Today I decided to see what was new in the web world on Techcrunch and came across a reference to a great post by a local entrepreneur entitled “Why Your Startup Will Fail“. I first came familiar with the posts author, Eric Karjaluoto, a Vancouver entrepreneur, upon seeing his Elevator Pitch on Techcrunch a while back for his startup MakeFive. MakeFive allows its users to create top five on any topic they want. Although I didn’t particularly think it was the best idea of all time, many Techcrunch readers seemed to think it was destined to fail because it did not fulfill a pressing need of society. Mr. Karjaluoto made some great points in his rebuttle, mentioning sites like Twitter, that have exploded in traffic, not because people need them but because they are just fun. He seems to think MakeFive could make an impact like this and quite frankly, I think it very well could. Who’s to say what will catch on and what won’t. All we hear about these days is Twitter, which when you think of what the service really does, doesn’t really impress me at all.
That being said, I think Eric’s post about the trials and tribulations of being a web entrepreneur hits the nail right on the head. Anyone who has been a part of a startup knows exactly what Eric is talking about, including myself. I think this is a must read for all web entrepreneurs (particularly those who are just getting started) and its really great to see a Vancouverite make a splash in the web world. His post was picked up by Guy Kawasaki and Techcrunch among others. Nice work Eric!
Eric Karjaluoto also runs SmashLAB, an interactive agency in Vancouver.
His post is here
