Yeah, I did a double take when I saw this line in the story:
> It’s not about making friends with the right people
Because my takeaway was the opposite… if you have good connections, your actual product isn’t as important.
> It’s not about making friends with the right people
Because my takeaway was the opposite… if you have good connections, your actual product isn’t as important.
It's a tremendous blind spot, where "the right people" are defined as people his friend would have to pay for some business thing, rather than the people who have the money to give him.
Coincidentally I'm helping someone in this way right now. She has a good business idea because she has the talent and potential clients already (as well as being a good people-person), but the fact that she has me to make a website for her and advise on her technological needs for free isn't the thing that makes it a good business idea. Don't get me wrong, it can be extremely valuable and thrifty to have someone who knows enough to know where and when to say "no," or YAGNI, but those are cashflow and time questions, not a fundamental viability one.
> No, it’s about embracing the constraints. They proved to be his true allies
And say pretty much the same thing you did.
Constraints helped them ship by Monday (a seriously admirable feat) but the direct relationships with both the customer (restaurants) and infrastructure (couriers) was what made it a profitable endeavor.
Everybody has theories, and none of them line up.
What they've done is had a shortcut to finding their first customers and convincing them to use the product. Often the hardest part, no fiddling with a contact form or landing page