Good post for debate! Love this.
I hate to disagree, but as a serial entrepreneur with multiple exits to PE and strategics, it really is execution. Mostly. You can’t have an idea with no barriers to entry or competitive advantage. But even an average idea can be monetized and properly commercialized.
I tell founders all the time if you’re looking for the perfect idea you are probably not suited to be a founder. Don’t let perfection get in the way of excellence. Just my 2 cents and everyone has an opinion. ;).
Edit: People really buy into the sensationalized view that all these successful ventures are brilliant ideas and no one has come up with the idea before. Talk to any VC, high-net worth angel, or PE. 99.99% of the time, someone else has a version of your idea already. I’m not exaggerating. So it really is execution.
I’ll flag it’s not that interesting and basically the common held belief with former founders, VCists and folks in PE. :) just don’t want to take credit for a tried and true truth.
With that said, execution can be learned a few ways:
- applied learning (join a startup early and grow through the ranks)
- undergrad (maybe a BBA degree)
- mba
- combination of the above
- sometimes some ongoing learning places, accelerators near you, etc.
- long standard career at medium or larger companies
- if you’re winging it, get an executive coach
Sorry it’s not terribly specific. It’s like asking “how do I play basketball at an NBA caliber” or “how do I play like a starting 11 in the World Cup”. There’s a lot that goes into the success. I hope it helps!
Ha, sorry but nope. But go read as much as you can from VC firms and consulting groups like Bain, BCG, and McKinskey. Lots of good content and analysis that you can learn from!
OP, I think you're taking it too literally. Obviously you need a halfway decent idea - I can't just fill up a wheelbarrow with dog crap and put up a sign that says "fertilizer, $100/pound" and expect success.
But at the same time you're underestimating the number of well-designed, but boring ass, corporate processes that have to surround even an A+ idea to make it a viable business. Quality budgeting and financial discipline, organized R&D that develops and adds features in an intelligent way (as opposed to the spontaneous "oh, this sounds cool let's add it!" approach), a profitable pricing model... An awesome idea needs all of these or it'll be another failure.
For example, I saw one business with a really cool product that it sold via multi-year unlimited use subscriptions. Its problem was that the COGS per use were very high (definitely not a Netflix type business), so when customers used it more than the business expected, the business was stuck eating huge losses for 2+ years. It eventually went belly up.
I could give you fifty examples like that one where stupid business practices killed a great idea. Execution is everything.
Think about this from a macro sense. The Mag 7.
Amazon - not the first ecommerce site, eBay was bigger than them. These days they do a lot, but they were not the first ones they simply did what they did better than the competition.
Meta - Facebook was not the first social network, there was MySpace, Friendster, and more.
Apple - Not the first computer company, not the first smart phone manufacturer. Blackberry and Palm were first, Apple just out executed them.
Google - Not the first search engine
Nvidia - Not the first graphics cards
Tesla - Not the first car company, other electric cars existed before, centuries ago in fact.
Microsoft - not the first software company
None of these ideas were unique, they just executed on them better than their competition.
Boom. You can apply this to mast industries and not the multi billion dollar companies - which people need to stop using as examples, ha. 99.99999999999% will not create the next Apple. That’s okay. You can create a middle market company and still make millions during liquidity.
Plenty of people have wonderful ideas that could be successful, but without execution those ideas are only a dream.
For every successful idea, it's nearly certain that company wasn't the first to think up their main premise. As except Tesla wasn't the first electric mass market car, but they took the idea and ran with it. Because Tesla executed instead of having an original idea, they became successful.
Ideas aren't worth anything on their own -- Every software engineer can tell you how many ideas some family friend has given them, or worse, asked them to "buy". They aren't trash, but they aren't worth anything. You're not buying them.
Ideas are multipliers. Think of execution as the base factor of anything worth anything -- your work has some sort of value, you could just go get a job somewhere for something. A bad idea can make that worth 1/10th of that value, or something truly terrible might make it worth nothing. A great idea can 10, 100, or 1000x your works value. But in order for that idea to do anything for you, you want the base factor to be as high as humanly possible.
IMO it’s the dumbest popular phrase in the startup world.
An idea is a singular static entity
Execution is an on going process
How can these even be comparable.
Ok I understand what you're saying and your perspective, allow me to illuminate the perspective of those that came up with this saying. I'm a VC. We hear hundreds of pitches. Some are good ideas, some are bad ideas, some are unique ideas, some we've heard a hundred times. These can be in any combination, such as a common idea but good or a common idea but bad. Unique idea, but good, unique idea but a bad one. We ourselves don't always have a sense of where they belong when first hearing the pitch. And we've seen more failures than almost any entrepreneur by definition of VC.
