Hello!

You've landed in the archive of the Cambrian House community. We've kept some pages here for posterity but the community is no longer active. Now we market the technology that made our early crowdsourcing a success.

Can we help you get to Cambrian House the company? – Come on over.

Are you seeking crowdsourcing technology? – Check out Chaordix by Cambrian House.

Thanks for dropping by
The Cambrian House Crew

Close [x]
Cambrian House
Cambrian House Blog

Why being embarrassed is critical to the success of your startup

Reid Hoffman (founder of LinkedIn) was speaking at a Churchill event and said something that really resonated with me:

‘If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.’

Every entrepreneur and startup faces this question when launching a new product or service - when do we go live. And it’s not always an easy answer when one balances:

  • time to market
  • quality
  • first impressions
  • member experience
  • status anxiety
  • and a host of other factors.

Being embarrassed is good for a startup however, because in the beginning you don’t even know if you have anything worth starting.

Fire … then aim, aim, aim

When you release the first version of your product, you are really shooting in the dark. Often you can’t even see that target, much less know where it is. All you’ve got is a hunch. And until you pull that trigger, and light up the room with that muzzle flash, you don’t know where to adjust your aim.

Don’t view this as a bad thing. It just is.

  • Flickr started off as a massive multiplayer online game (Game Never Ending) before realizing people really just wanted to share and tag their photos.
  • Head started off building tennis racquets before realizing they could really dominate skis.
  • Viagra was originally made to help people with hypertension - not erectile dysfunction.

Rest assured, your idea is going to morph and change which is why being embarrassed about your first release isn’t a bad thing.

Be embarrassed

So does being embarrassed give us an excuse to write buggy software, skip testing, and release shoddy work? No.

But being embarrassed is a good litmus test when you have a set of features you think could be valuable, and you’re tempted to add one more feature, fix one more bug, and delay the release one more week.

Be embarrassed, and get your product out there in the market place. Time is everything.

What do you think?

The Start Up Success 2006 video with Reid’s quote at 35:55.

* The whole video is worth watching if you are into entrepreneurship and startups.

Like this post? Bookmark it! These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
  • digg
  • Reddit
  • Technorati
  • del.icio.us
  • NewsVine
  • YahooMyWeb

39 Responses to “Why being embarrassed is critical to the success of your startup”

  1. Will Says:

    I TOTALLY agree with this! I just released a website for helping with downtown parking. Anyways, I threw up the site in literally 10 minutes and emailed the media. I ended up in the Calgary Sun, on jackfm, am 660, city tv news and breakfast television, all in 2 days!
    There is lots of stuff I want to add to the site, don’t know what the exact biz model is yet (pay per post, premium/featured ads, advertising, etc) and I was already approached by companies with big lots and companies that want to advertise on the site.
    Related to this is fear holding people back - I contacted a few friends that could be on tv getting interviewed about their interested in this parking site. They all chickened out just to be interviewed on tv!

  2. JR Says:

    Great story Will. That’s pretty amazing and you should definitely following through - sounds like you really hit something with the community there.

    No imagine how it would have felt if you worked on the app for 12 months, pushed it live, and no one cared.

  3. Why being embarrassed is critical to the success of your start up « Tons of Fresh News Says:

    […] Why being embarrassed is critical to the success of your start up Why being embarrassed is critical to the success of your start up Blog on how timing is everything when releasing your product, get it out there so you can see if people are even interested! From Crowdsourcing company, Cambrian House.[news] [world & business] [business & finance] […]

  4. Cambrian House, Home of Crowdsourcing Says:

    […] You can now fail faster and cheaper than ever before. So take our advice and get out there. You won’t know what works until you start testing what doesn’t. […]

  5. Mr.JerryBanzor Says:

    Hello,
    Very Informative Posts.
    I really like what you have going on here. I’ll be back soon

  6. Joeywashere Says:

    Pretty Cool Place.
    I like your style too.

    Cya again,
    Joey

  7. AaCredtCard Says:

    There is a good credit card offer for any consumer so if you know your spending habits it’s not that hard to find a good deal that will allow you to save some money. The best thing is to compare terms and conditions. It is very easy to do so using special sites with professional advice on credit cards such as

    apr for visa cards

  8. AaCredtCard Says:

    People get credit cards for a reason. Yes, credit cards might entice you to buy more but most of the time you would have bought those things anyway. Credit card allow you to spend less but to save more if you make the right choice. An important thing is to compare credit card deals. Fortunately, it’s not that hard when you use the sites such as

    bestcreditcard rates

  9. EeCreditCard Says:

    It is absolutely obvious that young people have very little knowledge of personal finance. Even some of the college students think that the money from credit cards is free. And not only young people are ignorant about credit cards. The best way for them to choose the right credit card is read the details. There is a great site to compare credit card offers

    dept cosilidation

  10. Cut Hypertension Says:

    Cut Hypertension

    Cut Hypertension

  11. Anonymous Says:

    free quotes

    Excellent post. Keep it up!

