9 ms·

It's a skill that can be learned like every other skill. You can take the "in 21 days" route or the MOOC / University course route, or constantly read business

It's a skill that can be learned like every other skill. You can take the "in 21 days" route or the MOOC / University course route, or constantly read business articles, Steve Jobs videos, etc. But some top tips stand out for me over time: * Talking to people, networking > Not talking to people * Bug free > Elegant code * UX > UI * Simple products that do one thing well > Complex products * Understanding entire market > understanding some people * Building brand > Making quick money (for the long run) * Sleep, exercise & healthy food > late night coding * Solving your problem first > Solving the worlds problems * Adaptability, pivoting > Ego * Knowledge of where the money is > No knowledge of it * Overestimating cost/expenses > Underestimating it * Patience > No Patience * No procrastination > Procrastination * Reading books > Not reading books

monk_e_boy 9y ago
Being able to stand up in front of people and tell them something. And make them laugh. Listen to people, figure out what 90% is bullshit or irrelevant and what 10% is interesting business opportunity.
19eightyfour 9y ago
This is great, thanks! Could you do a blog post or something. :)
- screature2 9y ago
  https://bothsidesofthetable.com/most-startups-should-be-deer-hunters-7fdecf58f4f6 https://bothsidesofthetable.com/most-startups-should-be-deer... 2009 post, but still one of my favorite distillations of the issues around b2b customer types. Particular impactful if you read it when you end up going above and beyond with support, feature development, and contract negotiations with both rabbits and whales and you're running out of money.
petepete 9y ago
Thanks for the list, I'll refer back to it
Belphemur 9y ago
Small clients > one big client Especially at the beginning, you read here how often big clients can put you under at the beginning because you're not ready to deal with them.
- ryanmarsh 9y ago
  This. When small shops land their first big client they're always so excited. To me it's like having a stone tied around your neck. Big clients can often be more trouble than they're worth and become a financial risk when they send you packing and you've hired extra people just for their account.
- deweller 9y ago
  But... A few big jobs > many small jobs Low-paying jobs will consume more time than you expect. Be careful when quoting these. Always charge more than you think you need to cover your time.
  - yeukhon 9y ago
    Big clients tend to be very slow at signing contracts because their legals would examine every word and will keep asking you to revise the contract. Furtheremore, real big clients tend to be slow at adopting the techology they just bought, so you may not get feedback quick enough to improve your product. Big clients are more likely to argue for discount as they would use "I am big name" as leverage.
    - spIrr 9y ago
      This, and sales concentration is a real risk as well. If you have few big customers and even one of them churns, the impact this will have on you is certainly going to be material.
      - yeukhon 9y ago
        Yes, the strategy for big client is to lock them in for long engagement (like a 3-YR term). Throw in some nice support package, longer trial period, whatever. Since big customers often take months to fully use a product (6-12 months is very common), I wouldn't worry about "oh now I got big name, I need more infrastructure, more money to pay my cloud vendor." It won't for 6-12 months and you probably can keep all the pennies from the big client monthly. If you get a downpayment (say 1-year for a 3-yr term), you get ammunition to grow your team and get more smaller customers.
accountyaccount 9y ago
I get some of these, but "don't procrastinate" and "understand the entire market" are kind of ridiculous. You might as well throw "know everything" and "work hard" in there.
- FLUX-YOU 9y ago
  Seriously. Your proof that you understand a market is only as good as the frequency that your understanding is tested, whether the test is profits or rote knowledge. This is true for many things. I'm the best developer as long as I don't compare myself to a better developer.
- throwaway2016a 9y ago
  Also, make sure not to confuse understanding your customers with understanding how the industry works. Some of the craziest and successful startup ideas come from people who don't understand the industry at all and if they had they probably would have never tried to do what they did.
  - philipov 9y ago
    Survivorship bias. Some of the biggest flops also come from people who don't understand the industry at all, and if they had they probably would have never tried to do what they did. You can't understand your customers if you don't understand their industry. Picking customers is like investing: if you pick a bunch of customers that are not going to win their industry, you won't thrive either.
    - inopinatus 9y ago
      That may be true, but it isn't a reason not to try. Heck in the process you may learn the industry, just too late for current venture. It is however a reason to be willing to recognise a flop and abandon it for something else.
      - philipov 9y ago
afshinmeh 9y ago
Nice, but I'm not entirely sure about this one: > * Sleep, exercise & healthy food > late night coding Looks like it's against other points. I have a full-time job and I'd like to create a brand, too. Thus. I have to do late night coding.
- cookiecaper 9y ago
  The principle is that you have to maintain health. I think late-night coding is a near-constant because of our brains automatically optimize us onto what pg describes as "the Maker's Schedule". Context switching is anathema to effective coding, so people automatically go to the time when they'll be least-interrupted, which is when the rest of the world is asleep.
  - gressquel 9y ago
    You also need to maintain a social life and relationships with family and friends. It will boost the productivity more than you believe
- 8draco8 9y ago
  No you are wrong. In order to get there (build successful brand) you have to take care of your self. With coding marathons, buckets of coffee and fast food (because "I don't have time to cook") you will end up with heart attack before you achieve what you planned.
  - andrewjrhill 9y ago
    Not only that but adequate sleep, regular exercise and healthy eating contribute enormously towards healthier cognition. As a developer, I tend to find myself far more productive and successful in a shorter period of time when I am living on the healthy side of things. Everything that is me just works better when I go for a run three days a week, eat clean foods and get in a solid 8 hours of rest a night.
    - cpfohl 9y ago
throwaway2016a 9y ago
Good advice. Some of these (most?) apply to the business-side founder types as well: > Simple products that do one thing well > Complex products It has been my experience that business people constantly make this mistake. They feel a product has to satisfy all needs. The engineers I have met have consistently argued to remove features that are expensive to develop and add little value. Both of those are anecdotes. Your milage may vary.
cseelus 9y ago
http://stuff.imeos.org/dropzone/jargnars_business-advice-for-software-developers_minus-2.pdf http://stuff.imeos.org/dropzone/jargnars_business-advice-for...
matt4077 9y ago
Possibly slightly controversial: * Doing something you're interested in > all the self-help and motivational quotes in the world * Doing something potentially meaningful and failing > doing something you don't care about and muddling through
slinger 9y ago
> It's a skill that can be learned like every other skill. You can take the "in 21 days" route or the MOOC / University course route Sorry, what did you mean by "in 21 days route"? Also, do you have any MOOC on doing business to recommend?
- SomewhatLikely 9y ago
  There's a trope of technology learning books whose titles fit the pattern "Teach yourself X in 21 days".
- mxschumacher 9y ago
  the 21 days are in reference to Peter Norvig's article: http://norvig.com/21-days.html http://norvig.com/21-days.html
dorianm 9y ago
Reminds me of https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0020/ https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0020/ Beautiful is better than ugly. Explicit is better than implicit. Simple is better than complex. Complex is better than complicated. Flat is better than nested. Sparse is better than dense. Readability counts. Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules. Although practicality beats purity. Errors should never pass silently. Unless explicitly silenced. In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess. There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it. Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you're Dutch. Now is better than never. Although never is often better than right now. If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad idea. If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea. Namespaces are one honking great idea -- let's do more of those!
tome 9y ago
* Solving your problem first > Solving the worlds problems Any chance you could expand a bit on this one?
- dllthomas 9y ago
  I don't think it's accurate if you take it at face value. If you genuinely solve the world's problems, that's a better place to be (business-wise) than having solved your own problems. But trying to solve the world's problems vs. trying to solve your own is another matter. You probably better understand your own problems.
- juancampa 9y ago
  It means: Solving your problem first > Solving others' problems (that don't affect you). The reasoning is that you are an expert in problems that affect you. If the problem affects the whole world, including yourself, then it falls in the left bucket.

