Author Archives: Pat Mccarthy

The tech media is filled with articles gushing over startups that have attracted millions of users, raised millions of dollars, been acquired, or are on their way to surefire success.

However, the reality is still that the majority of startups fail. These failures are usually not written about unless it’s a high profile flameout from a company that was well known. It’s too bad, because it seems like there’s a lot more to learn from why a startup failed than just hearing about the latest success story.

It’s also not that common for the founders of failed startups to be public and forthcoming about what went wrong.

The latest postmortem of a failed startup comes from Steve Poland and his startup MyFavorites.

Steve goes over the big vision for MyFavorites while also being very forthcoming by sharing spreadsheets, mockups, and other artifacts from his startup journey.

As an entrepreneur, it’s the kind of blog post you never want to write, but I’d like to thank Steve for sharing it with the world.

photo © 2009 Eric Susch | more info (via: Wylio)As part of my mission to build a successful technology company (GuideMe), I have turned to learning from others who are also doing it or have done it before.

To help others along this path, while also being inspired by Larry Chang’s VC Blog Directory, I compiled all the entrepreneur blogs I’ve been following and used Compete traffic data to sort them by average unique visitors in 2011. While imperfect, it’s a quick way to determine that other people also find them to be great resources.

Rankings
You can also subscribe to all the blogs listed here in the Google Reader Tech Entrepreneur RSS Bundle or follow a Twitter list of all of them called Blogging Entrepreneurs.

(Name, Twitter, Company, Blog, Avg Monthly Uniques)

1. Seth Godin (@thisissethsblog), Squidoo/Author – Seth Godin’s Blog (143,103)
2. Jeremy Schoemaker (@shoemoney), AuctionAds – Shoemoney (74,136)
3. John Chow (@johnchow), The TechZone/TTZ Media – JohnChow.com (53,174)
4. Dharmesh Shah (@dharmesh), Hubspot – OnStartups (48,918)
5. Joel Spolsky (@spolsky), StackOverflow – Joel On Software (43,762)
6. Neil Patel (@neilpatel), KissMetrics/CrazyEgg – Quicksprout (41,488)
7. Guy Kawasaki (@guykawasaki), Alltop – How To Change The World (29,057)
8. Erica Douglass (@ericabiz), Whoosh Traffic – Erica.biz (24,342)
9. Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt), WordPress – Matt (22,737)
10. Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee), WineLibrary – GaryVaynerchuk.com (19,249)
11. John Battelle (@johnbattelle), Federated Media – Battelle Media (16,944)
12. Kevin Rose (@kevinrose), Digg/Milk – KevinRose.com (16,144)
13. Jason Cohen (@asmartbear), WPEngine/Smart Bear – A Smart Bear (15,217)
14. Chris Dixon (@cdixon), Hunch/SiteAdvisor – CDixon (13,282)
15. Ben Yoskovitz (@byosko), StandoutJobs – Instigator Blog (11,154)
16. Patrick McKenzie (@patio11), Bingo Card Creator – Kalzumeus (10,742)
17. Markus Frind (@plentyoffish), PlentyOfFish – Plenty of Fish Blog (10,344)
18. Gabriel Weinberg (@yegg), DuckDuckGo – Gabriel Weinberg’s Blog (9,179)
19. Eric Ries (@ericries), IMVU – Startup Lessons Learned (8,081)
20. Jason Calacanis (@jason), Mahalo/WebLogs – Jason Calacanis (7,279)
21. Tim Berry (@timberry), Palo Alto Software – Planning Startups Stories (6,573)
22. Marc Cenedella (@cenedella), TheLadders – Cenedella.com (5,506)
23. Rob Walling (@robwalling), DotNetInvoice – Software By Rob (5,137)
24. Vinicius Vacanti (@vacanti), Yipit – ViniciusVacanti.com (4,781)
25. Noah Kagan (@noahkagan), AppSumo – OKDork.com (4,606)
26. Ash Maurya (@ashmaurya), UserCycle – Ash Maurya.com (4,363)
27. Jason Baptiste (@jasonlbaptiste), OnSwipe – JasonLBaptiste.com (3,834)
28. Ben Pieratt (@pieratt), Svpply – Varsity Bookmarking (3,568)
29. Sean Ellis (@seanellis), CatchFree – Startup-Marketing.com (2,952)
30. Joshua Porter (@bokardo), Performable – Bokardo.com (2,879)
31. David Cancel (@dcancel), Performable – DavidCancel.com (2,800)
32. Alexis Ohanian (@kn0thing), Reddit/Hipmunk – Soaring on a Pig with Bread Wings (2,715)
33. Wayne Chang (@wayne), i2Hub – Wayne Chang (2,621)
34. Mike Nolet (@mikeonads), AppNexus – Mike on Ads (2,621)
35. Erin Blaskie (@erinblaskie), BSETC – ErinBlaskie.com (2,399)
36. Tara Hunt (@missrogue), Buyosphere – Horse Pig Cow (2,287)
37. Jonathan Mendez (@jonathanmendez), YieldBot – Optimize and Prophesize (2,275)
38. Pat McCarthy (@patmccarthy), GuideMe – ConversionRater (2,195)
39. Rand Fishkin (@randfishkin), SEOMoz – RandFishkin.com (2,094)
40. Jordan Cooper (@jordancooper), Hyperpublic – Jordan Cooper’s Blog (2,080)
41. Mike Rundle (@flyosity), 9Rules – Flyosity (1,399)
42. Philip Kaplan (Pud) (@pud), Blippy/Adbrite – Pud’s Blog (1,038)
43. Steve Poland (@popo), MyFavorites– StevePoland.com (1,038)
44. Matt Mireles (@mattmireles), SpeakerText – The Metamorphosis (1,021)
45. Joel Gascoigne (@joelgascoigne), Buffer – Joel.is (978)
46. Steve Sammartino (@sammartino), Rentoid.com – StartupBlog (924)
47. Dan Martell (@danmartell), Flowtown – Dan Martell (923)
48. Jessica Mah (@jessicamah), Indinero – JessicaMah.com (922)
49. Lisa Bruckner (@wasabinights), Hendricks Park – WasabiNights.com (674)
50. Giff Constable (@giffconstable), Aprizi – GiffConstable.com (614)
51. Hiten Shah (@hnshah), KissMetrics/CrazyEgg – Hiten Shah’s Tumblr (585)
52. Tristan Kromer (@trikro), MonkeyMake.it – GrassHopperHerder.com (351)
53. Nat Turner (@natsturner), Invite Media – NatsTurner.com (216)

