With the explosion of e-commerce, the barriers to entry for startups in cyberspace was lowered. At the same time, firms face higher risk of falling out of competition. Smocked Auctions of Amy Laws and Nicole Metzger Brewer is a bidding page through Facebook for overstock of baby clothes. Called “F-commerce”, this new platform for reaching and connecting with customers lends itself to startup since there is already a large traffic established through Facebook as well as the “word-of-mouth” referral system built in with “likes”- all at virtually no cost.

Kenny explores real-world businesses that practice extensive testing to prevent failures in launching new IT projects(either a wholly new business or a new venture within a bigger firm). However, too much beta testing as a detriment to a successful startups.

Lean Start-up movement discussed in class offers model that practices “agile development” which lessens risk and shortens the response time for firms to react to initial customer response. Laws and Brewer have also survived the volatile market by having this flexibility- for example, quickly adopting other methods of marketing like Instagram when Facebook’s algorithm for news feed posting changed.

This infographic shows all the elements a startup needs, built on top of a foundation of strategy, idea selling, and problem solving- which all need to happen instantaneously!