3 ms·

Posts on creating a successful startup seem to all suffer from a lack of 2nd order thinking. Even some of the posts from PG. I’m sorry, but it is blindingly obv

Posts on creating a successful startup seem to all suffer from a lack of 2nd order thinking. Even some of the posts from PG. I’m sorry, but it is blindingly obvious, IMO, that startups should focus on surviving, whereas someone like Jeff Bezos has to think about how to serve an ace (and can suffer a good deal of failures before it would threaten his company). The unending stream of platitudes that come with these posts are also quite obvious, but also somewhat useless: don’t hire too fast, but don’t hire too slow; find a market, but don’t copy your competition. I think PG said in a post once that the YC partners joked that their job was to give founders advice that they would then ignore. So that makes me think that the advice/wisdom people should be dispensing/pursuing is: what can you do to make sure you follow all this good advice in a disciplined way? It seems like a lot of intelligent people fail to do so, why? How can you make yourself the exception? I don’t necessarily have the answers, but from my limited experience the best advice you can give an aspiring founder is: 1. Don’t found a company. You have a good idea and you think you can execute? Great, go find someone who is very likely already doing it and help them out. You’ll have way more fun and probably make more money. 2. Okay, you absolutely have to do this? The thing you have to really nail to follow all this great advice is culture. I have been at many startups, the ones that suceeded all had one thing in common: a highly functional culture. What does that mean? It doesn’t necessarily mean everyone having warm fuzzies and a Swedish masseuse. It means that information in your organization can move effectively from anywhere in your company to anywhere else and people will feel empowered to act on that information. This is not the default mode for any organization. The default mode for any organization is territorialism/feudalism. Humans have evolved to be zero sum thinkers, they can’t help it. You have to create and organization that fights this constantly.

andrewstuart 9y ago
>> it is blindingly obvious, IMO, that startups should focus on surviving I don't think it is blindingly obvious. In fact I think the typical beginner entrepreneur really doesn't know where to focus. I've seen a number of people commence business and focus on logo, writing blog posts, legal setup, making a website, and then the whole thing goes kaput months down the track because they didn't have any revenue, when I think they were perfectly capable of earning money from my external viewpoint, but the beginning entrepreneur thinks they should, or is enjoying, playing "business theatre". And strangely it seems that there's nothing you can do to advise people otherwise during this phase of their personal development.... they are full of confidence and optimism and not open to hearing that they are not doing the right things. People are more likely to listen once they have failed and it has all come crashing down, then they have good reason to start looking for answers.
katastic 9y ago
>1. Don’t found a company. You have a good idea and you think you can execute? Great, go find someone who is very likely already doing it and help them out. You’ll have way more fun and probably make more money. Citation needed. Everything that I've seen in the business world leads to one answer: You want money, have the balls to start a business. Because the only one getting the real money, is the boss.

andrewstuart 9y ago

>> it is blindingly obvious, IMO, that startups should focus on surviving I don't think it is blindingly obvious. In fact I think the typical beginner entrepreneur really doesn't know where to focus. I've seen a number of people commence business and focus on logo, writing blog posts, legal setup, making a website, and then the whole thing goes kaput months down the track because they didn't have any revenue, when I think they were perfectly capable of earning money from my external viewpoint, but the beginning entrepreneur thinks they should, or is enjoying, playing "business theatre". And strangely it seems that there's nothing you can do to advise people otherwise during this phase of their personal development.... they are full of confidence and optimism and not open to hearing that they are not doing the right things. People are more likely to listen once they have failed and it has all come crashing down, then they have good reason to start looking for answers.

katastic 9y ago

>1. Don’t found a company. You have a good idea and you think you can execute? Great, go find someone who is very likely already doing it and help them out. You’ll have way more fun and probably make more money. Citation needed. Everything that I've seen in the business world leads to one answer: You want money, have the balls to start a business. Because the only one getting the real money, is the boss.