Timing as the Most Important Startup Consideration

TED has an interesting new talk up from Bill Gross, founder of Idealab. titled Bill Gross: The single biggest reason why startups succeed. Bill looked at 100 Idealab companies and 100 non-Idealab companies analyzing them across these six dimensions:

• Idea
• Team
• Execution
• Business model
• Funding
• Timing

From the talk:

So what I would say, in summary, is execution definitely matters a lot. The idea matters a lot. But timing might matter even more. And the best way to really assess timing is to really look at whether consumers are really ready for what you have to offer them. And to be really, really honest about it, not be in denial about any results that you see, because if you have something you love, you want to push it forward, but you have to be very, very honest about that factor on timing.

Personally, I favor team and execution more, but I believe timing plays a much bigger role than most people realize.

What else? Do you believe that timing is the most important consideration in startup success?