All the economics and newscasters like to talk about GDP Growth Rate (and its importance to life, the universe, and everything). Whatever. One of my very smart LPs sent me this the other day.
He sent the attached note:
This is not meant to be exhaustive or to suggest any correlation – only a reminder that great companies continue to be created at shitty times. It is, however, interesting to think about what attributes might lead companies founded in shitty times to go on to be successful. How about: single-mindedness of purpose, frugality/capital efficiency, and more sweat than equity.
The list of companies started during periods of negative GDP Growth include Wang, TI, DEC, Fairchild, EDS, Compuserve, Intel, Atari, CA, Apple, Microsoft, Amdahl, Autodesk, Sun, Compaq, Cisco, 3Com, Genzyme, EMC, Amgen, Lotus, EA, Adobe, AOL, Dell, Cisco, and Network Appliance. I know the startup story of many of them and it includes single-mindedness of purpose, frugality/capital efficiency, and more sweat than equity.
[...] Entrepreneurs – Don’t Be Afraid of GDP Growth Rate The list of companies started during periods of negative GDP Growth include Wang, TI, DEC, Fairchild, EDS, Compuserve, Intel, Atari, CA, Apple, Microsoft, Amdahl, Autodesk, Sun, Compaq, Cisco, 3Com, Genzyme, EMC, Amgen, Lotus, EA, Adobe, AOL, Dell, Cisco, and Network Appliance. I know the startup story of many of them and it includes single-mindedness of purpose, frugality/capital efficiency, and more sweat than equity. (categories: startups entrepreneurship economy motivation ) [...]
Pingback by Aaron Johnson – Links: 3-15-2009 — March 16, 2009 @ 2:47 am
[...] who are in the middle of starting up something now, here is a good diagram to look at (citing from Brad Feld). It shows some empirical data between the timing of economic cycles and good companies [...]
Pingback by Dijital Life » Starting a company during a down economy — March 16, 2009 @ 11:36 am
[...] admin on Mar.17, 2009, under Microsoft From Feld Thoughts: All the economics and newscasters like to talk about GDP Growth Rate (and its importance to life, [...]
Pingback by A Great Time To Launch A Good Startup | All about MICROSOFT — March 17, 2009 @ 1:01 pm
[...] Published March 18, 2009 Advertising Statistics , Internet Economics , Venture Capital This is where I’ll point to whenever I refer to the meme about good startups that were created during a [...]
Pingback by “Started During A Recession” « ecpm blog — March 18, 2009 @ 12:14 am
Entrepreneurs – Don’t Be Afraid of GDP Growth Rate…
Great companies are started in recessions–the data…
Trackback by vbrief.com — March 18, 2009 @ 2:01 am
[...] trump economy. Brad Feld, Managing Director of the venture capital firm Foundry Group, recently pointed on his blog to all the name-brand firms started in a downturn: Microsoft, Cisco, Apple, and Adobe, to name just [...]
Pingback by The CU New Venture Challenge: Get Your Funding On | On the Radar... — March 18, 2009 @ 5:57 am
[...] trump economy. Brad Feld, Managing Director of the venture capital firm Foundry Group, recently pointed on his blog to all the name-brand firms started in a downturn: Microsoft, Cisco, Apple, and Adobe, to name just [...]
Pingback by The CU New Venture Challenge: Get Your Funding On | University Beat — March 18, 2009 @ 5:58 am
Alas, it appears the Economist shares your sentiments.
http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displayst...
Comment by David Campbell — March 20, 2009 @ 8:34 pm
Very cool and very true. Times like these remind me the importance of passion, honor and responsibility. I know one thing for sure, a bad economy is never going to stop me from attaining my dreams.
Comment by ErinZILLA — March 20, 2009 @ 10:00 pm