LILO – the new internet startup model
April 14, 2009
A few weeks back, my friend Glenn Kelman over at RedFin posted about how much it cost to startup a real estate site that would have lasting impact. I countered in the comments that I thought the number was much lower and that much of the MBA-izing of the site was not needed.
I like Glenn. He’s had the courage to do what a few other have doen before him as well. Namely the dot.com 1.0 guys. They have cut down tons of trees to forge a wide path. It is essentially unprofitable to cut down trees but that’s OK by me. It IS profitable to drive a truck down the road they’ve created. That’s my business model. Driving the truck of profitability up the roads created by others.
I commented about it here on EricOnSearch a while ago.
Now the guys at Time have created an acromyn for this type of business. LILO startups. Little in / Lots Out. I like that. Great article.
It fits SO well with phrases like Sweat Equity. And Earned Media. And Stephen Covey’s “Begin with the End in Mind”.
I’d like to add something to Mr. Covey’s profundity. Or maybe take something away.Here’s my corollary on creating online businesses:
“Begin with the end.” – Eric Blackwell
Seriously.
My friend Jon Karlen refers to “beginning with the end” as not being an “Underpants Gnome“. There’s a ton of insight from South Park on that.
There are a whole bunch of low cost / revenue producing sites out there. Bootstrap it. Don’t have enough search engine experience. PARTNER. You don’t need an MBA to do this stuff. You do need a work ethic, an idea, some savvy, and some would claim copious quantities of Diet Mt. Dew…. 
Do you have examples of great bootstrappers who have made it online? Send their examples / stories to me! I will be happy to have you guest post on EoS about them.
I want people to see how possible this really is.
Seriously.
Sweat Equity is a good term for this Eric.
The internet is a still a place that you can start with almost nothing and bootstrap your way to the top by outworking your competition and partnering with the right people who are also bootstrapping their way up.
profundity – the serious word with a funny sound! Great post Eric, this is truly evidence that the little-guy has more opportunity today than ever before.
Chris Brown
I agree with you, it does take work building a successful online business, but not what it may take to build an offline business. Dedication and as you stated Diet Mt Dew (or whatever the choice).
But it is important to have a blueprint of some sort to follow, especially for the newbies. There is so much information out there, but still it does not put it all together or a big part of the picture.
It cuts a lot of the learning curve if one looks for a program or system that has been tested and proven, and also, with a good training program to walk one through step-by-step.
I have found in today’s time, there is no reason to re-envent the wheel (so to speak), with a system that gives one everything up front you would need to be successful.
But it is a must for one to put some time and dedication into the process.
Good Post,
Please excuse my spelling, I should have checked it.
V/r