Steve Larsen @DEMO: The wisest words of the night

[Steve Larsen in shoes of a god.
Photo by Shel]

I spent my first night of DEMO catching up with old friends like Michael Miller of Ziff Davis, Ed Baig of USA Today, Marc Orchant of Blognation,Amy Wohl,  John Patrick author of Net Attitude, a really brilliant book; Larry Magid and Chris Shipley

But Graeme Thickens and I closed down the bar with Steve Larsen, a serial entrepreneur who has presented on the DEMO dais four times, winning a DEMOgod award last year with Krugle, an incredible enterprise internal code search engine.

Steve is one of those guys I still learn from every time I talk with him and I talk with him all too rarely. Tonight he gave me a lesson based on a three-word mantra that has driven him successfully through a half dozen startups in about 15 years.

"Constraint spawns creativity."

Think about it. All startups are constrained.  They don't have money.  They don't have time.  They don't have all sorts of resources. They can't afford full marketing budgets or teams or advertising.

So they have to get creative. That's what drives the best start ups and a great number of examples are sure to be witnessed here at DEMO over the next few days.

It's good to see Steve.  It's good to be here.

Comments

[Justin Thorp]

In addition to constraints on the development process, there are constraints that come from having a really unique or specific problem that you're trying to solve.

I have the most fun when I have to come together with the team I'm working on to come up with a really creative solution to an interesting problem.

[Graeme Thickins]

oh, *con*straints....I thought he said *re*straints! then again, I was on my second martini at the time

seriously, it was good seeing you and Steve --
and I totally agree with Steve, having been involved in so many startups...the really creative people on the successful teams just don't let lack of budget get in their way