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Many people think startups are up and to the right all the time. But more services exhibit this “startup curve” than any other growth pattern. Of course, some never get past the trough of sorrow. But many do. Mostly by staying focused on the problem they are trying to solve and working diligently to get to the promised land.
I had lunch with an entrepreneur yesterday who I’ve been working with for two decades now. On his most recent project, it took him years to get to the promised land. But he is there now, usage is scaling, customers are renewing, and the business is finally making money. It was great to see that and he was justifiably proud of the accomplishment.
It turns out, like most success stories, the answer was simplifying the service. Taking features out. Reducing the value proposition to a clear and simple use case. This was not done in a vacuum. This was done by releasing a less than perfect product to the market, finding a few customers who wanted a less than perfect product, and then listening carefully to those customers to get to the ideal product.
This is why you must go through the roller coaster ride. The wearing off phase is scary. The trough of sorrow is horrible. The crash of ineptitude is a near death experience. But without all of them, you can’t get feedback, you can’t learn what is just hype, and what is reality.
So to all those entrepreneurs whittling away in their offices trying to find out when to release their product to the market, I say “get on with it”. You are going to have to go on the roller coaster ride at some point. Might as well start now.
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我与一些创业公司有着合作，这些创业公司处于Paul Graham提出的创业曲线上的不同阶段。
一些人认为初创企业一直会处于上升期，但是研究表明，初创企业的走势会更类似于下图所示的“创业曲线”。当然，少数企业从来不会有处于低谷的烦恼，但对大部分企业来说则不可避免，他们都会尝试解决这个“成长的烦恼”，更加努力勤勉地工作，从而走出低谷。
昨天我同一个合作了有二十多年的企业家吃午饭。最近一个项目折腾了他好几年，随着企业规模不断扩大，顾客不断更新，企业最后就开始盈利，这个项目也终于看到了胜利的曙光。我也乐于见到他为此感到骄傲，这是理所当然的。
像大多数成功企业家一样，我们要做减法，突出重点。减少价值定位，力求达到产品通俗易懂，便于操作。决不能说一套，做一套。要有持续改进的意识，这需要投放一些绝非完美的产品到市场，然后找到那些购买这类产品的顾客，最后仔细听取顾客建议使自己的产品达到完美。
这就是为什么企业的发展会如同上图一样上上下下的原因。经历过快速增长后的下降阶段令人恐惧，但毫无生机的低谷期更令人崩溃。但是如果不经历这些前期的低谷，你不能得到产品的反馈，也不能学会区分炒作与现实。
所以当那些坐在办公室的企业家们想知道把产品投放到市场的最佳时机，我会告诉他们“抓紧去干吧”。未来的某个时刻你总是要经历图中那些跌宕起伏，所以现在就开始工作吧。
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