Why obvious startup ideas still fail while unicorns succeed
“I I think if if you survey the the founders of unicorns, IPOs, all of those things, to them, it was obvious.”
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Yeah. I I think if if you survey the the founders of unicorns, IPOs, all of those things, to them, it was obvious. But what about the 20 or 50 or a 100 other people that were trying to do the same thing? Was it not obvious? Like so I think the opportunity was obvious, and like everything, it comes down to execution. Right? And, you know, there were a lot of competitors to Airbnb, a great example, where, yeah, the idea does seem obvious and but there were a lot of other people doing it too, but Airbnb was the one that was able to move fastest and and build a name and eventually kind of absorb competitors or at least their markets. And so, yeah, in some cases, there's room for for more than one. Sometimes it is obvious. But for us, like, looking at TravelClicker, like, I mean, honestly, like, our first idea seemed obvious. Like, why wouldn't you incentivize employees to, you know,
About this clip
Ron Levin explains why successful unicorns often pursue 'obvious' opportunities that many others are also chasing. He argues that having an obvious idea isn't enough - execution speed and market dominance are what separate winners from the dozens of competitors tackling the same problem, using Airbnb as a prime example.
Why this clip
This clip challenges the common belief that successful startups have non-obvious ideas, providing a counterintuitive perspective on what actually drives startup success.
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