Does Your Startup Need to be Massive?

in 2008, I was using every speaking chance I was offered to preach that there was never a better time to start a web business. I also put my money where my mouth was and invested in more companies than I could afford and started Stocktwits.

Let’s assume you followed the advice and failed. Most startups do. You were Lindzon’d. Sorry.

Good news…you learned a lot and the funding market, never easy, is more open than ever.

Better yet, the mentoring system and pool of talented angel investors looking to reinvest has never been wider and deeper.

Techmeme, Hacker News, Fred Wilson, Brad Feld, LInked In, Twitter, Facebook and of course Stocktwits ….all better than ever for connecting, getting smarter about starting businesses and finding the right trends to ride. Y combinator may be too crowded, but Tech Stars, Founder Labs and Startup Weekends are open.

It is a little intimidating right now to take the first steps because of the bubble talk, startup revolution, competition and massive reach of the last group of leaders. There is not one Tiger Woods of startups, there are 5 you will ultimately stress yourself out comparing yourself too…Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Zynga and Groupon.

Don’t get caught up in the ‘I need to be Massive’ talk. It’s a trap. Take the ‘Massive’ lessons of geniuses like Reid Hoffman from this great post and than get to work on getting massive one step at a time.

The game of Risk and world domination is won from the corners of the world unless you can roll non stop 6’s. Don’t bet on that stuff and don’t pitch your investors on stuff they won’t believe.