Michael Arrington On What Works In The Current Economic Climate

By Ville Vesterinen, December 15, 2008, 4 Comments

I acknowledge that our postings have a been a bit video heavy lately and continue to be so this week, but still wanted to give you a few, what I think is very useful, soundbites from Michael Arrington, editor and founder of TechCrunch. Despite the on-going general post-LeWeb brouhaha in the web, this is worth a watch. Andrea Vascellari, CEO of iTive.net consultancy did a good job asking Arrington where he sees the startups given the current economic climate.

Here's the key take aways from the video:

In a tough economic climate winners find an aggressive way to expand without spending a lof of money by
- Reducing head count
- Paying lower salaries now that they are collectively down
- Paying less for everything = lower expenses overall
- Acquiring competitors pennies for dollar when they are about to belly up

A lot of startups make headcount adjustments already, which is probably a smart move (Think Fruugo and Blyk)

Those startups that have better execution end up being winners (this is something that I believe always bares repeating even though it's a no-brainer)

Remember that this downturn is different! Those who act as they acted in the previous one probably end up being one of the losers.

You have to be quick on your feet and agile

Those who focus on technical market analysis on what used to work tend to too poorly in the new climate: You should look at the playing field as a new one and compete given that