When should an idea that smells like research be a startup?

Being a Grahamian startup then subjects the organization to a whole set of constraints and incentives. (Page 3)

The question is whether, if you care about the ultimate success of the idea, a startup is the structure that gives it the best chance.ęęęę (Page 4)

the question of whether a research idea should be a startup might be very discipline dependent. (Page 4)

Too much reliance on a few investors or grant-givers creates the danger that the output becomes ‘things that make investors or grant-givers happy’ rather than things that maximize the potential of the idea, or even make the most money in the long run. (Page 4)

the more the unpredictability in each of the steps smells like uncertainty instead of risk, the less it’s a good idea for the project to be carried forward by a new for-pročt organization. (Page 4)

setting out to create something that could never be sold, (Page 5)

Without a global critical path, “progress” is nothing but a narrative and the fat process makes it look like you’re doing a lot of dicking around. (Page 5)

uncertainty is that there’s no dečnition of what ‘works’ means: (Page 5)

At some point a researchy startup needs to do a dramatic gear shiĕ into growth and product market čt mode. (Page 6)

either prematurely kills the research potential or the company dies because it’s being run by people with a research mindset. Startups are good at point changes. (Page 6)

from day one, you need to be as eĎcient as possible. ROI is all about eĎciency, and eĎciency biases systems towards false negatives. (Page 7)

powerful research requires being a bit irresponsible.ę A key characteristic of research is that, regardless of how long it takes, that amount of time is unpredictable.ÑÑ (Page 7)

a lot of technical research involves constantly shiĕing targets. You can set milestones »and it is oĕen useful to do so¼, but they need to be incredibly ēuid. (Page 7)

research progress is much harder to boil down to a legible metric. (Page 7)

Giving ideas more options for how to grow will enable more diverse ideas to blossom, hopefully creating a richer more textured world.ę (Page 8)