Bill Gross: The single biggest reason why startups succeed – TED (opens in new tab)

Note that all the companies he mentions are B2C.

I see a strong connection between the importance of "timing" mentioned in this talk with the importance of riding a consumer "wave" mentioned by Justin Kan in his article "Why I Love B2B over B2C". In short, it's difficult to succeed without riding a huge wave. It's difficult to pinpoint waves in the first place because waves are only obvious in retrospect (i.e. when another company has had substantial success already).

anti clickbaiting:

> The number one thing was timing. Timing accounted for 42 percent of the difference between success and failure.

unfortunate headline :) i'm sure anywhere between 99.999% and 100% of startups succeed without any help from bill gross.

Ray Kurzweil has written extensively on the timing aspect. He attempts to identify the necessary prerequisites. I think it's an important question to ask when thinking of a potential startup: "Is the market ready for this?". Then equally important is not squandering that first mover advantage.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/402705/kurzweils-rules-of...