To "make something people want", you need to know your customer's value system: what's important to him and what's not. This can be hard for startups, especiall

To "make something people want", you need to know your customer's value system: what's important to him and what's not. This can be hard for startups, especially ycombinator types which may be very low budget, because their own value system is so different. Startups start with a company worth about $1 and want to turn it into a company worth about $1,000,000. Therefore startups value the ability to change rapidly -- that's why they want good programmers. Big companies on the other hand, start with a company worth $100,000,000, and want to turn it into a company worth $150,000,000. They value steady process improvement that doesn't risk their existing revenue -- that's why they want good managers. It's important to know this if you're trying to sell to a big company as well as if you're trying to compete with a big company.