Building For The Long Haul

At a recent Startup School, Mark Zuckerberg made some very poignant comments about?Silicon Valley?s lack of long-term focus.? While the quick turnover of capital, people and innovation makes the Valley an incredibly attractive place for?starting?companies, it also produces an environment that?s almost hostile when it comes to building them for the long haul. The tension is remarkable, yet it?s rarely highlighted among the more explicit challenges ? say, going up against the 800lb gorilla ? faced by entrepreneurs. Every so often, my non-tech friends half-jokingly ask, ?Have you sold yet??? And for the first few years of Box?s existence, to placate them, I would ask for?just a couple more quarters. Right after we get our next product to market, after we double again, and so on.? But soon it dawned on me that I wasn?t going to stop.? I couldn?t.? There was just too much to do, too much unexplored territory. Even when things weren?t going well, the challenge of righting them was like another shot of pure adrenaline.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Jq8iO3v_rlo/

brandon marshall headless horseman headless horseman brandon lloyd brandon lloyd publishers clearing house scare tactics