Project Perpetual Beta

betashop:

One of the greatest joys of my job is coaching and mentoring super smart and super ambitious young people.

I find myself doing this a lot lately.

Here’s a common pattern we find at Fab (and, I’m sure, at many startups): Young person leverages his or her brain, passion, ambitions and talents to…

I tell every entrepreneur the same thing: Find the one thing that you can be the best at and do that one thing to the exclusion of all other things. The biggest mistake entrepreneurs make is that they end up [taking on] a lot of different tasks, rather than just saying, ‘We’re going to be the best at this. All we’re going to do is this.’ When I am in product-development mode, I’m notorious for not answering calls or e-mails. I’m not going to be distracted by taking meetings. I’m focused on getting my one thing done.

—Cool NYC companies: Behind-the-scenes office tour of Fab (via betashop)

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betashop:

Exactly 1 year ago Bradford and I went to our Board of Directors and requested approval for us to shut down our 150,000-member social network, scrap everything, and restart from scratch on an entirely new business.

1 year later it looks like we may have made the right choice.

It all began…

Fab has quickly risen to become the fastest growing e-commerce site on the planet, and its success is largely due to its heavy integration with social media.

—How Fab.com Brainwashed Me into Broadcasting What I Buy - Forbes (via betashop)

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I think a lot of people often mistake opportunity for passion. Too many people are passionate about building a business vesus being passionate about building this business.

—What’s love got to do with it? For startups, everything — Tech News and Analysis (via betashop)

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Jason always says he runs Bradford’s company. Fab would not exist with just one of us. The left and right brain, the analytical and emotional decision maker, the skilled CEO and loud creative. We’re a perfect pair.

—Hypebeast Trade: Bradford Shane Shellhammer – Co-founder/Chief Creative Officer of Fab.com | Hypebeast (via betashop)

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When Jason Goldberg set out to raise a new round of funding for his flash sales site Fab.com, he dispensed with the usual PowerPoint presentations and instead gave potential investors a look at the crown jewels: the “dashboard” of real-time analytics that can instantly spot trends and enable the site to tweak its offerings on the fly.

—Venture capital sees big returns in big data | Reuters (via betashop)

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Social is a fact, not a feature.

—betashop (via betashop)

betashop:

Let’s face it, fundraising can be a real pain in the ass for the entrepreneur.

It takes up a ton of time that can be otherwise spent managing the business.

Sure, it’s a necessary evil, but it’s also typically a big distraction.

It’s also a lot like dating. You have to go on a lot of first dates…

You can’t control your luck, but the harder you work, the luckier you get.

—Mike Bloomberg (via betashop)

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