James Hong, co-founder of www.hotornot.com has written a great blog entry about a somewhat new twist to the Entrepreneur’s Dilemma. Michael Arrington gives his story a good setup on his post over at TechCrunch. So what is the entrepreneur’s dilemma?

Well, the classic story says that people startup new businesses because they have exciting new ideas, and want to test them and try to make this new business a success. In the beginning you have to wear many hats. You’ve created the concept, you’re out interfacing with potential customers directly, and it’s a very exciting time. If you’re successful you have to hire more people, create layers of management, and generate processes for repeatable quality in your organization. Before you know it you’ve built the company that you were trying to get away from! That’s the dilemma. You’re a victim of your own success.

James and his partner Jim had a slightly different dilemma. Lets call it the Rapid-Wealth-Preservation dilemma. With no venture investment their HOTorNOT website was throwing off gobs of cash. Business decisions were dictated by preserving that cash flow, not by innovation. See his post to read his story about how they transformed the business to have a risk-taking mentality once again, and how letting go has paid off handsomly.

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Filed under: Opinion/Editorial