A very nice backgrounder on the Redbeacon team that won TechCrunch50 this past year.
Most impressive item for me (besides the talent, prudence, discipline, and perseverance of the founding team, which is evident): having the willpower to defer VC funding until they can do it on terms that are reasonable for the founders (a lot of startups use this strategy now but to be able to do it after drawing interest from 19 VC firms in the wake of the TC50 win is commendable). Also, their realizing that getting premature VC funding can actually mess up a company by skewing its goals toward premature expansion.
These guys have a business model that will live or die by whether it can scale well, and that challenge still lies before them. But what they have done so far is really the perfect picture of a highly disciplined lean startup that is done right.
I must say, I am growing weary of the "fail" theme. It is just not in the spirit of an entrepreneur to be focused on failure and I wish those who write about them would stop beating this theme to death. Founders have better things to focus on, as do those reading about their ventures.
As this is part 2 of a 4-part series Dickerson is doing for Slate on the character of risk in America, I can understand his particular focus on "failure".
Most impressive item for me (besides the talent, prudence, discipline, and perseverance of the founding team, which is evident): having the willpower to defer VC funding until they can do it on terms that are reasonable for the founders (a lot of startups use this strategy now but to be able to do it after drawing interest from 19 VC firms in the wake of the TC50 win is commendable). Also, their realizing that getting premature VC funding can actually mess up a company by skewing its goals toward premature expansion.
These guys have a business model that will live or die by whether it can scale well, and that challenge still lies before them. But what they have done so far is really the perfect picture of a highly disciplined lean startup that is done right.
I must say, I am growing weary of the "fail" theme. It is just not in the spirit of an entrepreneur to be focused on failure and I wish those who write about them would stop beating this theme to death. Founders have better things to focus on, as do those reading about their ventures.