monk_e_boy 9y ago

Being able to stand up in front of people and tell them something. And make them laugh. Listen to people, figure out what 90% is bullshit or irrelevant and what 10% is interesting business opportunity.

19eightyfour 9y ago

This is great, thanks! Could you do a blog post or something. :)

screature2 9y ago
https://bothsidesofthetable.com/most-startups-should-be-deer-hunters-7fdecf58f4f6 https://bothsidesofthetable.com/most-startups-should-be-deer... 2009 post, but still one of my favorite distillations of the issues around b2b customer types. Particular impactful if you read it when you end up going above and beyond with support, feature development, and contract negotiations with both rabbits and whales and you're running out of money.

petepete 9y ago

Thanks for the list, I'll refer back to it

Belphemur 9y ago

Small clients > one big client Especially at the beginning, you read here how often big clients can put you under at the beginning because you're not ready to deal with them.

ryanmarsh 9y ago
This. When small shops land their first big client they're always so excited. To me it's like having a stone tied around your neck. Big clients can often be more trouble than they're worth and become a financial risk when they send you packing and you've hired extra people just for their account.
deweller 9y ago
But... A few big jobs > many small jobs Low-paying jobs will consume more time than you expect. Be careful when quoting these. Always charge more than you think you need to cover your time.
- yeukhon 9y ago
  Big clients tend to be very slow at signing contracts because their legals would examine every word and will keep asking you to revise the contract. Furtheremore, real big clients tend to be slow at adopting the techology they just bought, so you may not get feedback quick enough to improve your product. Big clients are more likely to argue for discount as they would use "I am big name" as leverage.
  - spIrr 9y ago
    This, and sales concentration is a real risk as well. If you have few big customers and even one of them churns, the impact this will have on you is certainly going to be material.
    - yeukhon 9y ago
      Yes, the strategy for big client is to lock them in for long engagement (like a 3-YR term). Throw in some nice support package, longer trial period, whatever. Since big customers often take months to fully use a product (6-12 months is very common), I wouldn't worry about "oh now I got big name, I need more infrastructure, more money to pay my cloud vendor." It won't for 6-12 months and you probably can keep all the pennies from the big client monthly. If you get a downpayment (say 1-year for a 3-yr term), you get ammunition to grow your team and get more smaller customers.

accountyaccount 9y ago

I get some of these, but "don't procrastinate" and "understand the entire market" are kind of ridiculous. You might as well throw "know everything" and "work hard" in there.

