(apologies for the lack of gender neutrality in this entry– idea girls exist too…)
I had a colleague the other day refer to me as an “idea guy”. I’m sure they meant it as a compliment, but I winced when I heard it. As a guy who tends to lurk in entrepreneurial circles, I often run into self-identified “idea guys” (usually, they are in “stealth mode”, which I generally find similarly ridiculous)– and virtually every time I do, I tend to walk away shaking my head. Here are 5 quick reasons why your startup doesn’t need an “idea guy”:
1. Everyone is an idea guy. Well, strictly speaking, that’s not the case. I’ve met plenty of folks who aren’t interested (or aren’t good at) the strategy and tactics of software/product development. There are plenty of engineers out there who just want interested technology to fiddle with and couldn’t care less what the grand plan is. There are plenty of designers who just want a good set of design specs so they can make pretty pictures or highly usable prototypes. There are plenty of salesfolks who don’t give a darn what they are selling. So what makes an idea guy an idea guy? Usually it’s the simple fact that they don’t have any other skills to bring to the startup.
2. By virtue of the fact that they consider themselves an idea guy, it quite likely means that they are convinced that their ideas are better than yours (or anyone elses). Of course they are! They are an idea guy! The big problem with this is that startup ideas need to change… Very few startups stick with the exact same idea. How excited is an idea guy going to be about shifting to a new idea that he didn’t generate? Not very exited, as it turns out.
3. Ideas are relatively valueless… because smart people say so. Don’t believe me? Here’s what Paul Graham has to say (though I think the argument about the “sellability” of ideas is pretty weak). Don’t believe Paul? How about Guy Kawasaki? One one my favorite quotes from Guy when he was asked how an entrepreneur could keep their idea from being stolen. His response was “”You could discuss it with no investors, show it to no customers and never hire employees….” (see it in context).
As a test, approach a dozen venture capitalists. Explain that your primary skillset is “idea generation”. Do your best to defend this and give copious examples of your genius. Go home and wait for the phone to ring.
4. Ideas aren’t defensible. Google “First Mover advantage” and you can find all sorts of people debunking that particular myth. Google moved into an established market and clobbered it. Ipods certainly weren’t the first MP3 player. Dodgeball lost out to Twitter. Friendster was sucker-punched by Facebook and MySpace. The first movers spend tremendous amounts of money educating the market and making all sorts of stupid mistakes and the second movers come in when the market is primed and make it look easy.
5. In startup businesses, idea guys run out of things to do pretty quickly. There’s no room in a startup organization for someone to sit around and spew out ideas. Startups need builders, whether you’re building software, hardware, visual interfaces, teams, bank accounts, or audiences. If you’re a founder, you probably need to be good at more than one of these things.
Despite the evidence to the contrary, I feel like every day I run into founder and consultants who think having a million dollar idea is enough to bring to the table. Most of the time, I think this is because they haven’t the faintest clue how hard it is to turn a great idea into a great product or service.
