Scott Porad

After leaving drugstore.com, and before I started working on Cheezburger, I worked on a startup with some friends.  After awhile it never quite “started” or “upped”, depending on which way you look at it.

We still have it going with one part-time developer, but I doubt it will ever amount to anything.  Which is really too bad because I think it was actually a pretty good idea.  In fact, all of our market research and dozens of potential customers told us it was a good idea.

I was struck just last weekend when I crossed paths with someone who was part of our initial focus groups and she was still enthusiastic.  So enthusiastic that she was eager for it to launch so she could pay us money to use it!  I had to ask myself, “with such a great product, why didn’t it ever get going?”

I think the answer is that there are ideas you are passionate about and ideas that are good, but for a startup to succeed your idea needs to be both.  In other words, a good idea that you are passionate about.

If you have a bad idea that  you are passionate about, then you’re just beating your head against a wall.  Smart people recognize this, so they’ll either quit or change their idea.

On the other hand, if you have a good idea that you are not passionate about, then you’re not going to have the energy or desire to push through the inevitable obstacles that come with starting up.  Passion is the irrational drive that keeps you going through good times and bad.

In our case, we had a good idea that we weren’t passionate very passionate about.  It doesn’t matter how many potential customers are begging you to ship your product, that isn’t the magic elixir that gets you up early and keeps you up late.  The magic elixir is passion.  Remember that, and you’ll go a long way.