My two favorite quotes these days are Ward Cunningham’s “What’s the simplest thing that could possibly work?” and Einstein’s “Simplify as much as possible, but no further.” I believe these to be essential to startup success, especially in a highly connected world, where what might have previously been a feature can now be a company.

The temptation, however, always goes in the other direction of making things too complicated or complex.  Hence the title of this post.  Here are just some of the things to think about reducing in your startup:

• Reduce your pitch

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• Reduce your features

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• Reduce your UI

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• Reduce your architecture

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• Reduce your strategy

I need to continuously remind myself of this mantra.  It is just way too easy to get sucked up by complexity.  But here is the key insight.  In a connected world, the complexity comes from the interaction of many simple things.  So: reduce, reduce, reduce.