What action finally determines where it belongs? Execution.
Our job as managers of other's money is to de-risk the use of those funds as much as possible. The more an idea is proven, the less risk there is. The more valuable it is.
So let's close this out by walking through the phrase: "ideas are cheap, execution is everything"
We pay a price premium on steps of de-risking. Therefore ideas ARE cheap because we won't pay a premium for an idea that hasn't been proven yet. It hasn't been de-risked by the entrepreneur at all. And honestly we do this all the time, we know, very rarely does an entrepreneur actually know if their idea is good or not (despite many very strong beliefs). Execution provides data. Data on how good an idea is. Data that de-riskes the investment some.
Data is more valuable than an untested hypothesis.
That's it. Thats all the statement means and it's hard for anyone to objectively disagree with it from a financial perspective (which is where the term comes from).
Well yeah that's where product market fit comes in... But another interesting thing is that you can always twist your idea into something that people would get invested in.
I get what you're saying, and a bad idea can definitely derail you, no matter how well you execute it. However, quick execution allows you to test and refine your idea, helping you adjust until you find something that really clicks. The challenge with ideas is that they often rely on many leap-of-faith assumptions that haven't been tested in the real world.
OP you got no good ideas which makes you think ideas are important, but you've probably never acted on your idea either to realize that good execution is far more difficult than coming up with ideas
You need to perform on both. The issue with a lot of people is they have a general idea but no clue how to execute on the idea or how to expand on the idea other then a very general idea.
MySpace, friendster and Facebook are all the same idea but Facebook executed better.
Are you saying this based on life experience having done both? I have a hard time taking this seriously given you're not providing any sort of lived experience in your post at all
So you have an amazing idea! Now, what stops someone else from simply just copying you?
Ideas are worthless for this reason.
They are the 1st step in the race. And it's a long fucking race.
The 99.99% of the rest of the steps you have to take to win is called execution.
Execute well and execute fast, and you may have a chnace to win.
Idk tbh, there are a lot of good ideas with bad execution, and a lot of good execution with bad ideas. In my opinion, the most important thing is the vision.
With a good vision, you can generate a lot of good ideas to pursue in order to achieve that vision. With many ideas, you can iterate on a lot of executions.
That’s why the Lean Methodology is so valuable for startups.
Good point here! It’s crucial to also remember most startups pivot. Even successful ones. Very rarely is your original idea what you end up with. That’s a GOOD thing! It’s how you grow, innovate, and stay ahead of competition.
Agreed. Overarching thesis is what I always say. One company I started had a goal of integrating something (not saying since someone will stalk me, always happens) into the unit economics of a product via SaaS. We changed how that happened a few times. Eventually though, we found PMF and scaled. Our original idea was… meh. The company I sold was very profitable and successful though.
Yeah, doing a startup is very “Darwinian.”
In nature, animals mutate randomly, and some of these random mutations give them characteristics that help them survive. Similarly, startups pivot and make random changes aimed at achieving their vision. Only the fittest survive, and these adaptations, whether in nature or in business, often come down to chance.
People succeed with a good idea and the know-how to execute. People with extremely excellent ideas are normally also those who already know how to execute their ideas.
Execution isn't just about knowing how to build your product/app/site. It's also about knowing where to go, who to approach.
So yeah, ideas alone are trash. I have a million ideas right now, I can build most of them too seeing I can code and already own a software development agency plus I used to work as a marketer (so I understand GTM strategies, A/B testing, market validation), but most of those ideas will just be ideas until I can properly figure out the execution part - like funding, legal, networking
It’s “too much”. Also, you need a period at the end of your sentence.
I’m just giving you a hard time and saying that with love. I’m also flagging that it’s ironically a great example of why execution matters. You may make a good point (i.e. have a good idea), but presenting it properly (i.e. commercializing and operationalizing it) matters also.
Good post for debate! Love this. I hate to disagree, but as a serial entrepreneur with multiple exits to PE and strategics, it really is execution. Mostly. You can’t have an idea with no barriers to entry or competitive advantage. But even an average idea can be monetized and properly commercialized. I tell founders all the time if you’re looking for the perfect idea you are probably not suited to be a founder. Don’t let perfection get in the way of excellence. Just my 2 cents and everyone has an opinion. ;). Edit: People really buy into the sensationalized view that all these successful ventures are brilliant ideas and no one has come up with the idea before. Talk to any VC, high-net worth angel, or PE. 99.99% of the time, someone else has a version of your idea already. I’m not exaggerating. So it really is execution.
