The business model of Weblogs, Inc. was based on building many websites, see which ones would survive, and only further develop those who had a chance to become successful. At first, probably to optimize resources, all blogs used the same template and the most basic form of logotype as a logo, and even their web addresses were subdomains of the single weblogsinc.com domain name.
pick good cofounders
launch fast
understand your users
let your idea evolve
better to make a few users love you than a lot ambivalent
offer surprisingly good customer service
you make what you measure
spend little
be ramen profitable as fast as you can
avoid distractions (raising money is one)
don't get demoralized
don't give up
deals fall through (raise more than you think you need)
Werner Vogel of Amazon wrote about something similar - http://www.allthingsdistributed.com/2006/11/working_backwards.html
His main points:
- Start by writing the Press Release.
- Write a Frequently Asked Questions document.
- Define the customer experience.
- Write the User Manual.