thoughts on entrepreneurship
Why did I close gather.at? Well mainly because I need to start with a fresh canvas. Over time there was feature creep and those features only slowed the progress of making gather.at usable. Basically if the platform is not useful in its first version then there is something wrong. I’ve also thought a lot about the dynamics of how to build a successful web application, and many of those were missing from gather.at.
I’ve been highly impressed by Evan Williams and his Twitter application. Its been growing quickly by doing one thing well. This is they way start-ups should work. For a better idea of what I think a good web start-up needs Evan’s Ten Rules for Web Start ups is a good read.
I went to SF this weekend to hang out with old friends. I had an amazing time. Its been years since I have been able to sit in a room of more than 3 people and be able to have a technical conversation with EVERYONE. And I actually learned something from others in the room as opposed to explaining the difference between Firewalls and Antivirus software. Its a sad statement but the culture of technology entrepreneurship is missing from NYC.
Yes of course their are entrepreneurs in NYC but in SF there is a unique mix between innovation, early adaption and entrepreneurship that I can imagine has been successfully replicated anywhere else in the country or the world perhaps?