Learn to Subtract: Simplicity Gives a Startup Strength

I still went to bed early yesterday. Today’s simple topic: addition and subtraction in entrepreneurship. My view remains that addition is easy. Taiwanese consumers in particular seem inherently concerned with value for money: getting more features for the same price. Taiwanese founders and product builders therefore tend to add things. Personally, I think that is dangerous. If interested, read three posts back: TA-Q-BIN, Tamagoya, and Yoshinoya all focus on doing one thing exceptionally well. The simpler the proposition, the more power it conveys. More importantly, entrepreneurs must learn subtraction. Remove the unnecessary so you can concentrate on solving what matters most. Small startups offer flexibility, focus, speed, and solutions to urgent problems. Adding everything and building giant platforms can be left to enormous companies. Many startups seem to want too much: AI plus IoT plus blockchain plus cloud plus big data plus 5G—and the hottest thing, NFTs. The more you add, the harder it is to explain what you intend to do in one sentence.