We complain about how nobody outside of the Bay Area understands the internet industry. We think that east coasters are dumb because they don’t understand why someone would create small web-app companies. But maybe we’re partially at fault… Most of us are making stupid and meaningless companies that claim everything and do nothing. Most of us think we have brilliant ideas, yet *normal people* would never consider using them. In fact, I’m one of them. I was once entrenched with what I thought to be brilliant business ideas, and my mom would bring me back to earth by telling me how arrogant and stupid I was to think the way I did. I’m beginning to appreciate her candid opinions.

Making it onto Techcrunch and presenting at the Demo conference may not offer as much business value as one expects. What it does is create reputation within our self enclosed industry — it helps with raising money and recruiting talent, but let me remind you that doing this is quite possible with companies that understand how to create actual products that do something meaningful. While I supposedly knew this all along, one of my PBwiki co-workers made this extremely clear to me. Recruiting business development and sales people from out of the software industry provides for a completely opposite perspective that brings the company back to its core focuses: making money and creating real value for customers. Unfortunately, many of us have lost sight of this. I’d say 9 out of 10 people who email me with their business ideas have what I consider to be the typical web 2.0 bubble mentality.

West Coast VS East Coast

People often talk about the differences between west coast and east coast people. West coasters are mainly about doing cool things and helping others. East coasters are all about making money. In my experience, this stigma has some merit. Do I agree that companies should be all about creating cool things? No. Do I agree that companies should be all about benefiting their bottom line? Of course not, although my New Yorker friends may disagree. But I think the more consistently successful entrepreneurs understand the importance of keeping a balance between these two different perspectives.

My friend Alex and I originally wanted to work on a startup dedicated to being the “eBay of services.” It would create jobs, prevent scamming, and help a whole bunch of people. We loved it! Then somehow we get entrenched with the concept of Facebook Apps. Lots and lots of stupid facebook apps that don’t actually help the world, but provide for quick and easy cashflow. From a macroeconomic standpoint, does this not hurt the economy and the greater world? Incredibly talented people are dedicating their time towards creating internet products that don’t service anyone. This is precisely where Alex and I went wrong as “entrepreneurs.” Are they fun projects? Yes. Do they make for good businesses? Also yes, but very few of them will be movers and shakers in the world around us. Just as few of them will be remembered as companies worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Getting written up by Techcrunch or Valleywag != Success

Unfortunately, getting written up by popular tech blogs should not be constituted as success. I’ve heard stories of people begging our friend Michael Arrington to write a Techcrunch post about their company. It’s as if the success of a company is heavily dependent on them being promoted by a single blog. My take? These people aren’t wrong to think that way, but if anything, they should have more faith in the abilities of their own product. They need to think outside of this mind-controlling web 2.0 bull**** and make something that real people will use. If their product was meant to succeed, getting written up by major tech blogs probably won’t drive them as many paying customers as they might have thought.

Which brings me to another point — being slammed on a tech blog or being criticized on twitter isn’t as bad as you may think. Sure, it sucks to have someone tell you that your company blows and that your product is worthless, but focusing on these things does nothing but blur your sense of reality. As it applies to PBwiki, most of our paying customers don’t actually read blog posts or understand twitter. As this applies to companies like Facebook, people will still use your product even if tech blogs smash you for adding features that users don’t approve of.

The Bottom Line

If you have the stereotypical east coast mentality, take a chill pill and learn how to place customers before profits. If you have the stereotypical west coast mentality, learn how to make something that’s meaningful enough to make money. I’m not going to debate about whether or not we’re in a bubble, but there’s no denying that the vast majority of internet companies we hear about are either stupid or meaningless. Some of you are giving me flack for doing nothing more than stating the obvious — but if it’s so obvious, why are you still making stupid companies? Beats me.