A founder tried building a platform with every trendy feature—mobile social, video podcasting, tagging, wikis—and failed. Ning, once called the "one ring" to rule them all, was eventually sold for parts. The lesson: focus on one minimally awesome product, not infinite ambition.
Now, our service was going to have. This is actually it, guys. It was going to have every feature from every Web 2.0 startup. I kind of joked at the time. We were going to build a mobile social network, video podcasting with a tag, navigable wiki like. Like put it all together. Or as Chevy Chase once said, it's a dessert topping and a floor wax. And this is when I decide to tag out. So unlike that's Groundhog Day for those of you who don't know it. So unlike in the case of the Cisco phone, I was simply unable to manage that Cambrian explosion of ideas and features. What I ultimately realized was that platforms and viral expansion loops, as they were called at the time, are a great place to end up. But you're never going to get there if you don't focus on a single, unforgettable, minimally awesome product. How many of you have heard of Ning? 5, 6, 7 of you? But you've all heard of YouTube and Tumblr and Facebook. Ning, the one ring meant to rule them all, was sold to Glam for parts. Now, I'm still proud of the amazing team that we built, and some of those distributed architecture concepts that we pioneered still live on actually in the data centers of companies like Facebook and LinkedIn and others. But this story should serve as a very important reminder that infinite ambition is actually not a goal. I was actually chastened by this experience, which in so many ways was like a photo negative of everything I had learned about bringing great products into the world. Trying to be everything to everyone ends in being nothing to anyone, and it's only ruthless focus. And delivering real value to real customers, to real people is the only way to win.
O processo de reconhecer limites, mesmo quando a vida parece exigir sempre mais.
Depois de tantas histórias, aprendizados e pausas necessárias, o @interior_iza está de volta
