Last night I watched a video recording of TechCrunch Disrupt NY’s panel discussion with Naval Ravikant, CEO of AngelList. The following statement (at 1:59:05) is so true that I had to share:
It’s the nature of successful companies that become iconic that they’re non-consensus.
People don’t believe in them when they first start out either because they seem frivolous or the market’s too small. It’s easy to sit up here and shoot holes in people’s ideas as being too small and say go after the bigger trend but the reality is that what you want to focus on is something that you have a deep conviction and belief [in].
And most of the times you’ll be wrong. That’s the nature of the beast.
But you don’t want to go into something where you came up with the idea you just brainstormed with a friends a month ago because that means the first time it hits a hiccup, you’re going to drop it or you’re not going to have a deep enough insight to pick the right approach on the market.
So I think you should look at your company as an extension of your life to date. The dots should connect moving forward and that way you’re more likely to stick with it and more likely to [have] proprietary insights.