With Dragon Army, our new mobile games studio at the Atlanta Tech Village, there have been a number of interesting conversations with entrepreneurs and business leaders in the community. Everyone is excited about building great, casual games and other consumer apps in Atlanta. One of the most common questions I personally receive is how are things different with a B2C startup, like Dragon Army, compared to my background in B2B startups. Well, there’s one main difference that stands out above all else:
Video games, much like the movie industry, is a hits business where users have to truly love the product.
Now, with business applications, the goal is find product / market fit such that the product solves a major issue that customers are dealing with on a regular basis. Even if the business product isn’t perfect and isn’t pretty, it can solve a meaningful problem and be successful. With video games, mediocre isn’t good enough to build a real, scalable company. And a great game doesn’t happen on the first try. Famously, Rovio, the company that makes Angry Birds, built dozens and dozens of games before making their break-out hit.
So, the next time someone talks about B2B vs B2C, think about being in the hits business.
What else? What are some other thoughts about being in the hits business?
David Cummings on Startups 