4 ms·
I read most of Paul Graham's essays and the core theories I associate with him are: 1: As a founder it is more important to be competent and productive than to
by mg 4y ago
I read most of Paul Graham's essays and the core theories I associate with him are:
1: As a founder it is more important to be competent and productive than to seem competent and productive.
2: It is an advantage to trust your own competence and ignore common practices.
3: It is better to build something for real users than for imaginary users.
4: A great product is more valuable than great marketing.
They still ring true with me. But maybe I am biased and just remember the thesis that I agree with.
- fluxinflex 4y agoUnfortunately (4) is probably not followed by most startups. At least that is my experience. Marketing makes mules to stallions.
- mg 4y agoI talk to quite a lot of startups and most follow none of them. I think that is why PG brings these points up. It is what usually makes things go wrong. It is against human nature to follow these points. People want to impress and fit in. They don't want to sit and build a little thing for just one user.
- fluxinflex 4y ago> People want to impress and fit in. Those that impress the most are those that fit the least.
- phkahler 4y ago>> Marketing makes mules to stallions. Are they marketing a product or the company? If they're selling the company I like to stay away. Even places I've worked with legitimate product engineering kinda suck when management is distracted by prospective investors or buyers. It's a misalignment of priorities between the top and bottom.
- osigurdson 4y agoExtreme marketing can work in a highly fragmented market where no dominant players have been established - basically the Goaddy model. I see similar things with Monday.com, asana, etc.