Business 2.0’s Startup Factory
Michael V. Copeland, a senior writer for Business 2.0 penned an article about Startup Factories and their ressurection, thanks to the Web 2.0 evolution. What is a startup factory you might ask? It’s another name for an incubator. Taken from the article:
During the dotcom bubble, such startup factories were called incubators. At the peak, there were about 700 for-profit incubators, most focused on technology, according to the National Business Incubation Association. Many were notoriously high-pressure environments where a lucrative exit strategy was more important than the half-baked products.
The startup that the article focuses on is tentatively named Hit Forge, led by seasoned entrepreneur Naval Ravikant. “This is like a movie studio,” he says. “It’s about milestone-based development, piloting concepts, access to distribution” — not to mention finding the next blockbuster. “The Web is the most hit-driven business the world has ever seen,” Ravikant says. “The problem is finding that next hit.”
From my own take, lets learn from the music industry. Hits aren’t sustainable because you aren’t gauranteed one each time. The Dave Matthews Band do not have chart topping songs each time their album comes out, yet they are very sustainable. I’m extremely interested to learn more about Ravikant’s new project and how he’s looking to navigate the ‘hit’ centric business model.