Stay Safe !!
Our members keep asking us how to test their idea. We recently came across an article on Marc Randolf’s new book ‘That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix’.
Marc (one of the founders of Netflix) talks of ‘testing your idea’. He basically believes ‘Noone knows anything’ – test your idea early and be ready for it to fail is his advise. He gives examples of how people reacted negatively to the idea behind Netflix, how they tested it for years and had to pivot from the Video/DVD purchase and rental model to the Subscription model. He even talks of how during the cash crunch of 2000 they pitched to Blockbuster.
Marc adopted the concept of ‘Noone knows anything’ from Hollywood screenwriter William Goldman’s book on the key to understanding Hollywood and startups. Mr Goldman asked why ‘big budget’ movies like Heaven’s Gate and Will Smith starrer Gemini Man lose money but ‘low budget’ movies like Blairs Witch Project make a lot of profit. He puts it down to ‘Noone knows anything’. Test quickly and be ready to fail and pivot are great pieces of advise. Ofcourse successes like Netflix and Blairs Witch Project dont come every day but often enough – the startup world is littered with success stories like Google and AirBnB and Paytm – just look at how India is developing so many unicorns, Also, we cant ignore the experience that mentors have but we need to remember they are making ‘educated guesses’.
Marc says that concept of ‘Noone knows anything’ can be a source of encouragement – “Because if nobody knows anything – if its truly impossible to know in advance which idea are the good ones … then any idea could be the one to succeed”.
We were most impacted by how he ends his book – closes it with a quote from Nolan Bushnell (co-founder of Atari) – “Everyone who has taken a shower has had an idea. But, its the people who get out of the shower, towel off and do something about it that make a difference.”
Reading this book reminded us of how bored we were when locked up in our houses and how last year’s COVID reading list helped.
Now for the laugh we need. Stay Safe !!
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