably) the most influential philosophical work ever.<p>It seems that the hardest part is not losing faith as you're grinding away. However corny/lame it sounds, people who believe in you are the most important thing during the grind. How many people did you guys (yipit) have that had your back as you were working away for 2+ years?<p>I'm not in the Valley, but I've heard that this might be the best part about the it; you don't get judged for working on some random project full time(like this article says happened in New York).
I would have enjoyed this post a lot more if at the end they had not simply created yet another bloody coupon site.<p>I can understand going through two and half years of no money, pain and self-doubt if you were working on something world-changing. But just another bloody coupon site...<p>I don't want to be down on these guys. They sound like really nice guys; intelligent, persistent and bright. But, please, no, not another bloody coupon site
As a 31 year old with a full-time job to pay the bills and a family to raise, I feel like there is not enough time to act on my ideas so they just continue to collect dust. Stories like this give me motivation but I still haven't found the answer to the question: "how can I focus on my ideas full-time and still pay the bills and support my growing family?". In other words, I don't have the savings for <i>two and half years of hustling on no salary</i> and I don't see that changing anytime soon. I will continue searching for the answer. Thanks for the story!
This post reminds me of a philosophy held by Seymour Schulich, Canadian businessman and philanthropist. His philosophy:<p>"Your twenties are not a time to make money, they are a time to build your foundation; your thirties are when you make money."<p>The exact ages are peripheral, but the idea is sound: incur personal strength and experience and external success will (<i>be more likely to</i>) follow.<p>Mark Suster's post about a time to learn and a time to earn hints at this same idea: <a href="http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2009/11/04/is-it-time-for-you-to-earn-or-to-learn/" rel="nofollow">http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2009/11/04/is-it-time-for...</a>
<i>"... In all honesty, I probably would have given up earlier. The only reason why I didn’t was out of loyalty to my co-founder, Jim, who had also quit his finance job. He had passed up many amazing job opportunities to work alongside me and I wasn’t going to quit on him. ..."</i><p>Interesting observation. The advantage of having multiple founders is shown here where <i>"accountability to comrades"</i>, <i>"bonding"</i>, and <i>"mutual surveillance"</i> [0] means the founders stuck at the task long after a solo founder might quit in despair.<p>[0] David Grossman, P21, <i>"Defeating the Enemy’s Will: The Psychological Foundations of Maneuver Warfare"</i> ~ <a href="http://killology.com/defeating_the_enemys_will.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://killology.com/defeating_the_enemys_will.pdf</a>
This is a pretty good case against the notion that "ideas don't matter". They absolutely matter; how else can 3 days so drastically change the prospects of a company?
Very good post, I especially liked that they built the winning minimum available product so fast: It would have been most likely impossible without all the learning and failed attempts. Unfortunately, some things you can only learn by doing.
WSJ has taken to calling them a research firm "According to estimates from research firm Yipit Data" in an article about groupon<p><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904265504576566804156893080.html" rel="nofollow">http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405311190426550457656...</a>
The hardest question which I battle with is knowing when is the right time to fold and start afresh. PG's 'Relentlessly Resourceful' post ties in very well this - <a href="http://paulgraham.com/relres.html" rel="nofollow">http://paulgraham.com/relres.html</a><p>Great story, very inspiring!
This is really inspirational for people who are working at it, hard, but don't get traction immediately, and all the while are reading about others whose businesses just skyrocketed right away.<p>It's not always a launch to the moon, sometimes you have to orbit for a while.
Really inspiring article. It's great to attach positives to what you're doing not only to keep your morale up, but also to remind yourself that if what you're working on now doesn't pan out, it's not the end. Crazy to learn, though, that they managed to turn around their business in a matter of three days. Impressive that they kept with it and had the focus to transition to another idea (and make it successful).
Nice post! I've just had a failing experience but that also served to teach me some of the problems and difficulties involved in creating a startup. I'm happy you guys made it and I'm gonna keep trying till I find my place there too.
As cheesy as it may sound I find this song helps me keep in mind that I should <i>expect</i> things to take a lot of time and effort.<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1iR2Wi3u5o" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1iR2Wi3u5o</a>
Great post Vin! A great story and inspiration for everyone who is grinding hard in the startup life. We all need a little reminder that its a slogfest before you make it.
I remember a very nice 2d chart of success vs time with an exponential curve, with a vertical line near the high rise, showing what people see vs what really happens.<p>Can anyone find it?
Just a question about Yipit... don't they need millions of visitors to be successful?<p>100K visitors/month sounds nice, but they're in the deal aggregating business, so the margins are even less than if they were a deal site. They don't make money off every single user, and when they do... they make a tiny percentage as affiliate commission. Am I missing something here? I know regular old-fashioned coupon sites(like CouponCabin) that make good profit, but they have visitors in the millions, and their margin is much more.