Remove Customer Development Remove Distribution Remove San Francisco Remove Vertical
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Marching through quicksand

Startup Lessons Learned

One is explaining the world as it used to work: the importance of gatekeepers, the scarcity implied by limited distribution, and the resulting quality bar that the industry is so proud of. Mostly it is the time and expense required to create the means of distribution for that industry. It’s just taking some longer than others.

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Lessons Learned: Sharding for startups

Startup Lessons Learned

For example, Friendster was famously vertically partitioned at one time in its growth curve. I normally recommend you just store this directory on your master database, but you could use a standalone vertical shard (or even a key-based partition!) This is great for something like a huge DHT or a distributed work queue.

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The Secret History of Silicon Valley 12: The Rise of “Risk Capital.

Steve Blank

Ampex’s first customer was Bing Crosby who wanted to record his radio programs for rebroadcast (and had exclusive distribution rights.) Meanwhile on the West Coast – “The Group” 1950’s When Ampex was raising its money, in 1952, an employee of Fireman’s Fund in San Francisco, Reid Dennis , managed to put $20,000 in the deal.