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Is this what VCs want when they ask what you have learned from your users? It sounds like most of the learnings are about what his users do wrong, and why. Ther

Is this what VCs want when they ask what you have learned from your users? It sounds like most of the learnings are about what his users do wrong, and why. There's surprisingly little in the way of "our users told us X and we realized we need to do Y". I assumed that when people ask what you've learned from your users, they're not asking you to list how lousy your users are at doing various things, and why they just need to listen to you more. I would actually be interested to read a post about what a VC has learned from his/her users, in a constructive sense.

inglor 4y ago
It's a literary device. What he's telling you is that he learned: - That founders don't believe YC-partners often because their advice is counterintuitive. The underlying message is that it's important to not only give advice (sell your service) but also understand if it's being taken (your service is being actually used). - That founders (sers) come with presumptions and those affect how they apply your advice (use your product). In his "hack the test" example he emphasizes how important it is to persist in your advice (educate your users) so they unlearn old habits. etc.. He skips directly spelling out the conclusions to encourage you to read more than headlines which makes the reading (IMO) more interesting.
- gnicholas 4y ago
  I guess that's one way to put it. But skipping the conclusions means that we don't know what, if anything, they are doing differently to solve these issues. Just telling someone "trust us, you'll regret it if you don't follow our advice" isn't exactly a compelling argument. I'ma also not sure PG is trying to use a literary device, as you suggest. His normal writing style is very candid, so it would be surprising if he were all of a sudden burying (omitting?) the lede here.
tlb 4y ago
What YC's users want most of all is for their startups not to fail, so the essay talks about learning what makes startups fail and how to help founders avoid it. Founders ask for other stuff from YC too: a hangout lounge in SF, comfier seating, shared office space. But helping their startups succeed is 100x more important than all those frills, as any founder who has succeeded or failed will confirm. Markets where customers only care about one thing are rare, so people aren't very familiar with them. They're unlike commodity services like dentists, where you care about convenience & frills, and more like heart surgeons where you want the one that will give you the best chance of not dying. I suspect that not providing the frills helps YC attract better founders, because the best founders care only about their startup succeeding, while the scenesters care more about the frills. Also, it sets a good example of focusing on the most important thing, as startups should. Most importantly, by not spending much time on other stuff, YC can focus its energy on helping startups succeed.

inglor 4y ago

It's a literary device. What he's telling you is that he learned: - That founders don't believe YC-partners often because their advice is counterintuitive. The underlying message is that it's important to not only give advice (sell your service) but also understand if it's being taken (your service is being actually used). - That founders (sers) come with presumptions and those affect how they apply your advice (use your product). In his "hack the test" example he emphasizes how important it is to persist in your advice (educate your users) so they unlearn old habits. etc.. He skips directly spelling out the conclusions to encourage you to read more than headlines which makes the reading (IMO) more interesting.

gnicholas 4y ago
I guess that's one way to put it. But skipping the conclusions means that we don't know what, if anything, they are doing differently to solve these issues. Just telling someone "trust us, you'll regret it if you don't follow our advice" isn't exactly a compelling argument. I'ma also not sure PG is trying to use a literary device, as you suggest. His normal writing style is very candid, so it would be surprising if he were all of a sudden burying (omitting?) the lede here.

tlb 4y ago

What YC's users want most of all is for their startups not to fail, so the essay talks about learning what makes startups fail and how to help founders avoid it. Founders ask for other stuff from YC too: a hangout lounge in SF, comfier seating, shared office space. But helping their startups succeed is 100x more important than all those frills, as any founder who has succeeded or failed will confirm. Markets where customers only care about one thing are rare, so people aren't very familiar with them. They're unlike commodity services like dentists, where you care about convenience & frills, and more like heart surgeons where you want the one that will give you the best chance of not dying. I suspect that not providing the frills helps YC attract better founders, because the best founders care only about their startup succeeding, while the scenesters care more about the frills. Also, it sets a good example of focusing on the most important thing, as startups should. Most importantly, by not spending much time on other stuff, YC can focus its energy on helping startups succeed.