FLUX-YOU 9y ago
Seriously. Your proof that you understand a market is only as good as the frequency that your understanding is tested, whether the test is profits or rote knowledge. This is true for many things. I'm the best developer as long as I don't compare myself to a better developer.
throwaway2016a 9y ago
Also, make sure not to confuse understanding your customers with understanding how the industry works. Some of the craziest and successful startup ideas come from people who don't understand the industry at all and if they had they probably would have never tried to do what they did.
- philipov 9y ago
  Survivorship bias. Some of the biggest flops also come from people who don't understand the industry at all, and if they had they probably would have never tried to do what they did. You can't understand your customers if you don't understand their industry. Picking customers is like investing: if you pick a bunch of customers that are not going to win their industry, you won't thrive either.
  - inopinatus 9y ago
    That may be true, but it isn't a reason not to try. Heck in the process you may learn the industry, just too late for current venture. It is however a reason to be willing to recognise a flop and abandon it for something else.
    - philipov 9y ago

afshinmeh 9y ago

Nice, but I'm not entirely sure about this one: > * Sleep, exercise & healthy food > late night coding Looks like it's against other points. I have a full-time job and I'd like to create a brand, too. Thus. I have to do late night coding.

cookiecaper 9y ago
The principle is that you have to maintain health. I think late-night coding is a near-constant because of our brains automatically optimize us onto what pg describes as "the Maker's Schedule". Context switching is anathema to effective coding, so people automatically go to the time when they'll be least-interrupted, which is when the rest of the world is asleep.
- gressquel 9y ago
  You also need to maintain a social life and relationships with family and friends. It will boost the productivity more than you believe
8draco8 9y ago
No you are wrong. In order to get there (build successful brand) you have to take care of your self. With coding marathons, buckets of coffee and fast food (because "I don't have time to cook") you will end up with heart attack before you achieve what you planned.
- andrewjrhill 9y ago
  Not only that but adequate sleep, regular exercise and healthy eating contribute enormously towards healthier cognition. As a developer, I tend to find myself far more productive and successful in a shorter period of time when I am living on the healthy side of things. Everything that is me just works better when I go for a run three days a week, eat clean foods and get in a solid 8 hours of rest a night.
  - cpfohl 9y ago

throwaway2016a 9y ago

Good advice. Some of these (most?) apply to the business-side founder types as well: > Simple products that do one thing well > Complex products It has been my experience that business people constantly make this mistake. They feel a product has to satisfy all needs. The engineers I have met have consistently argued to remove features that are expensive to develop and add little value. Both of those are anecdotes. Your milage may vary.

cseelus 9y ago

http://stuff.imeos.org/dropzone/jargnars_business-advice-for-software-developers_minus-2.pdf http://stuff.imeos.org/dropzone/jargnars_business-advice-for...

matt4077 9y ago

Possibly slightly controversial: * Doing something you're interested in > all the self-help and motivational quotes in the world * Doing something potentially meaningful and failing > doing something you don't care about and muddling through

slinger 9y ago

> It's a skill that can be learned like every other skill. You can take the "in 21 days" route or the MOOC / University course route Sorry, what did you mean by "in 21 days route"? Also, do you have any MOOC on doing business to recommend?

SomewhatLikely 9y ago
There's a trope of technology learning books whose titles fit the pattern "Teach yourself X in 21 days".
mxschumacher 9y ago
the 21 days are in reference to Peter Norvig's article: http://norvig.com/21-days.html http://norvig.com/21-days.html

dorianm 9y ago

Reminds me of https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0020/ https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0020/ Beautiful is better than ugly. Explicit is better than implicit. Simple is better than complex. Complex is better than complicated. Flat is better than nested. Sparse is better than dense. Readability counts. Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules. Although practicality beats purity. Errors should never pass silently. Unless explicitly silenced. In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess. There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it. Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you're Dutch. Now is better than never. Although never is often better than right now. If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad idea. If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea. Namespaces are one honking great idea -- let's do more of those!

tome 9y ago

* Solving your problem first > Solving the worlds problems Any chance you could expand a bit on this one?

dllthomas 9y ago
I don't think it's accurate if you take it at face value. If you genuinely solve the world's problems, that's a better place to be (business-wise) than having solved your own problems. But trying to solve the world's problems vs. trying to solve your own is another matter. You probably better understand your own problems.
juancampa 9y ago
It means: Solving your problem first > Solving others' problems (that don't affect you). The reasoning is that you are an expert in problems that affect you. If the problem affects the whole world, including yourself, then it falls in the left bucket.