What comes first at Etsy is the problem/mission. Etsy wants to make life easier and better for people who make things and who want to make money from doing that, either part time or full time. Etsy is about commerce between two people, one who makes something and one who wants to buy it.
- Fred Wilson

If you can manage to cut through all the excess of an idea or business, and get down to the heart of what it really needs to accomplish you’ll be far better off than all the others with formal plans, detailed objectives or funding missing the core mission.  Fred Wilson’s article on Mission Based Businesses is in response to Inc Magazine’s profile of the Etsy founders.