"7. What’s your secret sauce? ... We hope to come up with Something Big in 2010."
Hmm. I harbor hope that he's kidding. I'm more and more a believer that the only secret sauce that matters is relentless execution and incremental improvement over many years. Sure, some companies will happen upon the magical product-technology-market puzzle piece that ends up being worth a billion dollars, but that's playing the lottery, not running a business.
There is a lot more secret sauce out there than you hear about. By definition you don't hear about it. There's rarely any incentive for companies to talk about it. Many people inside a company might not even realize what it is at their company!
A great example is PayPal. According to Max Levchin their custom fraud detection system was the only reason they were able to stay in business.
Hmm. I harbor hope that he's kidding. I'm more and more a believer that the only secret sauce that matters is relentless execution and incremental improvement over many years. Sure, some companies will happen upon the magical product-technology-market puzzle piece that ends up being worth a billion dollars, but that's playing the lottery, not running a business.