5 ms·

Mistakes I've made (2011) [slides]

80 points by graderjs 5y ago

PennRobotics 5y ago
1. focused on the 'big picture' too much 2. focused on the wrong things 3. didn't spend enough time on culture from day one 4. didn't quit my 'day job' fast enough 5. drank my own Kool-Aid 6. underestimated the time it would take to raise money 7. listened to the tech press 8. focused too much on competition 9. didn't learn from competition 10. didn't communicate ... plus 59 other slides
- xnorswap 5y ago
  Sometimes it's the details and specifics that are more interesting than the outline.
  - PennRobotics 5y ago
    People should have no trouble deciding from the outline whether they are interested or not.
ArcMex 5y ago
Where are they now?
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- yesenadam 5y ago
  This has some info, though not a huge amount post-2011. https://www.tarahunt.com/about#bio https://www.tarahunt.com/about#bio
mittermayr 5y ago
I provide prototyping services to various startups (from idea/seed to first MVP) and while I respect the content of these slides, they won't do anything for the person who's still at the beginning of that journey. Most of my onboarding/pre-sales calls are essentially me trying to reduce the damage they will incur to themselves and their seed investors (knowing that they, like everyone else before them, will run into the same troubles). I used to "lightly" recommend slides like these (from the many, many others who crossed that bridge) to my clients, but I doubt a single person ever took up the advice. Everyone thinks they know how to attack it, they will see the problem before it arises. It most definitely is not a problem of "being unaware". You can be 100% perfectly aware of the fact that you need to downscale your grand vision to a greatly-refined MVP first, or know how and when to reach product-market-fit, or what to look for in a co-founder, but after those highly-motivated first few days or weeks, just after you've placed that merch order for the logo hoodies and had your first two client meetings, the ship suddenly changes course and all good intention and advice is out the window. I'd say 9/10 startups I've worked with ran into those problems mentioned here, and not a single slide in the world will change that in the future. That's the issue. The information is out there. The ability to reflect on it, not just to hype yourself up to get going, but constantly throughout, is not.
- LaundroMat 5y ago
  "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." -- Mark Twain (allegedly)
andi999 5y ago
So I am wondering. Did the author have a success later? Otherwise it means the mistakes the author think were a problem, were not really a problem but something else.
- to1y 5y ago
  The "success" will come after everyone starts believing shes successful. The only thing she has created is her own wikipedia article.
anyfactor 5y ago
I don't have the energy to go through slides ... Altleast without knowing the author first. The first slide literally says, "serial entrepreneur (first startup)". This kinda lowered her authority for me. Then I googled her. From her wikipedia page, " She has been called a 'pioneer in online marketing and one of the most respected authorities on online communities'". Ummm okay.... The wikipedia is brief. Yet it referenced her YouTube page which is small and inactive. The wikipedia page uses phrases like coined a movement, one of the most influential women in tech, lead their marketing efforts, one of the lead bloggers on the popular Canadian online portal, etc. I still don't know who she is, don't even care to know that at this point. Her wikipedia page was written like a linkedIn bio. Please give her wiki page a read than tell me if I am over-reacting. https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_Hunt https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_Hunt
- ramblerman 5y ago
  You are right, haven't seen it this "obvious" before. It's probably really difficult for wikipedia to define if it's an actual celebrity, or just a self promotion page, but hope this doesn't become a trend. This definitely is a self promotion page.
  - anyfactor 5y ago
    I part time as smm and I have came across few professional wikipedia article writers. They even have connections to networks of blogs that validate citations for wikipedia references. It is a well known phenomenon. That is why I looked into the author rather than reading their content. Suppose you want good PR for your CRM/SAAS and a wikipedia article. You contact a blog chain to validate your SAAS in whatever adjective your thing suits your SEO objective. The blogs will sell you a slot for their generic listicle or review articles. Then they will list your CRM in the "top 10 CRM of 2022" or whatever. Now you can mention that in your wikipedia page. There is also a snowball effect going on as the content of that blog article will be used in other blogs of that network. This strategy naturally applies to people as well.
- _0ffh 5y ago
  Right, it seems like she's a pr type doing what pr types gonna do.
hardwaresofton 5y ago
I clicked through the slideshare like a dummy but Thanks to ~10 seconds of google searching I found a slideshare downloader[0], and downloaded the PDF of this slide set[1]. Dunno how long the link will be available, but just drop the slide share URL in again if you need to view the PDF again. There is some useful information in there though: - (Slide 20) know your offramps and offramps (if that matters to your business) - (Slide 23[2]) basic funnel theory, what to measure and tools to measure it - (Slide 26[2]) basic funnel debugging [0]: https://downloader.la/slideshare-downloader.html https://downloader.la/slideshare-downloader.html [1]: https://downloader.la/temp/6242de7e74227.pdf https://downloader.la/temp/6242de7e74227.pdf [2]: https://imgur.com/a/LKZplvx https://imgur.com/a/LKZplvx
personjerry 5y ago
Honestly if you find this useful, you'll probably find YC's Startup School[0] much more useful. Also recommended: The Mom Test for tactical advice in the early stages of finding PMF, and The Startup Owner's Manual for the high level view of the journey ahead. [0]: https://www.startupschool.org/ https://www.startupschool.org/
Barrera 5y ago
That last Venn diagram is a little alarming. Startup founders are just one quality away from being serial killers, dictators, or postal cases.
brudgers 5y ago
Previous discussion with comments by the author, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3097345 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3097345
- danuker 5y ago
  > with comments by the author You mean comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=tarahunt https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=tarahunt

80 points by graderjs 5y ago

1. focused on the 'big picture' too much 2. focused on the wrong things 3. didn't spend enough time on culture from day one 4. didn't quit my 'day job' fast enough 5. drank my own Kool-Aid 6. underestimated the time it would take to raise money 7. listened to the tech press 8. focused too much on competition 9. didn't learn from competition 10. didn't communicate ... plus 59 other slides

xnorswap 5y ago
Sometimes it's the details and specifics that are more interesting than the outline.
- PennRobotics 5y ago
  People should have no trouble deciding from the outline whether they are interested or not.