Rules for Inclusion
In order to put the rankings on an even playing field I created some rules for inclusion in this list:

1. Current or recent founder of a technology startup.
2. Not purely a personal blog.
3. Nobody included who is primarily an angel or VC investor.
4. Must be written by a single author with only occasional guest posts.
5. There had to be at least one post so far in 2011.
6. Must have data registering at Compete for most months.
7. No company blogs are included, even if the founder is the primary writer.
8. I did include authors who also founded tech startups (Godin/Kawasaki/Vaynerchuk). (Although there is a clear advantage for them in blog popularity)

I know I’m probably missing hundreds of entrepreneurs who blog who may fit this criteria, so please let me know in the comments below and I will add them.

Who’s Left Off

• Tim Ferriss (@tferriss) – Extremely successful author, but he hasn’t actually founded a “tech startup”. Although he did start and sell a supplement company and is a tech angel investor now. He’d be #1 on this list if included.
• Mark Suster (@msuster) – Two time tech entrepreneur who’s blog is a great resource, but he’s a full-fledged VC investor at this point. There are other VCs who were former entrepreneurs who have good blogs as well.

Why is Compete the data source?
Compete definitely has it’s faults with traffic accuracy, but it is the only service that allowed me to see traffic data by month during 2011. Some of the other services didn’t have enough data to quantify the blogs. Exact numbers are less important than the trend.

Additional Thoughts:

1. Being a book author helps tremendously for growing a blog audience. Bloggers like Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin, and Gary Vaynerchuk have a lot of popularity that was driven by being published authors. Of course, the reason they are writing books is because they are also intelligent people and great writers in the first place.
2. The majority of blogs were on a downward slide of traffic, especially in the month of April. It’s unclear whether this is just something specific to Compete’s data, or if there is some macro trend that caused it. My bet is that it’s specific to Compete’s data, but almost every blog experienced it so it’s still fair to compare them.
3. Consistency in posting appears to have a positive effect on traffic. (Duh).
4. The types of posts on the blogs also seem to have a positive effect. The most popular tend to have more evergreen educational posts that are likely to get shared quite a bit. The entrepreneurs who also post polarizing opinions get more traffic.
5. The number of years they’ve been blogging is another clear and obvious positive indicator. Although some of the newer bloggers have rose to a lot of traffic quickly due to great content.
6. A successful exit or running a well known company adds quite a bit to their blog popularity.
7. Additionally, last year I created a private email discussion list for technology founders called FounderList. It’s a great intimate way for tech founders to network and learn from each other. Go sign up if you are a technology startup founder.

Mike Arrington at Techcrunch wrote a recent post based on a conversation with a venture capitalist in which that investor said:

“Consumer Internet entrepreneurs are like pro basketball players, they peak at 25, by 30 they’re usually done.”

Quite a provocative statement! While I don’t have access to lots of conclusive data about this, I’ve started companies in my early 20s and have just started one at 34 (GuideMe). I can definitely see how age, life situation, and experience has changed me when comparing and thought it would be worthwhile to discuss.

