3 ms·

> This is a new industry vertical for us Words of experience: if you want any sort of business from a new vertical, hire some people (even one if you are tiny)

by gumby 4y ago

> This is a new industry vertical for us Words of experience: if you want any sort of business from a new vertical, hire some people (even one if you are tiny) from that vertical. These folks will have the vocabulary and the experience with the pain point and hopefully an adequate network so you can talk (with your new hires!) to some people who do or don't (also extremely important to talk wit) have actually experience the pain. Those first interviews form the root of a tree: if you sounds sensible and like you actually understand their pain, some of your interview subjects can refer you to others to talk with. If you try to go in cold with zero experience in the new vertical, even if you do talk to someone you won't really understand what they are talking about. You may understand the words they are saying (except for jargon you don't know) but you won't know what they are really saying. For example "yeah, when we develop a new assay it's a pain getting our regulatory attorneys to sign off on it" but what they really mean is that the cost structure of checking with the regulator is absurd, or the regulators are nonfunctional due to congress, and so the real problem isn't something anything internal could fix. Or maybe all they mean is that the lawyers can't read LaTeX documents :-). While someone in the industry would already know how to parse the answer.

swyx 4y ago
then the question just becomes recursive doesnt it - if you have no experience or are a nobody, how do you get these experienced senior people to come work for you? why dont they just take your idea and run off with it?
- andrewstuart 4y ago
  >> why dont they just take your idea and run off with it? There is a very, very small number of people in the world with the willingness, resources and drive to build something. This is such a trivial concern it can be dismissed entirely.
- Centigonal 4y ago
  I have thoughts about this one! > why dont they just take your idea and run off with it? I think the concept of the "million dollar idea" that someone could steal is overplayed. Disrupting an industry (or even just creating an industry niche) is extremely stressful and usually involves beating long odds. Most of the good ideas are obvious to everyone in the industry, so you'll have to compete with the incumbent giants and newer fast-followers (think Zoom vs. Teams vs. Google Meet, or MySpace vs. Facebook vs Google+). I think execution matters much more than the original idea in these cases. Most of the remaining ideas are non-obvious, and people won't see the value until you succeed and the value has been realized (e.g. EVs were a stupid idea until they suddenly weren't). I also think that if a career industry exec wanted to start their own company, they'd have a stack of their own ideas to start with. Finally, I think it's a misconception that successful products always start with one clear "winning idea." The process of developing a product and reaching product-market fit involves creating a thesis, testing it against the market, and iterating. Your idea can change into something completely different by the time you find a match. > how do you get these experienced senior people to come work for you? This is a tougher question, and one that we're thinking about a lot right now, given some of the advice in this thread. I think hiring a senior industry person as an inexperienced nobody would be extremely difficult, but if you're a team with experience and resources in a separate field (e.g. tech), then there are situations where it could work. An mid-level exec might want to get hands-on again and experience an environment with more excitement and direct autonomy. Someone in a different industry might want the opportunity to teach and learn from software folks. If you have a meaningful mission, I think that can be a real motivator for some people. Finally, if hiring a senior person from another industry will let you break into a lucrative market, you're going to try and compensate them financially for that (to the extent that a smaller company can).
- catchnear4321 4y ago
  Would it surprise you to learn that there are folks with seniority and experience in all manner of fields that have really really good ideas that are never leaving their skulls? Simply because life is sufficiently complex and difficult for them that pursuing such an idea may never even occur to them? If you think you understand a vertical so well that you have a killer idea, but you need a foot in the door via internal or external expertise because you don’t know the people or the language, your biggest problem is that you are lying to yourself.
Centigonal 4y ago
This hits close to home. I've spent a good part of the last two months researching pharma, life sciences, RWD, and related topics, and there's an enormous amount to learn. It's difficult to tell the legitimate opportunities apart from the tarpits (i.e. is X process frustrating because the current solutions are inadequate, or is X process frustrating because of a regulatory/organizational obstacle that we can't meaningfully improve?). That's a big part of why I want to have more conversations. Your comment and a few others suggest hiring people with industry experience - we are going to seriously consider that.

by gumby 4y ago

swyx 4y ago

then the question just becomes recursive doesnt it - if you have no experience or are a nobody, how do you get these experienced senior people to come work for you? why dont they just take your idea and run off with it?

andrewstuart 4y ago
>> why dont they just take your idea and run off with it? There is a very, very small number of people in the world with the willingness, resources and drive to build something. This is such a trivial concern it can be dismissed entirely.
Centigonal 4y ago
I have thoughts about this one! > why dont they just take your idea and run off with it? I think the concept of the "million dollar idea" that someone could steal is overplayed. Disrupting an industry (or even just creating an industry niche) is extremely stressful and usually involves beating long odds. Most of the good ideas are obvious to everyone in the industry, so you'll have to compete with the incumbent giants and newer fast-followers (think Zoom vs. Teams vs. Google Meet, or MySpace vs. Facebook vs Google+). I think execution matters much more than the original idea in these cases. Most of the remaining ideas are non-obvious, and people won't see the value until you succeed and the value has been realized (e.g. EVs were a stupid idea until they suddenly weren't). I also think that if a career industry exec wanted to start their own company, they'd have a stack of their own ideas to start with. Finally, I think it's a misconception that successful products always start with one clear "winning idea." The process of developing a product and reaching product-market fit involves creating a thesis, testing it against the market, and iterating. Your idea can change into something completely different by the time you find a match. > how do you get these experienced senior people to come work for you? This is a tougher question, and one that we're thinking about a lot right now, given some of the advice in this thread. I think hiring a senior industry person as an inexperienced nobody would be extremely difficult, but if you're a team with experience and resources in a separate field (e.g. tech), then there are situations where it could work. An mid-level exec might want to get hands-on again and experience an environment with more excitement and direct autonomy. Someone in a different industry might want the opportunity to teach and learn from software folks. If you have a meaningful mission, I think that can be a real motivator for some people. Finally, if hiring a senior person from another industry will let you break into a lucrative market, you're going to try and compensate them financially for that (to the extent that a smaller company can).
catchnear4321 4y ago
Would it surprise you to learn that there are folks with seniority and experience in all manner of fields that have really really good ideas that are never leaving their skulls? Simply because life is sufficiently complex and difficult for them that pursuing such an idea may never even occur to them? If you think you understand a vertical so well that you have a killer idea, but you need a foot in the door via internal or external expertise because you don’t know the people or the language, your biggest problem is that you are lying to yourself.

Centigonal 4y ago

This hits close to home. I've spent a good part of the last two months researching pharma, life sciences, RWD, and related topics, and there's an enormous amount to learn. It's difficult to tell the legitimate opportunities apart from the tarpits (i.e. is X process frustrating because the current solutions are inadequate, or is X process frustrating because of a regulatory/organizational obstacle that we can't meaningfully improve?). That's a big part of why I want to have more conversations. Your comment and a few others suggest hiring people with industry experience - we are going to seriously consider that.