On Sun, Aug 3, 2014 at 6:03 PM, Axil Axil <janap...@gmail.com> wrote:
I find it difficult to understand a situation where a multi-million dollar > company can exist and prosper for a quarter century without the development > of a single commercially viable product... > Here in California some startups will start out with a round of seed funding. They'll go along for a year, two or three and then do some soul searching, at which point they might "pivot," i.e., take a different tack or even a new direction. Typically a startup will not pivot more than once; possibly they'll pivot twice over the years. In most cases, within four years, say, they'll either have established a viable business selling a real product, or at least have built a real product that is useful to people, even if it does not yet make money (e.g., Twitter). The fact that BLP have pivoted several times over a period of 25 years and keep on going strongly suggests that they're working under a different set of pressures than a typical startup, even one that is research-oriented. Eric
