Judy's Book lesson #1: markets win

My first and biggest lesson learned from the past 3.5 years can be summed up in a business school lesson I learned many years ago and now really grok: markets win.  You know the adage about putting a quality manager in a lousy market and the market winning. The reverse has also been stated: put a lousy manager in a great fast growing market and the manager seems like a winner. The primary job of an early stage CEO is to get into a great market. I thought that online local search was such a market -- but the details of that market have stumped many a company and many an entrepreneur. 
Online local requires critical mass in a geography and a category. Online local also requires local customer acquisition. Both of these items are very challenging for any company -- and make the market of online local gnarly. I still think the market is a good market -- someone is going to make a lot of money -- but trust me, online local anything is HARD. Very hard.