Selling Out

Why I think "selling out" and chasing money is a positive thing, plus a small update on my journey, and a new format

I've repeatedly noticed in conversations about online entrepreneurship that most people who actually start online businesses talk about the topic very differently than the general public does. The public tends to have a romanticized version of the entrepreneur with the big vision that is brought to the market. 

Contrary to the romanticized image, successful online entrepreneurs often make their business about the market rather than their vision. Take Danny Postma. He earns hundreds of thousands of dollars annually as a solo developer. In a viral tweet, he mentioned that one strategy was leveraging SEO tools to identify medium-traffic and low-competition keywords, and then build a product that matches those searches.

In this case, you're not starting with a specific idea. Instead, you work backward from the market demand. There's some pre-existing validation for the interest, and the distribution channel is validated as well since you intentionally look for keywords that a small website would have a chance of ranking on Google Search for.

It makes a ton of sense. But even on Hacker News, a place nominally pro-entrepreneurship, I've seen the idea pushed that it's uncouth if you're just going to do an idea because it makes money. You're supposed to have the big idea that's going to change the world. Just doing it for money makes you a sell-out or a grifter.

Of course, the whole point of business is to sell out.

I find it ironic that it's considered low-brow to chase ideas people want to spend money on. If you take a step back and compare our two entrepreneurs—one who starts with a vision and the other who starts with market demand—the first is rather self-centered, and the second's mission involves empathy and making other people happy. Is making other people happy such a bad thing? 

If you start with a vision - one that's burning inside you and must be released to the world, that's called art, not business.

It would be unfair to pretend what's left after we focus on the market demand is all calculations and no creativity. We can't eliminate vision entirely. Circling back to Danny Postma's advice, we could research a nearly infinite number of search terms. We have to use our creativity to think of ones to explore. 

Once you decide on a search term, you have to be creative in coming up with a product that will meet the expectations of those people searching. You have to understand the world of technology and how to use it to create the right solutions.

All of these processes involve deep creativity, but critically, the people on the other side of the equation - the potential customers - refine and iterate that vision. It's not just about you.

So, while I would object to the term grifter, I want to be a sell-out—as long as we agree that a sell-out prioritizes the interests and wants of others above their own. 

Monthly Update

Speaking of prioritizing the needs of others, I realized that my monthly updates were getting a bit long-winded and rambling. 

I'm going to stick to a new format for this newsletter with a quick thought piece, a shorter update, and a favorite entrepreneurship blogger.

In the last 30 days, I got two new paying users and about 50 free users. Certainly that’s not nothing, but it’s also not quite the growth I need.

I'm almost finished two new pieces of the project:

1) A native version of my web app

2) A short poker strategy book that I'll self-publish on Kindle

I've talked about both of these projects quite a bit and I'm a little embarrassed I haven't finished them, but they will be finished by the end of June. It's a critical time for poker as the World Series of Poker just started in Las Vegas. I'll be heading there for a week myself, which will be an obvious time to experiment with paid ads, and a chance to network with some internet poker friends. 

I'll be playing a few of the preliminary tournaments as well, giving me some motivation to use my own app to study, and an outside shot at a big win.

After June, I'm going to re-evaluate where I stand on the project and whether it might be worth pursing some new ideas. As for now, the cards are in the air...

Entrepreneur Blogger of The Week

An old school business and productivity blogger that my older brother introduced me to,  Pavlina has an article that's been running through my head repeatedly recently. It's titled 80% of Employees Fail Within The First Five Years . 

Have you heard the statistic that says, “80% of new businesses fail within the first five years?” That seems to be a favorite one for people to cite when attempting to discourage their friends or co-workers from starting a new business.

Now, can anyone tell me me what percentage of employees fail within the first five years? If you work at a job and get laid off after 4.5 years, would you qualify for this statistic? What if you quit? Left for a better job? Retired? Got a transfer? A promotion?

While a business or a job may cease to endure after a certain number of years, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth doing. You’re still going to learn and grow and create value along the way, regardless of the outcome. Just as a job can be a stepping stone, so can a business, and there’s no reason you can’t start a new business with the expectation that it’s only temporary. Jobs and businesses come and go. Your own personal growth is what endures.