The hot companies come and go. You can’t create lasting value on hype. It can give you a boost for sure but at the end of the day product wins and that is where all entrepreneurs must focus, particularly when the hype cycle ends.
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http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2011/09/after-the-hype.html
This article by Fred Wilson is spot on. Every day I wake up and think how I can make our products better. I don’t really care if we have the most users, but I do care if those users love the product. I’ve seen countless examples of companies who care more about hype and popularity than they do about building quality products.
My first experience with this was working at Vimeo. We didn’t rely on Techrunch posts to build the userbase; we focused solely on building the best product we possibly could. We didn’t focus on the competition, we built what we thought was right for Vimeo.
So here’s to pouring every ounce of energy and emotion into building value, not hype.
