4 ms·

In theory I agree, but when are you ever 1000% sure of anything in business? Also, the thing which scales to 100k users does not necessarily scale to 1m let al

In theory I agree, but when are you ever 1000% sure of anything in business? Also, the thing which scales to 100k users does not necessarily scale to 1m let alone 10m. Given that the article is titled "Later Stage Advice" and it says things such as switch from not caring at all about marketing to caring about it a little bit once the product is working I think Sam's advice is properly qualified. But your point is well taken; I've seen it to, but I'm not sure what the solution is. In general I think the advice of staying focused and minimizing burn attempts to address this, but in practice these choices are rarely easy. Sometimes you need to try a bunch of different things, but then you can be saddled with maintenance costs or blowback from customers if you yank the rug out. Also, if something appears to be working and you start to hire to support growing the business in that direction you can get screwed if you hit some ceiling of market appeal. The cases where a company is so compelling and viral that there is a clear path to scaling are the exception. For every Instagram there are probably 1000 companies that are still considered successful by their founders but at a smaller scale or slower pace. Startups are hard.

hacknat 10y ago
It's true there aren't many good answers. It's human nature to think the answer is just around the corner.
wtvanhest 10y ago
> Given that the article is titled "Later Stage Advice" and it says things such as switch from not caring at all about marketing to caring about it a little bit once the product is working I think Sam's advice is properly qualified. There are probably less than 20 YC companies that have reached the point where this advice is valid. Zenefits, Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe etc. The others never needed this advice. The nightmare scenario for employees is getting stuck at a company without true product/market fit that just sort of has it, then watching the founders justify following this advice because they have raised enough money to get to 30 employees without ever having true product/market fit. > The cases where a company is so compelling and viral that there is a clear path to scaling are the exception. IMO, this advice should only apply to the exceptional companies. > For every Instagram there are probably 1000 companies that are still considered successful by their founders but at a smaller scale or slower pace. Startups are hard. Those companies should stay small with no formal management structure and most should not follow the advice in the post, even if they have scaled. I think the OP's point is that product/market fit is overlooked so often by founders and teams. No matter what, it should always be the true focus of the business. The number of companies that need the advice in this post is so small that YC should just write it as a personal email to founders.
- nostrademons 10y ago
  > The number of companies that need the advice in this post is so small that YC should just write it as a personal email to founders. I think that a large portion of The Macro's purpose is content-marketing for YCombinator. It's a taste of the advice that you will get, personalized, if you take funding from them. The point isn't necessarily to help later-stage companies (although this is a beneficial by-product), it's to convince later-stage companies or early companies that hope to get to the later stage to apply to YC so that they can get the personal emails to founders with more tailored advice.
  - wtvanhest 10y ago
    My comment is more about backing up this point from the OP: > IMO, sama is wrong to suggest founders take their eye off the product ball at all (even just a little) until they are 1000% sure they've built a machine that will scale, and now all they have to do is scale it. Founders are adults and part of being a founder is knowing what advice to take. That said, I think someone at YC may agree that this advice is generally bad for a lot of early founders to follow. The reason I was backing up the OP is that he/she was stating that you should be 1000% sure you have product/market fit before following any of the advice in the post. Simply having the right number of employees or making some revenue are not enough. My point is kind of nuanced. In general, I think YC puts out the best information for founders of all early stage companies/startups.
- arohner 10y ago
  > There are probably less than 20 YC companies that have reached the point where this advice is valid. Zenefits, Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe etc. This advice is useful to basically every startup that has raised an A round, or is >= 10 people. That list is significantly larger than 20. Management and HR problems start significantly earlier than Stripe size (200? 300?). They start at around 10 people, and this article matches my own experiences with useful advice to founders. > most should not follow the advice in the post, even if they have scaled. Which part, precisely is flawed? Frequent, clear communication and proper delegation are almost so true as to be tautological. Most founders don't go wrong because they don't agree that these are valuable, they go wrong by forgetting to do them.

hacknat 10y ago

It's true there aren't many good answers. It's human nature to think the answer is just around the corner.

wtvanhest 10y ago

> Given that the article is titled "Later Stage Advice" and it says things such as switch from not caring at all about marketing to caring about it a little bit once the product is working I think Sam's advice is properly qualified. There are probably less than 20 YC companies that have reached the point where this advice is valid. Zenefits, Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe etc. The others never needed this advice. The nightmare scenario for employees is getting stuck at a company without true product/market fit that just sort of has it, then watching the founders justify following this advice because they have raised enough money to get to 30 employees without ever having true product/market fit. > The cases where a company is so compelling and viral that there is a clear path to scaling are the exception. IMO, this advice should only apply to the exceptional companies. > For every Instagram there are probably 1000 companies that are still considered successful by their founders but at a smaller scale or slower pace. Startups are hard. Those companies should stay small with no formal management structure and most should not follow the advice in the post, even if they have scaled. I think the OP's point is that product/market fit is overlooked so often by founders and teams. No matter what, it should always be the true focus of the business. The number of companies that need the advice in this post is so small that YC should just write it as a personal email to founders.

nostrademons 10y ago
> The number of companies that need the advice in this post is so small that YC should just write it as a personal email to founders. I think that a large portion of The Macro's purpose is content-marketing for YCombinator. It's a taste of the advice that you will get, personalized, if you take funding from them. The point isn't necessarily to help later-stage companies (although this is a beneficial by-product), it's to convince later-stage companies or early companies that hope to get to the later stage to apply to YC so that they can get the personal emails to founders with more tailored advice.
- wtvanhest 10y ago
  My comment is more about backing up this point from the OP: > IMO, sama is wrong to suggest founders take their eye off the product ball at all (even just a little) until they are 1000% sure they've built a machine that will scale, and now all they have to do is scale it. Founders are adults and part of being a founder is knowing what advice to take. That said, I think someone at YC may agree that this advice is generally bad for a lot of early founders to follow. The reason I was backing up the OP is that he/she was stating that you should be 1000% sure you have product/market fit before following any of the advice in the post. Simply having the right number of employees or making some revenue are not enough. My point is kind of nuanced. In general, I think YC puts out the best information for founders of all early stage companies/startups.
arohner 10y ago
> There are probably less than 20 YC companies that have reached the point where this advice is valid. Zenefits, Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe etc. This advice is useful to basically every startup that has raised an A round, or is >= 10 people. That list is significantly larger than 20. Management and HR problems start significantly earlier than Stripe size (200? 300?). They start at around 10 people, and this article matches my own experiences with useful advice to founders. > most should not follow the advice in the post, even if they have scaled. Which part, precisely is flawed? Frequent, clear communication and proper delegation are almost so true as to be tautological. Most founders don't go wrong because they don't agree that these are valuable, they go wrong by forgetting to do them.