Which is more crucial to the success of a startup: the idea or the execution?

When I got my early beta invite to Quora, the questions & answers site started by former Facebook employees in an attempt to basically become the high-end version of Yahoo! Answers (so far so good), it’s the first question I asked. I figured it’d be fun to see what the who’s who of Silicon Valley thought on a topic that everyone swears they have an opinion on. Though, at first, a few of the answers were snarky, the question eventually got quite a lot of people talking– and perspectives (over 30 of them!) poured in from big-time VCs to entrepreneurs like Craig Newmark. So that was cool. But what did they say? Which is more important to a startup succeeding: the idea or the execution? The bad news is there’s no right answer (sorry!). But what’s interesting is that maybe  that’s okay– the different views, I think, at least offer a compelling look into the broad challenges and constant contradictions of the startup world.

I think it’s also important to mention that there’s a lot of issues with the set-up itself. It’s powerfully subjective. David Black, a VC with Oak Investment Partners, points out in the answers section that everything is confused by survivor bias: ”we all like to hear from winners how they did it, and from my point of view, the survivor bias fantasy-making is huge.” It’s also unfair. Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist (it’s… his list. Get it?), warns: “Maybe the question is way too simplistic, way more complicated than it suggests?” And it’s flawed. Andrej Nabergoj (currently CEO of Noovo Games, formerly the founder/leader of 6 startup companies in Europe and Japan, and curator of TEDx Silicon Valley) puts it this way: by definition, a “start-up = the act of executing an idea,” so the question, then, is really a “false dilemma.” He argues the real question should be: “How is the success of a start-up (execution) related to its idea?” and I think he’s right. Luckily, for the most part, that’s what was answered.

Here’s my attempt to summarize what over 30 of the tech world’s greatest minds had to say on whether it’s the idea or the execution that’s key to a startup’s success:

IT’S DEFINITELY NOT JUST THE IDEA.

Spend some time on the interwebz and you’ll find most tech people are so over ideas. They’ll say that ideas are dead. That they’re a dime a dozen. Others will direct you to lists of hundreds (here’s 105, though my favorite is the 999 business ideas that came from Seth Godin’s Alternative MBA Program). In his Quora answer, Toli Kuznets (Co-founder of Marketcetera) doesn’t hesitate for a second: “We’ve all thought of something ‘great’ and never did anything about it.” “Ideas have no value. Execution is invaluable,” writes Stefano Bernardi (VC at dpixel). Shawn O’Connor puts it even more, uh, poetically: “What’s more crucial, waking up and thinking about getting up, or actually getting up?” Fair enough. So the idea doesn’t matter, huh?

BUT IT’S ALSO NOT JUST THE EXECUTION.

“Execution, execution, execution,” writes James Kupka (a partner at Intimate Interactive), “it’s not what we say but rather what we actually DO that builds a business.” But some push back. There must be value in an idea, even if it isn’t everything.  ”When you start… an idea is clearly important,” answers Taher Scherzay (CEO & Co-Founder of FavRav), “[even if] the execution of the idea will inevitably force the idea to change. As such, the idea is just that – a starting point – whereas the execution will deliver results.” And David Black (mentioned earlier), sees it from the reverse side: “A bad idea, however well-executed, leads to failure in general.” So maybe a good idea is actually important.

THE IDEA IS IMPORTANT, THEN, BUT HOW DOES IT INFLUENCE THE EXECUTION?

In the third highest-voted answer, Kivanc Sahin highlights Derek Sivers‘ take: “ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions.” In other words, he explains, if a weak idea = 1 and a brilliant idea =20 with no execution = $1, weak execution = $1,000, and great execution = $1,000,000, then simply multiply the two. The most brilliant idea with no execution turns out to be worth $20 whereas the most brilliant idea coupled with great execution could be worth $20 million. Though Sivers’ exact numbers are ultimately unimportant, his general idea is compelling. As Colin Bruce (COO of Geocast) puts it: “execution is by far the most important determinant of success, however the scale of the success is determined by the idea.” That makes sense, but is there more to it?

ARE THERE OTHER FACTORS? (IT ALL DEPENDS ON HOW YOU DEFINE “EXECUTION”)

Many of the  answers with the most votes argue it’s more complicated than just the execution and the idea. “Ideas are the atoms of humanity,” writes Andrej Nabergoj (mentioned earlier), “the key for start-up success it is to pick (or invent) the right idea(s). But you have to recruit the team in the right time and go for a market in its right time.” Stanley Wong (co-founder & VP of Product Marketing at Permuto) sees it this way: “a good idea is only 15%.  The rest [is] comprised of execution (~50%) and ability to adapt to change (~35%).” ”ASSUMING the idea is a good one,” Joichi Ito writes, then “after that it’s all execution and luck – where luck = serendipity X ability to iterate/change.” Bernard Leong (Co-Founder & CTO of Chlkboard) agrees with Nabergo that a team is important (“An ‘A’ team with a ‘B’ idea is definitely better than a ‘B’ team with ‘A’ idea”) and Doug Petkanics (Co-Founder of  JumpPost) adds “the choice of market… the persistence, timing, and how good you are at adapting the business along the way based on what you learn.”

Timing, product-market fit, luck, the right team, and the ability to adapt to change/pivot are undoubtedly crucial to a startup’s success but, at least for the purpose of the question, I think it’s fair (or maybe just more convenient) to say they can be included in the broad definition of what “execution” means. It’s all that– and more. It has to be.

So? So we’re back to where we began. Which is more important?

THE EXECUTION & THE IDEA ARE EQUALLY IMPORTANT?

Anthony Soohoo (SVP & GM of Entertainment at CBS Interactive) answers simply: ”Without hesitation, I would say both are equally important.” Equally? The highest-voted answer (with 44 votes) turned out to be by Michael Wolfe (currently Benchmark Capital‘s Entrepreneur-in-Residence), who says although “many folks will instinctively answer ‘execution’ since that is what we are all supposed to think and the answer has an appealing simplicity… it is not true that great company ideas are a dime a dozen. Interesting product ideas are easy, but very few are truly good enough to build a large, profitable, and defensible business.” Instead, he writes, “you need to to start with a great idea or else a good idea that is somewhere in the neighborhood of a great one so that you can early on in the company’s lifespan pivot over to where the great one is… [and] once you find the great idea, you need to focus and execute like crazy against it.” He puts the split “at about 50/50,” in large part because “it is hard to think of a success story that didn’t have both.”

In the second highest-voted answer, Taneem Tee (Founder of Topollo Systems) cleverly ties it all together: “the idea IS the execution.” “Good products don’t have some clean separation of concept from execution. Execution requires continuous decision making, a lot of which is directly dependant on having a strong vision to drive the decisions.” Vision and execution, he argues, “are completely intertwined.”

THE ULTIMATE SUMMARY (or, at least what it seems most people on Quora agree on):

- No matter how great your idea is, if you don’t act on it, there’s not much too it.

- On the other hand, without a great idea, even the best execution is usually pointless.

- With a great idea but bad execution, someone else will probably do it better.

- With a great idea and excellent execution, your idea will evolve and shift as your company grows– and, who knows, maybe succeed, too.

Agree? Disagree? What’s your take-away from the answers to the question of the execution or the idea on Quora?

Or what’s your own answer? Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 10th, 2010 at 8:08 am and is filed under Ideas & Stories, Leadership & Orgs, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.