ArcMex 5y ago

Where are they now?

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
yesenadam 5y ago
This has some info, though not a huge amount post-2011. https://www.tarahunt.com/about#bio https://www.tarahunt.com/about#bio

mittermayr 5y ago

I provide prototyping services to various startups (from idea/seed to first MVP) and while I respect the content of these slides, they won't do anything for the person who's still at the beginning of that journey. Most of my onboarding/pre-sales calls are essentially me trying to reduce the damage they will incur to themselves and their seed investors (knowing that they, like everyone else before them, will run into the same troubles). I used to "lightly" recommend slides like these (from the many, many others who crossed that bridge) to my clients, but I doubt a single person ever took up the advice. Everyone thinks they know how to attack it, they will see the problem before it arises. It most definitely is not a problem of "being unaware". You can be 100% perfectly aware of the fact that you need to downscale your grand vision to a greatly-refined MVP first, or know how and when to reach product-market-fit, or what to look for in a co-founder, but after those highly-motivated first few days or weeks, just after you've placed that merch order for the logo hoodies and had your first two client meetings, the ship suddenly changes course and all good intention and advice is out the window. I'd say 9/10 startups I've worked with ran into those problems mentioned here, and not a single slide in the world will change that in the future. That's the issue. The information is out there. The ability to reflect on it, not just to hype yourself up to get going, but constantly throughout, is not.

LaundroMat 5y ago
"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." -- Mark Twain (allegedly)

andi999 5y ago

So I am wondering. Did the author have a success later? Otherwise it means the mistakes the author think were a problem, were not really a problem but something else.

to1y 5y ago
The "success" will come after everyone starts believing shes successful. The only thing she has created is her own wikipedia article.

anyfactor 5y ago

I don't have the energy to go through slides ... Altleast without knowing the author first. The first slide literally says, "serial entrepreneur (first startup)". This kinda lowered her authority for me. Then I googled her. From her wikipedia page, " She has been called a 'pioneer in online marketing and one of the most respected authorities on online communities'". Ummm okay.... The wikipedia is brief. Yet it referenced her YouTube page which is small and inactive. The wikipedia page uses phrases like coined a movement, one of the most influential women in tech, lead their marketing efforts, one of the lead bloggers on the popular Canadian online portal, etc. I still don't know who she is, don't even care to know that at this point. Her wikipedia page was written like a linkedIn bio. Please give her wiki page a read than tell me if I am over-reacting. https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_Hunt https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_Hunt

ramblerman 5y ago
You are right, haven't seen it this "obvious" before. It's probably really difficult for wikipedia to define if it's an actual celebrity, or just a self promotion page, but hope this doesn't become a trend. This definitely is a self promotion page.
- anyfactor 5y ago
  I part time as smm and I have came across few professional wikipedia article writers. They even have connections to networks of blogs that validate citations for wikipedia references. It is a well known phenomenon. That is why I looked into the author rather than reading their content. Suppose you want good PR for your CRM/SAAS and a wikipedia article. You contact a blog chain to validate your SAAS in whatever adjective your thing suits your SEO objective. The blogs will sell you a slot for their generic listicle or review articles. Then they will list your CRM in the "top 10 CRM of 2022" or whatever. Now you can mention that in your wikipedia page. There is also a snowball effect going on as the content of that blog article will be used in other blogs of that network. This strategy naturally applies to people as well.
_0ffh 5y ago
Right, it seems like she's a pr type doing what pr types gonna do.

hardwaresofton 5y ago

I clicked through the slideshare like a dummy but Thanks to ~10 seconds of google searching I found a slideshare downloader[0], and downloaded the PDF of this slide set[1]. Dunno how long the link will be available, but just drop the slide share URL in again if you need to view the PDF again. There is some useful information in there though: - (Slide 20) know your offramps and offramps (if that matters to your business) - (Slide 23[2]) basic funnel theory, what to measure and tools to measure it - (Slide 26[2]) basic funnel debugging [0]: https://downloader.la/slideshare-downloader.html https://downloader.la/slideshare-downloader.html [1]: https://downloader.la/temp/6242de7e74227.pdf https://downloader.la/temp/6242de7e74227.pdf [2]: https://imgur.com/a/LKZplvx https://imgur.com/a/LKZplvx

personjerry 5y ago

Honestly if you find this useful, you'll probably find YC's Startup School[0] much more useful. Also recommended: The Mom Test for tactical advice in the early stages of finding PMF, and The Startup Owner's Manual for the high level view of the journey ahead. [0]: https://www.startupschool.org/ https://www.startupschool.org/

Barrera 5y ago

That last Venn diagram is a little alarming. Startup founders are just one quality away from being serial killers, dictators, or postal cases.

brudgers 5y ago

Previous discussion with comments by the author, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3097345 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3097345

danuker 5y ago
> with comments by the author You mean comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=tarahunt https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=tarahunt