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Running Your Company by Patrick Collison [video]

153 points by charleshan 8y ago

kristiandupont 8y ago
Wow, they both sound a lot like PG! I guess it’s a sign of a true leader when people end up adopting mannerisms and idiosyncracies. Can any YC alumni share information on how much this is the case?
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- throwaway13337 8y ago
  I thought the same as I was watching this. Both of them. The vocabulary, mannerisms, off-hand comments, even the sort of PG-nerdy-accent thing. I'm also from the area so it's certainly not that. It's remarkable.
- aneeqdhk 8y ago
  Now that you've mentioned it, I can't unsee it.
YouCantBanMe 8y ago
Is this a jew? Because I don’t listen to them.
z3t4 8y ago
do things that don't scale = do sales.
goldenkey 8y ago
Needs a parody made called Ruining Your Company by (you know who.) The current Sears CEO could make a guest appearance.
- desireco42 8y ago
  I think this is really funny, sorry to get downvoted. I would ban Sears CEO from coming close to any public company and he really needs more publicity for amount of value he destroyed and peoples lifes and careers his moves upended.
  - thelastbender12 8y ago
    Doesn't really mean the Sears CEO is bad at his job. It is really incentive misalignment - the best financial outcome for him personally isn't the same as that for Sears.
- mindcrime 8y ago
  I'd love to see what Clarke and Dawe could do with that idea...
ai_ia 8y ago
I was expecting a lot from Patrick Collison. IMHO, the signal to noise ratio was low in this lecture.
- rpm33 8y ago
  Yep, pretty disappointing.
- adora 8y ago
  :( This was intended to be a talk on a pretty specific topic for the Startup School course. Day-to-day operations for pre-product market fit CEOs. Hopefully, it was useful and interesting in this context! Happy to take suggestions on how I could have done the interview better.
  - ai_ia 8y ago
    Thanks for clarifying Adora.
  - arikr 8y ago
    I'm excited to check this out! A suggestion that whenever people follow tends to lead to better interviews IMO (granted I haven't watched this one yet!) - Ask people about the past, not about generalized advice. Ask for specific situations and how they dealt with it. E.g. can you tell me the story of how you hired your first VP? This kind of mirrors the customer development advice -- don't ask customers what they want, observe what they do and from that infer what they want. Don't ask people to give advice, ask what they did and from that people can infer the principles behind it. Again I haven't watched it yet so you may have already been doing this. Just wanted to give the suggestion because you noted suggestions were welcome! Hope that is useful
- dpeck 8y ago
  Maybe a little harsh, but I agree. I enjoyed the session, but didn’t feel like it related much to the topic. Maybe that’s part of the point though, it’s do whatever it takes to keep it alive while finding PMF, reading every API log, doing on-site installs, etc.

153 points by charleshan 8y ago

Wow, they both sound a lot like PG! I guess it’s a sign of a true leader when people end up adopting mannerisms and idiosyncracies. Can any YC alumni share information on how much this is the case?

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
throwaway13337 8y ago
I thought the same as I was watching this. Both of them. The vocabulary, mannerisms, off-hand comments, even the sort of PG-nerdy-accent thing. I'm also from the area so it's certainly not that. It's remarkable.
aneeqdhk 8y ago
Now that you've mentioned it, I can't unsee it.

YouCantBanMe 8y ago

Is this a jew? Because I don’t listen to them.

z3t4 8y ago

do things that don't scale = do sales.

goldenkey 8y ago

Needs a parody made called Ruining Your Company by (you know who.) The current Sears CEO could make a guest appearance.

desireco42 8y ago
I think this is really funny, sorry to get downvoted. I would ban Sears CEO from coming close to any public company and he really needs more publicity for amount of value he destroyed and peoples lifes and careers his moves upended.
- thelastbender12 8y ago
  Doesn't really mean the Sears CEO is bad at his job. It is really incentive misalignment - the best financial outcome for him personally isn't the same as that for Sears.
mindcrime 8y ago
I'd love to see what Clarke and Dawe could do with that idea...

ai_ia 8y ago

I was expecting a lot from Patrick Collison. IMHO, the signal to noise ratio was low in this lecture.

rpm33 8y ago
Yep, pretty disappointing.
adora 8y ago
:( This was intended to be a talk on a pretty specific topic for the Startup School course. Day-to-day operations for pre-product market fit CEOs. Hopefully, it was useful and interesting in this context! Happy to take suggestions on how I could have done the interview better.
- ai_ia 8y ago
  Thanks for clarifying Adora.
- arikr 8y ago
  I'm excited to check this out! A suggestion that whenever people follow tends to lead to better interviews IMO (granted I haven't watched this one yet!) - Ask people about the past, not about generalized advice. Ask for specific situations and how they dealt with it. E.g. can you tell me the story of how you hired your first VP? This kind of mirrors the customer development advice -- don't ask customers what they want, observe what they do and from that infer what they want. Don't ask people to give advice, ask what they did and from that people can infer the principles behind it. Again I haven't watched it yet so you may have already been doing this. Just wanted to give the suggestion because you noted suggestions were welcome! Hope that is useful
dpeck 8y ago
Maybe a little harsh, but I agree. I enjoyed the session, but didn’t feel like it related much to the topic. Maybe that’s part of the point though, it’s do whatever it takes to keep it alive while finding PMF, reading every API log, doing on-site installs, etc.