Sure you need to understand your product, you need to have an instinct for what the customer could want. But most startups have no lack of ego. The founders h

Sure you need to understand your product, you need to have an instinct for what the customer could want. But most startups have no lack of ego. The founders have so much of themselves vested in it that the opposite is usually true: they have to learn to take themselves out of it. It's not about them; it's about everyone. I think one of the biggest problems with startups is the pride of authorship. Everyone thinks their startup is good the same way everyone who writes music or poetry likes it: because it comes from them, it reflects them. By saying "make something people want," I think he's not saying, "don't use your instincts," but rather the more important advice, "pull yourself out of it and remember that it's not about you."