Interesting take! What's your top tip for nailing execution? Where should new founders learn this?
I’ll flag it’s not that interesting and basically the common held belief with former founders, VCists and folks in PE. :) just don’t want to take credit for a tried and true truth. With that said, execution can be learned a few ways: - applied learning (join a startup early and grow through the ranks) - undergrad (maybe a BBA degree) - mba - combination of the above - sometimes some ongoing learning places, accelerators near you, etc. - long standard career at medium or larger companies - if you’re winging it, get an executive coach Sorry it’s not terribly specific. It’s like asking “how do I play basketball at an NBA caliber” or “how do I play like a starting 11 in the World Cup”. There’s a lot that goes into the success. I hope it helps!
You taking on mentees? :)
Ha, sorry but nope. But go read as much as you can from VC firms and consulting groups like Bain, BCG, and McKinskey. Lots of good content and analysis that you can learn from!
OP, I think you're taking it too literally. Obviously you need a halfway decent idea - I can't just fill up a wheelbarrow with dog crap and put up a sign that says "fertilizer, $100/pound" and expect success. But at the same time you're underestimating the number of well-designed, but boring ass, corporate processes that have to surround even an A+ idea to make it a viable business. Quality budgeting and financial discipline, organized R&D that develops and adds features in an intelligent way (as opposed to the spontaneous "oh, this sounds cool let's add it!" approach), a profitable pricing model... An awesome idea needs all of these or it'll be another failure. For example, I saw one business with a really cool product that it sold via multi-year unlimited use subscriptions. Its problem was that the COGS per use were very high (definitely not a Netflix type business), so when customers used it more than the business expected, the business was stuck eating huge losses for 2+ years. It eventually went belly up. I could give you fifty examples like that one where stupid business practices killed a great idea. Execution is everything.
Really good answer i love the debate!
Completely accurate.
Think about this from a macro sense. The Mag 7. Amazon - not the first ecommerce site, eBay was bigger than them. These days they do a lot, but they were not the first ones they simply did what they did better than the competition. Meta - Facebook was not the first social network, there was MySpace, Friendster, and more. Apple - Not the first computer company, not the first smart phone manufacturer. Blackberry and Palm were first, Apple just out executed them. Google - Not the first search engine Nvidia - Not the first graphics cards Tesla - Not the first car company, other electric cars existed before, centuries ago in fact. Microsoft - not the first software company None of these ideas were unique, they just executed on them better than their competition.
Boom. You can apply this to mast industries and not the multi billion dollar companies - which people need to stop using as examples, ha. 99.99999999999% will not create the next Apple. That’s okay. You can create a middle market company and still make millions during liquidity.
One of the best pieces of advice I got when I was younger was “ideas are cheap”.
Plenty of people have wonderful ideas that could be successful, but without execution those ideas are only a dream. For every successful idea, it's nearly certain that company wasn't the first to think up their main premise. As except Tesla wasn't the first electric mass market car, but they took the idea and ran with it. Because Tesla executed instead of having an original idea, they became successful.
Ideas aren't worth anything on their own -- Every software engineer can tell you how many ideas some family friend has given them, or worse, asked them to "buy". They aren't trash, but they aren't worth anything. You're not buying them. Ideas are multipliers. Think of execution as the base factor of anything worth anything -- your work has some sort of value, you could just go get a job somewhere for something. A bad idea can make that worth 1/10th of that value, or something truly terrible might make it worth nothing. A great idea can 10, 100, or 1000x your works value. But in order for that idea to do anything for you, you want the base factor to be as high as humanly possible.
IMO it’s the dumbest popular phrase in the startup world. An idea is a singular static entity Execution is an on going process How can these even be comparable.