  12. Northamptonsportsterritory2106$anchor$basketball Betting,final Four,final Four Betting,final Four Gambling,final Four Sports Book,final Four Sportsbook,march Madness,march Madness Betting,march Madness Gambling,march Madness Sports Book,march Madness Spor Says:

    Northamptonsportsterritory2106$anchor$basketball Betting,final Four,final Four Betting,final Four Gambling,final Four Sports Book,final Four Sportsbook,march Madness,march Madness Betting,march Madness Gambling,march Madness Sports Book,march Madness…

    Northamptonsportsterritory2106$anchor$basketball Betting,final Four,final Four Betting,final Four Gambling,final Four Sports Book,final Four Sportsbook,march Madness,march Madness Betting,march Madness Gambling,march Madness Sports Book,march Madness S…

  13. Kathleen Says:

    (;_;)

  14. Cortney Says:

    (%_%)

  15. Alonzo Says:

    (%_%)

  16. Allison Says:

    Hi… Very interesting site.

  17. Madeleine Says:

    very interesting and informative

  18. Ali Says:

    =__=

  19. DmYYKDUVWFbmfuqAh Says:

    18oIYG gg22.txt;10;20

  20. Elias Says:

    *^_^*

  21. Norma Says:

    Sorry…

  22. fgjaqmkw zfkqs Says:

    jpodfhtng pldrauzwo fzgyqs shkdtybe tahybsof wsmzxbayc lkwjgqe

  23. kjefol mulywzxfd Says:

    bqfs xqwbcmsah sgducjwnh opcebdxng mfeh pdkxjtiu ohlpqremi

  24. rgmxp wlhz Says:

    mayf zrjix pilt uyfn sdiphr okpqf apez

  25. Humberto Says:

    Hi… Very interesting site.

  26. Randy Says:

    ()

  27. Alfonso Says:

    (@_@)

  28. Alana Says:

    Thank you very much.

  29. Thom Says:

    ^.|.^

  30. HOW TO: Raise Money in a Down Economy Says:

    […] Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn and an incredible entrepreneur, gives this advice: “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” This has been my experience as well. You need to demonstrate early results in order to understand what your product is good for. […]

  31. CÓMO: recaudar dinero en una economía en decadencia | Mashable Says:

    […] Reed Hoffman, fundador de Linkedin, y un increíble empresario, da este consejo: “Si no te averguenzas de la primera versión de tu producto, lo has lanzado demasiado tarde”. Esta ha sido mi experiencia también. Tienes que demostrar resultados prematuros para entender para qué es bueno tu producto. […]

  32. HOW TO: Raise Money in a Down Economy | 4 entrepreneur Says:

    […] Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn and an incredible entrepreneur, gives this advice: “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” This has been my experience as well. You need to demonstrate early results in order to understand what your product is good for. […]

  33. Amassing Wealth » Blog Archive » HOW TO: Raise Money in a Down Economy Says:

    […] Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn and an incredible entrepreneur, gives this advice: “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” This has been my experience as well. You need to demonstrate early results in order to understand what your product is good for. […]

  34. Gabriele Lana » Ship It! Says:

    […] Reid Hoffman, fondatore di LinkedIn ha detto: If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late […]

  35. OpenHallway Blog » Blog Archive » It’s Live! Says:

    […] Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, once said, “If you’re not embarassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.”  (A good blog post on the quote)  I think we’d be lying if we didn’t say we had some small anxieties last night at 3am as we made the deployment and switched to production.  The good news is that we felt really confident about the app itself and the recording technology.  We’re confident that our customers can use the app for what it’s intended - recording and watching remote usability tests! […]

  36. Klaus-Peter Speidel Says:

    Hey! I agree with all of you.
    The term “beta” gets a bit watered down by all the guys who use it for two years when their product really is ready and all (like gmail), anyway: We got our website, a market for solutions, live in a real beta a few months ago and are going to launch a new version in september. Having it there, and using it for real ourselves and was pretty insightful. And the seeker site that we’ll have online in september and with the first external clients (not only our own problems to be solved) will look quite different than we thought. Dealing with solver questions ourselves made us aware of many things we didn’t get ealier. Now, it still will be a market for solutions, but a much better one than if we had waited longer to go live.

  37. The long road to overnight success | Supplyant Says:

    […] Got any great quotes or stories tell us about them here […]

  38. Nibbles » Blog Archive » Nibbler – it’s alive! Says:

    […] We’re still in alpha right now, which means stuff may break, and we know it. In our defence, if you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late. If you find something, please let us know via the Feedback tab. […]

  39. Introducing Twitdevs – Gig Finder for Freelancers over Twitter Says:

    […] If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Or for more frequent updates you can follow me on Twitter. Thanks for visiting!Today I launched Twitdevs. It is an extremely beta release, very much taking the philosophy of “if you’re not embarrassed by your first release you’ve waited too long”. […]

Leave a Reply