Conventional startup business wisdom encourages finding proxy examples to your thesis, ideas, assumptions, and models. It's about validation before you know the real answers; and with enough of it, you can get your head around something enough to place a bet (whether you're an entrepreneur, prospective employee or VC).
While I often hunt for such proxies for the ideas I encounter, I have a problems with the practice...
People are jaded by the proxy. They apply lessons learned in different times and places, and assume they apply here and now. Then they get stuck in this defined box, and can't find a way out. How can you change the game if your mindset won't let you?
I once worked on an idea that was sort of a 'geocities for phones', whereby consumers could publish content to their phone, much like they published content to a web page circa '99. When framed that way, while it was a perfectly reasonable proxy, it turned some people sideways and they ratholed on why geocities didn't work out so well, or where they are today, etc. All this, and I was talking about something in the era of $4B spent on ringtones!
I also had an idea that was "Monster for kids", but because I framed it that way, some of the reactions I got characterized that as a low margin and costly business. Well it is low margin now because it's mass market, but in its growth phase it was hot. If it were just for kids, there might be new, niche, pop culture approaches in an age where these kids all get/discern and live in social networks. Oh, and of course it was costly - they did superbowl ads after all!
The question lingers...can too much proxy be boxy?
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Posted by: alexsmith11 | February 22, 2009 at 07:40 AM