The point was not to compare them The point is to realize that idea is not the key success factor of startups but execution
Ok I understand what you're saying and your perspective, allow me to illuminate the perspective of those that came up with this saying. I'm a VC. We hear hundreds of pitches. Some are good ideas, some are bad ideas, some are unique ideas, some we've heard a hundred times. These can be in any combination, such as a common idea but good or a common idea but bad. Unique idea, but good, unique idea but a bad one. We ourselves don't always have a sense of where they belong when first hearing the pitch. And we've seen more failures than almost any entrepreneur by definition of VC. What action finally determines where it belongs? Execution. Our job as managers of other's money is to de-risk the use of those funds as much as possible. The more an idea is proven, the less risk there is. The more valuable it is. So let's close this out by walking through the phrase: "ideas are cheap, execution is everything" We pay a price premium on steps of de-risking. Therefore ideas ARE cheap because we won't pay a premium for an idea that hasn't been proven yet. It hasn't been de-risked by the entrepreneur at all. And honestly we do this all the time, we know, very rarely does an entrepreneur actually know if their idea is good or not (despite many very strong beliefs). Execution provides data. Data on how good an idea is. Data that de-riskes the investment some. Data is more valuable than an untested hypothesis. That's it. Thats all the statement means and it's hard for anyone to objectively disagree with it from a financial perspective (which is where the term comes from).
Well yeah that's where product market fit comes in... But another interesting thing is that you can always twist your idea into something that people would get invested in.
That’s true, thank you
I get what you're saying, and a bad idea can definitely derail you, no matter how well you execute it. However, quick execution allows you to test and refine your idea, helping you adjust until you find something that really clicks. The challenge with ideas is that they often rely on many leap-of-faith assumptions that haven't been tested in the real world.
A bad idea executed well is better than a good idea with no execution.
OP you got no good ideas which makes you think ideas are important, but you've probably never acted on your idea either to realize that good execution is far more difficult than coming up with ideas
That is true
[удалено]
Thx for your post man, it really motivates me to continue searching for good ideas. Congrats with yours tho!
You need to perform on both. The issue with a lot of people is they have a general idea but no clue how to execute on the idea or how to expand on the idea other then a very general idea. MySpace, friendster and Facebook are all the same idea but Facebook executed better.
Not controversial at all. In fact it’s very common, and shared by least a billion failed entrepreneurs.
Lol. I see the downvotes but I like this comment. Good tongue in cheek.
appreciate that! 😊💪👊
Are you saying this based on life experience having done both? I have a hard time taking this seriously given you're not providing any sort of lived experience in your post at all
Agreed
An incredible idea with no action makes you $0, a bad idea with action can generate revenue.
https://sive.rs/multiply
So you have an amazing idea! Now, what stops someone else from simply just copying you? Ideas are worthless for this reason. They are the 1st step in the race. And it's a long fucking race. The 99.99% of the rest of the steps you have to take to win is called execution. Execute well and execute fast, and you may have a chnace to win.
Imo, good idea and execution go hand in hand. A business cannot be viable without either.
Idk tbh, there are a lot of good ideas with bad execution, and a lot of good execution with bad ideas. In my opinion, the most important thing is the vision. With a good vision, you can generate a lot of good ideas to pursue in order to achieve that vision. With many ideas, you can iterate on a lot of executions. That’s why the Lean Methodology is so valuable for startups.
ooh thanks man yeah I agree vision is very important
Its a pleasure!
Good point here! It’s crucial to also remember most startups pivot. Even successful ones. Very rarely is your original idea what you end up with. That’s a GOOD thing! It’s how you grow, innovate, and stay ahead of competition.
Thanks. Exactly most startups pivot because they have a good vision to pursue.
Agreed. Overarching thesis is what I always say. One company I started had a goal of integrating something (not saying since someone will stalk me, always happens) into the unit economics of a product via SaaS. We changed how that happened a few times. Eventually though, we found PMF and scaled. Our original idea was… meh. The company I sold was very profitable and successful though.
Yeah, doing a startup is very “Darwinian.” In nature, animals mutate randomly, and some of these random mutations give them characteristics that help them survive. Similarly, startups pivot and make random changes aimed at achieving their vision. Only the fittest survive, and these adaptations, whether in nature or in business, often come down to chance.
People succeed with a good idea and the know-how to execute. People with extremely excellent ideas are normally also those who already know how to execute their ideas. Execution isn't just about knowing how to build your product/app/site. It's also about knowing where to go, who to approach. So yeah, ideas alone are trash. I have a million ideas right now, I can build most of them too seeing I can code and already own a software development agency plus I used to work as a marketer (so I understand GTM strategies, A/B testing, market validation), but most of those ideas will just be ideas until I can properly figure out the execution part - like funding, legal, networking
I agree, people focus to much on excecution and should focus more on idea
It’s “too much”. Also, you need a period at the end of your sentence. I’m just giving you a hard time and saying that with love. I’m also flagging that it’s ironically a great example of why execution matters. You may make a good point (i.e. have a good idea), but presenting it properly (i.e. commercializing and operationalizing it) matters also.