Right Time, Right Team; Most Important Factors For Startup Success

• http://singularityhub.com/2015/04/13/why-startups-like-uber-airbnb-spacex-succeed-while-others-fail/
  • Peter Diamandis on Bill Gross “one of the most brilliant entrepreneurs of this century”
  • Gross investigated 125 companies in his portfolio and 125 outside
  • #1 factor was timing “sometimes you have a great idea, but the market just isn’t ready for it”
    • “adjust your offering to be what they actually need right now”
    • “adjust your burn rate so you can last long enough so you’re there when the market is actually ready”
  • #2 factor was team/execution “if you don’t have a good, complementary team, it’s just not going to happen”
  • #3 factor was idea “the market is going to change the idea”
  • #4 factor was business model “some of the best companies add their business model after they find product market fit and demonstrate rapid growth”
  • #5 factor was funding “funding mattered the least because you can make a company succeed even if you don’t raise the money”

So, basically, time and team, or place and people, or scene and squad. Those are still pretty fuzzy, but they are markedly different from the remaining factors. I’m not entirely sure if “business model” means “execution” or not. Anywho, this analysis implies that rather than being in the lab we should be out in the world. That way we know as much as possible about the situation and the people available. It also implies that we should be happy to abandon sources of money, business models, and even ideas if they threaten to cause a mismatch between the team members and the situation.