“However, I’d just like to disagree with the examples. In my view, Startups (as defined by dave mcclure) tasks ≠ Making art.”

• I disagree with you disagreeing with me :)
• In the examples I gave, there was a commercial component but you have to read between the lines to see them. The goal of an interior designer is to satisfy the customer. If he or she makes the customer happy. they get referrals which means more business. Harry Potter was shopped around to different publishers to reach the target audience. It was not meant to be written like a diary which is private but shared to the world, with the goal of selling copies of it.

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In startups, the problem isn’t that clearly defined. i.e. “Is it a real problem orIs it not a real problem?”. Startups who’ve gone through customer validation problem get a better sense of the possible problem, and hopefully come up with a profitable solution to attempt to fix the problem

-Before even going through customer validation, you need to target the specific niche and have in mind a solution at hand which you will test through the customer validation. Then with answers in hand, you iterate until you get the problem market fit. The idea must also fit what Peter Thiel said in his Zero to One book, which is what is your 10x advantage? Because if your solution is just an incremental solution to what you are solving, you can not counter the inertia of the existing status quo.

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Now on to why a great implementation/execution (that is validated with paying customers) works well for investors. Of course, they’re gonna look for profit. They calculate the return on investment. They want to see in how many years shall my money double.

- If your great implementation is your code then you will write good code but it doesn’t necessarily mean your good code will be the next big thing. Validating with paying customers means you have a great idea already and executing on it. What if you have an average idea and executed on it? Do you think you will have tons of paying customers?

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Moving on to someone who hasn’t acted versus someone who has acted. If I were a director, I’d pick someone who has acted, over a newbie who I have to train. Who already looks good off the bat over someone I still have to make look good.

• There are many experienced directors but only a few are superstar directors. We are not comparing the newbie director to an experienced director only. The same way that there are only a few rockstar coders and the rest would be average. What makes them rockstars? Is it their way of thinking or the actual code? Its both combined.

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Execution shows that you’ve done something. Failed or not. Great ideas do not show that you’ve done something. Half-done executed ideas do not impress. This is my lesson for myself as well. I cannot claim something without producing something first. People won’t come knocking if they don’t see anything from me first.

• I sold my startup in a sense when I got 4 batches of cofounders who wanted to join me. I made a sale when I get people interested working on our startup. My success will come but it does not mean it will be instant. It will take time and lots of it.

Thanks for allowing me to further explain my position