Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup

Chapter 5. Usage Is Like Oxygen for Ideas

Matt Mullenweg

Matt is the founder of Automattic which makes WordPress.com, Akismet, bbPress, BuddyPress, and now Intense Debate, a TechStars company that Automattic acquired in 2008.

I like Apple because they are not afraid of getting a basic 1.0 out into the world and iterating on it. A case in point:

"No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame."—cmdrtaco, Slashdot.org, 2001, when reviewing the first iPod.

I remember my first iPhone. I stood in line for hours to buy it, and like a great meal, you have to wait for in a long line outside a hot night club, the wait made the first time I swiped to unlock the phone that much sweeter. I felt like I was on Star Trek and this was my magical tricorder—a tricorder that constantly dropped calls on AT&T's network, had a headphone adapter that didn't fit any of the hundreds of dollars worth of headphones I owned, ran no applications, had no copy and paste, and was slow as molasses.

Now the crazy thing is when the original iPhone went public, flaws and all, you know that in a secret room somewhere on Apple's campus they had a working prototype of the 3GS with a faster processor, better battery life, and a normal headphone jack—basically everything perfect. Steve Jobs was probably already carrying around one in his pocket. How painful it must have been to have everyone criticizing them for all the flaws they ...