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Essentially, make something people want, don't spend all your money before you have an income, fire weak employees, and find a co-founder you can work with. I'

by Veen 9y ago

Essentially, make something people want, don't spend all your money before you have an income, fire weak employees, and find a co-founder you can work with. I've never started a startup, but I'd be surprised if these nuggets of wisdom are news to anyone. The tennis analogy was quite clever, but it lead me to expect more incisive advice.

myf01d 9y ago
Even if you did all these things, there is no guarantee that your startup will succeed. You can have a superior product but it's too early or too late. You can have bad luck with publicity or there could be other million reasons out of your control that cause you fail.
aerophilic 9y ago
While I agree with another poster that these don’t quite seem like “earned knowledge”. I wouldn’t dismiss these ideas out of hand for their simplicity. In my personal experience, the most valuable/powerful things are deceptively simple, but very hard to do well, or do consistently. A few examples that many people struggle with: - Spend less than you earn - Exercise regularly - Prioritize doing things, or spending time with people you love In my experience, startups are very similar. There are not that many rules you need to follow, but they are often difficult to “execute on”. A couple of examples: - Find great people you trust and can perform - Find your market/path to profitability as quickly as possible I am sure if we spent time, we would find lots of other “simple rules”. But the key point I am making is that simple rules are usually the right things to do, but they are often the hardest to really accomplish.
sky_rw 9y ago
I've been involved in several startups, a couple winners and a couple losers. Like all things in life I've found that the simplest principles are often the hardest ones to grok. It's like jumping into a Indy Car, and you think "Just go straight and then turn left". Turns out when you are going 200mph at a concrete wall the simple things become a lot more complex.
- csallen 9y ago
  A lot of the simple advice needs further unpacking, too. I've seen founders interpret "Make something people want" in all sorts of ways, as belied by their behavior: - "Make something nobody wants, then keep adding features until something magical happens." - "Copy another app that people already use, but add 'better' or 'faster' or 'easier' or 'prettier' in my marketing copy." - "Survey my users and build whatever they tell me, no questions asked." - "Build features that align with my own personal vision of what the product should look like, then hope that other people want it." - "Create 1/5th of an ambitious product that people want." - "Do an excellent job solving a trivial pain point that nobody cares about solving." - "Make something completely new and unique that the world has never seen before, regardless of whether or not anybody wants it."
  - freehunter 9y ago
    >"Build features that align with my own personal vision of what the product should look like, then hope that other people want it." To be fair this is by far the most common startup advice. Make a product for yourself, because if you've having a problem others likely are too. The only place you fall into a trap here is if you're both unwilling to change the design in the future and you're wrong about the design.
    - zbentley 9y ago
      > The only place you fall into a trap here is if you're both unwilling to change the design in the future and you're wrong about the design. I'd change the "and" to an "or": is if you're unwilling to change the design in the future or you're wrong about the design. This is because: 1. Even if you're right about the design, and can make people want it, the market (which drives what people want/can be made to want) may change. You will have to change, usually sooner than you think; a great vision doesn't prevent the need for that. 2. If you're wrong about the design or don't have a good sense for "what is needed/works", no number of pivots will save you, because each pivot will likely be to something that people either don't need or doesn't work. A failure in either is a kiss of death.
goatherders 9y ago
Guess what - that's the advice. There is no epiphany to stumble upon here or anywhere else, no secret that you're going to find on a Saturday. Make something people want. Control spending. Focus on the people you sell to and the people you work with. The end

by Veen 9y ago

myf01d 9y ago

Even if you did all these things, there is no guarantee that your startup will succeed. You can have a superior product but it's too early or too late. You can have bad luck with publicity or there could be other million reasons out of your control that cause you fail.

aerophilic 9y ago

While I agree with another poster that these don’t quite seem like “earned knowledge”. I wouldn’t dismiss these ideas out of hand for their simplicity. In my personal experience, the most valuable/powerful things are deceptively simple, but very hard to do well, or do consistently. A few examples that many people struggle with: - Spend less than you earn - Exercise regularly - Prioritize doing things, or spending time with people you love In my experience, startups are very similar. There are not that many rules you need to follow, but they are often difficult to “execute on”. A couple of examples: - Find great people you trust and can perform - Find your market/path to profitability as quickly as possible I am sure if we spent time, we would find lots of other “simple rules”. But the key point I am making is that simple rules are usually the right things to do, but they are often the hardest to really accomplish.

sky_rw 9y ago

I've been involved in several startups, a couple winners and a couple losers. Like all things in life I've found that the simplest principles are often the hardest ones to grok. It's like jumping into a Indy Car, and you think "Just go straight and then turn left". Turns out when you are going 200mph at a concrete wall the simple things become a lot more complex.

csallen 9y ago
A lot of the simple advice needs further unpacking, too. I've seen founders interpret "Make something people want" in all sorts of ways, as belied by their behavior: - "Make something nobody wants, then keep adding features until something magical happens." - "Copy another app that people already use, but add 'better' or 'faster' or 'easier' or 'prettier' in my marketing copy." - "Survey my users and build whatever they tell me, no questions asked." - "Build features that align with my own personal vision of what the product should look like, then hope that other people want it." - "Create 1/5th of an ambitious product that people want." - "Do an excellent job solving a trivial pain point that nobody cares about solving." - "Make something completely new and unique that the world has never seen before, regardless of whether or not anybody wants it."
- freehunter 9y ago
  >"Build features that align with my own personal vision of what the product should look like, then hope that other people want it." To be fair this is by far the most common startup advice. Make a product for yourself, because if you've having a problem others likely are too. The only place you fall into a trap here is if you're both unwilling to change the design in the future and you're wrong about the design.
  - zbentley 9y ago
    > The only place you fall into a trap here is if you're both unwilling to change the design in the future and you're wrong about the design. I'd change the "and" to an "or": is if you're unwilling to change the design in the future or you're wrong about the design. This is because: 1. Even if you're right about the design, and can make people want it, the market (which drives what people want/can be made to want) may change. You will have to change, usually sooner than you think; a great vision doesn't prevent the need for that. 2. If you're wrong about the design or don't have a good sense for "what is needed/works", no number of pivots will save you, because each pivot will likely be to something that people either don't need or doesn't work. A failure in either is a kiss of death.

goatherders 9y ago

Guess what - that's the advice. There is no epiphany to stumble upon here or anywhere else, no secret that you're going to find on a Saturday. Make something people want. Control spending. Focus on the people you sell to and the people you work with. The end