Changes

The advantage a small team has on working on their own ideas is that everyone part of this group has a shot even if it does not conclude with the desired outcome. These groups are usually messy and chaotic; roles are technically extraneous because the types of tasks vary significantly for each member. For example, you might be the DBA on this project and also you might be taking care of the User Interface design of this project—you would be ultimately working on these 2 tasks which are usually performed by 2 different roles.

Mike also discussed about the essentials of starting up an internet company. The 2 basic elements are issue tracking and development tools. Large scale companies that you are trying to compete with have got the latter and way more.

No to new things, no to new ideas— you need to keep saying No and master a simple thing that solves an issue that has not been addressed.

The biggest common mistake that Mike shared is getting late for marketing; usually technical aspect of the product is focused on more and the marketing piece is forgotten about (buying ads, online promoting, etc).