The Garage Philosophy: the secret behind successful innovations

Mark Fletcher is a successful internet entrepreneur. Two of his internet start-ups have been acquired for millions of dollars. He recently explained his personal lessons learned for the creation and development of an internet start-up. Under the title ‘Garage Philosophy’ he gives the following tips for starting entrepreneurs; a story about innovation in the internet age:

1. Passion for the idea. You must be passionate about your idea. And because you’re going to spend all your time on it, you should also enjoy it.

2. Cheap technology. Now is an ideal time to start a new internet service. Hardware, software and bandwidth are becoming cheaper.

3. Keep it simple. Come up with a simple product, simple for the users and simple in terms of underlying technology.

4. Come up with new releases quickly and often. It is very important to regularly come up with new features and improvements. This builds goodwill among your users.

5. Involve your users. Your users often have good ideas that you would not have thought of yourself. They look at your product differently; take advantage of this.

6. Have something in reserve. An additional income limits the risk.

7. Use your social network to raise cash. Your friends and family are your best supporters.

8. Free services = less busy. Charging for your services gives users much higher expectations for performance, quality, and customer support.

9. Web services APIs are a good thing.

10. Find good help, such as a lawyer and a system administrator. Good people around you will make your life easier, and that is especially true of a good systems administrator.

11. Outsource what you cannot or do not want to do yourself, such as design, graphics, and so on.

12. Constantly adapt to changing demands. A contemporary system can be completely different from the system that was modern 1 or 2 years ago.