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As Usual Im Nobodys Market

Written by: Brad Feld

Article Overview: After a brief email exchange today from an extremely smart and capable friend suggesting a potential feature for my blog, his response was “As usual, I’m nobody’s market.” He provided a humorous followup to the comment “that’s a great blog title” from one of the people on the email thread with “Ah, if only I didn't have to suck up to the world, that would be a great title for my contrarian-curmudgeon blog.”

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As Usual Im Nobodys Market

After a brief email exchange today from an extremely smart and capable friend suggesting a potential feature for my blog, his response was “As usual, I’m nobody’s market.” He provided a humorous followup to the comment “that’s a great blog title” from one of the people on the email thread with “Ah, if only I didn't have to suck up to the world, that would be a great title for my contrarian-curmudgeon blog.”

Since I don’t feel the need to suck up to the world, I’ve stolen my friend’s blog post title. It’s a great one that every investor and entrepreneur should keep in the front of his mind. In one of my meetings today, someone asked me “Brad – I get what you are saying – but don’t you worry that you are too close to the technology and – as a result – too far ahead of the market?”

I responded that I’m quite clear that I’m not the broad target market. I’m always trying to invest in (and help create) markets well before they are defined – and often build off a techy protocol that hasn’t yet emerged in the mainstream. For example, when I started playing around with RSS in 2004, there were plenty of technical folks that understood it well, but most of my conversations went “RS-what?” whenever I brought it up. Today, the majority of people I talk to have heard of RSS and a surprising number of them think they understand what it is, why it’s relevant, and what it enables.

Part of the fun (at least for me) of the way I approach things is that I love to get close to and roll around in the technology. I’m nerdy enough to be able to be a very early adopter, fierce beta tester, scary difficult user, and occasional implementer. But – I never forget that I’m not the ultimate market as – thankfully – the world isn’t made up of people like me.

Read this article in Brad's Blog.

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Home > Entrepreneur-Advice > Brad Feld > As Usual Im Nobodys Market
Article Tags: beta tester, blog title, conversations, email exchange, entrepreneur, implementer, investor, mainstream, protocol, target market, technical folks

About the Author: Brad Feld
RSS for Brad's articles - Visit Brad's website

Brad Feld is currently a Managing Director at Mobius Venture Capital and has been with the firm since 1996. Prior to Mobius, Brad founded Feld Technologies, which was sold to AmeriData Technologies in 1993, where he became Chief Technology Officer. Brad currently serves on the boards of a number of private companies, including Atreus, Comergent, ePartners, FeedBurner, Gold Systems, Judy's Book, Klocwork, NewsGator, Quova, Rally Software, and StillSecure. In addition, he is on the board of The National Center for Women & Information Technology, The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County, and The Colorado Conservation Trust. Brad has previously been a member of the board of directors of the Young Entrepreneurs Organization and founded the Boston and Colorado chapters. He holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Management Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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