Feature vs product

Venture Hacks: Sometimes the feature is the product. "How can you tell if a feature is really a product? You can wait for customers to start adopting it, see if they love it, and then try to jump in as an investor or an employee."

Redeye VC: Let's just add in a little virality. "The most disappointing answer is when they say "Oh, we'll just make it viral." As if virality is something you can choose to add in after the product is baked - like a spell checker. Let's imagine the conversation at the marketing department of the wireless phone companies. "Let's see. Should we spend $4 Billion on advertising this year... or should we just make it viral?"" [via: Good Old Think]

Wingify: Only three metrics matter for your online business. "1. Monthly growth in number of paid users. 2. Retention rate of existing paid users. 3. Monthly Revenue."

A VC: The Herd Instinct. "I think there are two approaches that work in the venture business. One is the contrarian approach. When everyone wants to be a consumer web investor, do software as a service/enterprise. Go where the money isn't.

Or you can just be earlier than everyone and anticipate where the herd is going to be next. That is really hard, maybe too hard to do well over a sustained period of time.

But I do believe that both of those approaches will get you top tier returns if you execute them well."