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Nice write up on your experience in YC, thanks for that. How much do you think you get distracted by talking and listening with others in your YC network vs ac

Nice write up on your experience in YC, thanks for that. How much do you think you get distracted by talking and listening with others in your YC network vs actually focusing on your product? As a lone wolf programmer, I avoid talking to people

yaseer 6y ago
> As a lone wolf programmer, I avoid talking to people I've built things solo with my PhD (dropped out), and collaboratively in a startup. The biggest mistake we make is building the wrong thing. We need to talk to people, whether it's customers, co-founders or colleagues to correct all the incorrect assumptions we've made, but can't see. If you're building something new, there's likely to be many, many incorrect assumptions...
- allenleein 6y ago
  > The biggest mistake we make is building the wrong thing I don't think talking to users can fix that. If you have the wrong vision about the product, you probably will talk to the 'wrong users' too. You’re not in the market the users think you’re in — you’re in the market you believe you’re in. That approach will also lead you to very incremental solutions or even make you run around in circles achieving nothing. It lowers the cost of failure (downside), but also the potential impact of success (upside).
  - rytill 6y ago
    Can you explain your approach/philosophy, or is it intuitive?
    - allenleein 6y ago
      I believe the most successful companies don't discover markets, they create them. Visionaries like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk forge the macro (10x) jump and then ask customers for the micro improvements. I'm writing an essay about this topic, feel free to take a look the draft if your are interested :) https://ab0ve.substack.com/p/ec282c2c-95fa-4914-820f-7463cb51dc7d https://ab0ve.substack.com/p/ec282c2c-95fa-4914-820f-7463cb5...
      - tjs8rj 6y ago
        It looks more symbiotic in my experience. Apple now has the power to “create markets” because they have a reputation, a brand, and lots of money. Steve Jobs was once a nobody working on a startup, and nobodies working on startups are at the whim of the market. He rode the wave of dramatically increasing enthusiasm for consumer computing, which had been a hobby industry for years at that point and had began to take off. The market already wanted it, he didn’t create it. Likewise, Elon Musk has been a big personality for years. Now he can start a company drilling holes and attract big partnerships and investments. When he started, he was just a nobody making maps software, then still nearly a nobody making internet money transmission software. Both relied on the massive wave of internet popularity in the 90s, with PayPal riding eBays wave. In hindsight, victory seems obvious, it looks like they created their markets. In their time, they rode a market wave. Markets are people, and you can’t make people want something they don’t want.
unamashana 6y ago
They try to minimize the distractions (and they recommend you do too). Personally, I like being distracted a bit and mingling so it worked out just fine for me. Other than the group office hours, they don't insist you attend anything up until the demo day preparation starts.
- abhinav22 6y ago
  Thanks

yaseer 6y ago

> As a lone wolf programmer, I avoid talking to people I've built things solo with my PhD (dropped out), and collaboratively in a startup. The biggest mistake we make is building the wrong thing. We need to talk to people, whether it's customers, co-founders or colleagues to correct all the incorrect assumptions we've made, but can't see. If you're building something new, there's likely to be many, many incorrect assumptions...

allenleein 6y ago
> The biggest mistake we make is building the wrong thing I don't think talking to users can fix that. If you have the wrong vision about the product, you probably will talk to the 'wrong users' too. You’re not in the market the users think you’re in — you’re in the market you believe you’re in. That approach will also lead you to very incremental solutions or even make you run around in circles achieving nothing. It lowers the cost of failure (downside), but also the potential impact of success (upside).
- rytill 6y ago
  Can you explain your approach/philosophy, or is it intuitive?
  - allenleein 6y ago
    I believe the most successful companies don't discover markets, they create them. Visionaries like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk forge the macro (10x) jump and then ask customers for the micro improvements. I'm writing an essay about this topic, feel free to take a look the draft if your are interested :) https://ab0ve.substack.com/p/ec282c2c-95fa-4914-820f-7463cb51dc7d https://ab0ve.substack.com/p/ec282c2c-95fa-4914-820f-7463cb5...
    - tjs8rj 6y ago
      It looks more symbiotic in my experience. Apple now has the power to “create markets” because they have a reputation, a brand, and lots of money. Steve Jobs was once a nobody working on a startup, and nobodies working on startups are at the whim of the market. He rode the wave of dramatically increasing enthusiasm for consumer computing, which had been a hobby industry for years at that point and had began to take off. The market already wanted it, he didn’t create it. Likewise, Elon Musk has been a big personality for years. Now he can start a company drilling holes and attract big partnerships and investments. When he started, he was just a nobody making maps software, then still nearly a nobody making internet money transmission software. Both relied on the massive wave of internet popularity in the 90s, with PayPal riding eBays wave. In hindsight, victory seems obvious, it looks like they created their markets. In their time, they rode a market wave. Markets are people, and you can’t make people want something they don’t want.

unamashana 6y ago

They try to minimize the distractions (and they recommend you do too). Personally, I like being distracted a bit and mingling so it worked out just fine for me. Other than the group office hours, they don't insist you attend anything up until the demo day preparation starts.

abhinav22 6y ago
Thanks