LooseSuits

To follow up with my other note on Ev Williams talk on the mistakes of Odeo I thought it would be good to point to his article last year on the 10 rules for web startups. Obviously the list is pretty general and much of the advice can be found in other places, but it's interesting to see how much of his own advice he has actually followed with Odeo.

1. Be Narrow: The question here has to be how narrow did Myspace go for? Can Flickr really be considered narrow? Narrow is relative to the niche you are trying to fulfill I guess.
2. Be Different: This one goes without saying, but obviously is not being paid much attention to in this era of the web.
3. Be Casual: Web 2.0 has never been about the "Casual Web". It has always been about the Geek Web.
4. Be Picky: We at 9rules might follow this one a bit too closely, but I like it. Don't take everything that comes your way.
5. Be User-Centric: This rule was established a long time ago and never should have left your mind.
6. Be Self-Centered: Do you really think you have the greatest product in the world? Can you actually look outside of yourself though to see what needs improvement? I find there are too many self-centered people creating things who don't know when their stuff is bottom of the barrel.
7. Be Greedy: Everything shouldn't be free and advertising-based. Create something worth paying for as Jason Fried has been preaching for a while now.
8. Be Tiny: Depends on what you are building I guess, but very few web apps need large teams to start off.
9. Be Agile: Hard to be agile when you already take VC money since results have to happen a bit sooner than expected. Over the past year the end goal of 9rules has stayed the same, but the paths have changed a number of times.
10. Be Balanced: This requires people on your team who have a passion for what your company is doing, they must believe in it or they are stuck.