Here is a great contribution from Eliezer Shklovsky…
What is common with the success of Google, World Wide Web, Liferay, and other software innovations? Why have these organizations succeeded and others have failed? Why do start-ups have great ideas but go belly-up?
Simple! The three patterns below are what Google, the World Wide Web, and Liferay initially exhibited:
1. No venture capital. Idea first. Product MUST come first. Clever tangible idea must come first. It must be tangible and well developed! You MUST have something for which to show! Then go get your VC funding! This is a reference to Google when they were in need of money for funding Google. They had little money to use on their start-up. It is known that Andy Bechtolsheim wrote a $100,000 check for Google without second thought once seeing the power of Google demonstrated. Moreover, it was a quick ‘n dirty demo as Bechtolsheim was in a hurry to leave that day! He had little time and little patience. He was easily sold!
2. Be the actual creator and innovator. What does this mean? This means that you just don’t think of the ideas and find people to go code them for you. It means to think of them and create them (initially). That means, yes, you need to know the software. Programming. Software engineering. Think Brian Chan. Think Larry Page. Brin. Think Tim Berners-Lee. They wrote their ideas. They coded. You do not have to worry about paying some pinhead. You can be personally responsible for what you write.
3. If it is truly innovative and “out-of-the-box”, it is unlikely to hit the consumer market first. All good innovations in the field of computer science go through several phases. The consumer market is always the last for some high-changing “looks-to-be-obtuse” area. It typically may start in a specialized area of medicine or the government. Slowly but surely, businesses start adopting. The consumer market is typically last.