innovation versus profit: it's not a zero-sum game

Recently, I had Jake Jorgovan of Lead Cookie and Content Allies on my show to discuss his business building framework. Jake is a serial entrepreneur who has built several businesses over time. I asked him on my show after sending a note to his newsletter subscribers, which piqued my curiosity.

As an innovation guy, I always think that new businesses and startups should pursue brand-new innovative products and services. Something unique and different that no one has seen before expands the set of things humans can do for each other. Decidedly not a copy of something already out there. I valued things that were new to the world most of all.

Sure, the company might need to educate their prospects a bit, but I always thought that the novelty aspect was super important. I almost felt that those startup founders who just created “yet another XXX clone” were not very innovative and worthy of praise.

So Jake, who has successfully launched several businesses, outlined his framework for successful startups, and it completely disagreed with this approach. In fact, he said something to the effect of

The next time I start a business it won’t be anything no one has ever done before.

I thought — what a cop-out. What kind of a startup can you create which is a clone of…