First, I think it should be noted that the original article seems to be focused at the peak age of success for consumer internet companies. My guess based on comprehensive data would be that this is probably a “more true” statement than it woud be about other types of startups such as B2B/enterprise or non-internet.

Second, everyone should be aware that even if it were true, it doesn’t mean that every 20-25 year old will have success and everyone older will fail. That’s obviously not the case.

That being said, speaking from experience and observation I think that there are some general advantages and disadvantages around the age differences.

Let’s start with the advantages of being in your early 20s:

Energy Level
While we can all point to that person in their 40s in great shape with a ton of energy, it’s safe to say that most people in their early 20s have a higher energy level then they do in their 30s, 40s, or 50s. Generally you can work longer and later at night.

Family Situation
Most people in their early 20s are not married and don’t have a child or multiple children. Having a spouse and family can do a lot for support, work/life balance, and make people happier. However, it can also cut into time spent working, add additional stress, limit travel, etc.

The Facts of Life
Whether you have a family or not, generally as we get older we start to accrue a more bills, larger bills, and we get more financially conservative. We get a mortgage, car(s), a family to support, parents or other family to potentially help support, save more for retirement, etc. When you’re 22 it’s much easier to share an apartment, eat ramen, and have no other burdens so that you can roll the dice and risk it all. It doesn’t mean it’s not possible to do that at 35, but it’s usually harder.

The “It Won’t Work” Factor
This could be also construed as being more creative or imaginative, but I think part of the benefit a 22 year old has is that they haven’t gotten jaded yet by hearing about all the reasons something can’t work. Said another way, they haven’t yet gotten used to the way things currently work so it’s easier for them to challenge the status quo.

Could someone in their 30s have created Facebook? Probably not, as that person would have been always stuck on the notion that “people want privacy and don’t want to share all this information”.

They have an easier time taking on large incumbent companies because they simply aren’t as used to them being in control of that industry.

So is all hope lost for those like me in their 30s? No. Besides the fact that there are tons of examples of people who have done it, there are some advantages to being a bit older and wiser as well:

Working Smarter Instead of Longer
While I may have been working until 2 am at the office of one of the first startups I was involved in, I was most definitely wasting time shooting the breeze with coworkers, playing games, and wasting time in other ways. My experience over the years taught me how to get more done in a shorter period of time by learning how to prioritize, focus, and eliminate distractions.

Fool Me Once…
Learning from past mistakes and getting valuable experience in lots of different aspects of business can help quite a bit. When I was 22 I knew far less about how to manage people, how to do marketing, how to do accounting, how to let people go, etc. This experience saves time and money.

It Can Be Who You Know
One of the benefits of being around longer is that you’ve made more personal connections. You’ve met more people, had more jobs, been to more conferences, worked in different areas, met more investors, etc. In this day and age this advantage has been reduced a little bit as the web has made it much easier to network and connect with people. There are also incubators like Ycombinator and Techstars, services like AngelList, and other tools that have made it easier to get in front of investors. I do know more people today than I did 10 years ago though.

Being Conservative Isn’t Always Bad
While there can be advantages to being extremely risky, knowing how and when to be conservative can keep a company from cratering and flaming out badly. I’d bet there are less crash and burn situations for entrepreneurs in their 30s and 40s then there are for companies started by people under 25. However, VCs are looking for the huge wins, so they care less about soft landings for companies.

Conclusion
I think this is probably a bigger issue for investors who are trying to find an edge and make decisions about what who and what they invest in. I don’t think that those who are contemplating starting a company think too deeply about an age label and actually just look directly at their own situation. Are they in a situation where they can work extremely hard? Are they in a situation to take financial risks? Is there idea disruptive and they aren’t afraid to take big chances? The answers to these questions matter more than if you’re 23 or 33 years old.

One last point is that I think this situation can and will change. 5-10 years ago the entrepreneurs in their 30s and 40s had already worked in the “non-internet” business world for a decent amount of time before the web took over. They had to adapt to the web instead of having it in their DNA of their whole working life. Now the people hitting their mid-30s such as myself are part of that “pure web DNA” generation.

Since the end of high school I’ve been on the web for all my real work. That’s probably only the case for a people a year or two older than me. Which means I think it’s quite possible that we’ll see more cases like Andrew Mason at Groupon, Dennis Crowley at Foursquare, Mark Pincus at Zynga, Ev/Biz/Jack at Twitter, and others who did numerous other smaller internet related companies before they created the huge consumer companies they are building now. I think they’d all say their past successes/failures have helped them in their current companies. (Yes, I know Crowley did Dodgeball and Ev did Blogger but they also weren’t 22 and right out of college for those companies).

Personally, I’m planning on not being a statistic.