Welcome to the Farm!

Welcome to the farm, and ... welcome to OUR farm. First, disclaimer: everyone is biased. So are we. We are three MBAs passionate about entrepreneurship. This blog is dedicated to share our observations and reflections on startups and entrepreneurship through our own lens colored by our own experience. 

What is the purpose of this blog? 

Three things have tremendously changed the landscape of entrepreneurship.

• Technology - things can be started in your garage now, thanks to computers, APIs, 3D printers, hardware sets, etc. 
• Infrastructure as broadly defined - internet coverage, smartphone penetration, even roads and cars for last-mile delivery. 
• Theories and mentalities - "fail early and fail fast", rapid prototyping, design thinking and lean startups.  

We are now in a world where thousands rise and thousands fall within a year, a month and a day. The incremental innovation cycles are becoming shorter, and the target markets of the startups are becoming more and more niche and fragmented. While we could follow the tech industry by reading about a few growing companies, like Google, Amazon and Ebay, in the headlines a few years ago, we are losing track, and overwhelmed by startup tsunami. For investors, entrepreneur-to-bes, MBAs, and early adopters, there is a need for frequent and thorough survey. Thus, this blog - to observe, learn and spot trends.

The blog also serves another purpose - data gathering to test a hypotheses. Some of us see startups scattered around a 3-D space along three axises:

• business model innovation - Birchbox, Zipcar and iTunes are examples of business model innovation
• technology innovation - Google search algorithm, iPhone and 3D printer rely mostly on technological / engineering inventions
• process innovation - Salesforce, Intuit and Evernote are more of products that enhance certain processes

Some hold the belief that as long as you are a great founder, like Elon Musk, you can do anything in any field. I have gradually started to realize that there may be certain startup-founder fit, which may determine the fate of the endeavor.  People are limited by their knowledge, experience and social network. Most startups started by MBAs in school are high on business model innovation, low on tech. And obviously, most engineers, esp. PhDs, start companies that apply their research findings, relying on tech innovation. Founders with industry experience, on the other hand, tend to know the pain points of their industry well, and start firms to improve processes. What type of team does it take to start a certain type of companies at a specific time? There may not be an answer. And if that is the case, it would satisfy our idealistic thinking that everything is possible. However, if there is a pattern, we want to know the reality and adapt. Thus, this blog - to understand startup - team fit better. 

So January 2014 would be the start. we will write about startups that we come across and read about. With tags, we will also try to organize them by sector and and type. One post for each company. Comments, referrals, coffee chat invites, .... all welcome.