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How does building a company from the ground up - Friend.ly & AnyQuestion compare to jumping into existing companies Facebook & Uber?

Navigating Startups vs Established Companies: A Tale of Growth and Iteration

I'd say the biggest difference is that when you're doing a start-up from scratch, you have to go from zero to one. So, you're basically trying to find product Market fit iterating on the product. You're not likely going to have product Market fit on day one. So you gotta just keep trying and tweaking things and iterating on things until you really get a product that works. And then you can focus on growing the product. Whereas, when I was at companies like Facebook and Uber, they had already found that product Market. It. So then it was just all about growth and going from one to millions or billions in Facebook's case. Not just 0 to 1. So there are a lot of a lot of things that are different about those two stages. The finding product Market fit stage in the growth stage, which I can go into detail answering other questions, but just to throw it a couple one is the team. So at an early stage startup, you're usually on a very small. Small team, where everyone is wearing, lots of hats. Where is it? A bigger company? You usually have larger teams with people that specialize in certain areas. And I'd say, another difference is just the product itself. When you're a bigger company, you're making smaller iterations on the product. Usually, because you already have that product Market fit, whereas at an early stage company, a lot of times. You're making really big changes. Just trying to make sure your going in the right direction.

The biggest difference between a start-up from scratch and bigger companies like Facebook or Uber is that when starting from scratch you have to find product Market fit, whereas at bigger companies they already have it. Also, teams are usually smaller and more diverse at start-ups, whereas at bigger companies the teams are larger and more specialized. Finally, at start-ups, more drastic changes are often needed to find product Market fit, whereas bigger companies will typically only make small product tweaks.

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The biggest difference between building a company from the ground up, like Friend.ly and AnyQuestion, compared to joining existing companies like Facebook and Uber, is the stage of development. When starting a company from scratch, you have to go from zero to one, finding product-market fit and iterating on the product. It's unlikely to have product-market fit on day one, so you need to keep trying, tweaking, and iterating until you find a product that works. Once you have that, you can focus on growing the product.

On the other hand, companies like Facebook and Uber have already found product-market fit. Their focus is on scaling and going from one to millions or billions of users. The challenges and priorities at these different stages are quite distinct.

One notable difference is the team structure. In early-stage startups, the team is usually small, and everyone wears multiple hats. In larger companies, there are larger teams with individuals specializing in specific areas.

Another difference lies in the product itself. In established companies, smaller iterations are made on the product since they have already achieved product-market fit. However, in early-stage companies, significant changes are often made as they strive to ensure they are heading in the right direction.

These are just a few examples of the differences between building a company from the ground up and joining established companies. Each stage presents its own unique challenges and opportunities for growth and success.

Ed Baker answers your Entrepreneurship questions. See all the advice Ed Baker has and get answers to your own Entrepreneurship questions.

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Ed Baker is a seasoned entrepreneur and executive, currently serving as the CEO and Founder of AnyQuestion, an AI powered knowledge sharing platform. Prior to this, he played an instrumental role as the Vice President of Product & Growth at Uber and prior to that he sold a company to Facebook where he joined the team as the Head of International Growth. Ed currently sits on the boards of both WHOOP and Form, and his extensive experience in product management, growth strategies, and consumer technology has made him a sought-after thought leader in the tech industry.