What Simon says is actually marketing 101.. they teach this in undergrad intro marketing (without all the bs about &#x27;greatness&#x27;, etc). The problem with it when it comes to startups&#x2F;small businesses, is that it&#x27;s expensive. If you want to go that route, you need to get out the entire message - A + B + C. Whereas, the sales-based approach he&#x27;s criticizing, you only need to get out C and part of B.<p>So if you want to go the marketing route, you&#x27;re going to be spending a lot more on ads, pr, etc to get your entire message out there.<p>Despite what he says, Apple did not follow the path he says. Apple in its early days followed the sales-based approach. It wasnt until they were making money that they turned to a marketing-based approach. This is a very normal route for companies to take.<p>[Edit: now that you understand this is marketing vs sales.. you can find plenty of articles on this by pg, jessica livingston and others.]