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How the 'Failure' Culture of Startups Is Killing Innovation | Wired Opinion | Wired.com.

This is an insightful post about one of the issues caused by the current business environment. And specifically by the business culture of Internet-based software companies. In truth it is both a blessing and a curse. It’s too easy to come up with ideas that seem both obvious and unmet. And almost as easy to build out these ideas into a test platform. This could almost be considered research in it’s own right. But throwing money at ideas without any research into need and long-term viability will likely result in more failures than successes. Eventually the quick wins and cash outs are going to fade away as the business environment continues to mature. Perhaps this is only the natural progression of a new marketplace, but the pain on the other side will be all too real and result in a significant paradigm shift in how businesses are funded. Perhaps we are in the middle of that transition, from one based on venture funding to one based on crowd funding. In fact, perhaps the advent of companies like Kickstarter is the beginning of the next phase. A phase based on, at the least, a basic level of research that leads to a base level of funding from the general public, followed by product development, followed by more traditional funding.