I sure hope that wasn't the key learning from our post! It's not a very repeatable/helpful learning :)

Luck can definitely play a big role in building a successful company. I think what a lot of people don't realize is how you can increase your exposure to luck.

For example, if you have a bigger/better network, you're more likely to get lucky from that. If you talk to more people about your company, you're more likely to stumble across key partners/investors/customers.

In our case, our luck with React.js can be attributed to my working at Facebook before starting Canny.

I didn't mean to imply luck... just that marketing is key and given two amazing products the one that reaches more eyeballs wins.

Very true!

Or: Focus on finding impactful early customers that increase your visibility (and then make them happy). Finding such a great customer may require luck, but that doesn't mean the odds are fixed.

That's far easier said than done for most people though.

The key learning: People will totally ignore everything you did to prep and find luck, as long as there's an element of luck they can use to dismiss your hard work.

Sorry if it was ambiguous, but I didn't mean luck was involved more that marketing and getting eyeballs is super important.