[HN Gopher] Startups: The Beginning
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Startups: The Beginning
Author : jeremylevy
Score : 70 points
Date : 2020-11-21 17:27 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (foundersatwork.posthaven.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (foundersatwork.posthaven.com)
| breck wrote:
| Seems like a refined version of her earlier
| (https://www.ycombinator.com/library/5l-how-not-to-fail), which I
| think is one of the best checklists of startup advice out there.
| jl wrote:
| Thanks Breck!
| dvt wrote:
| I mentioned this before, but I think jl's and pg's essays have
| been a bit hit-and-miss in the past few years. No doubt due to
| the fact that YC is no longer a scrappy incubator, but a
| venerable titan of industry. YC isn't like going to "summer camp"
| any more, but more akin to getting an MBA.
|
| For example, this quote by Jessica: "A good way to ensure that
| you make something people want is to make something you yourself
| want." -- is at odds with the ethos of one of my favorite pg
| essays (all the way from 2005[1]) in which I feel he really gets
| to the _core_ of "building what people want:"
|
| > If you want to learn what people want, read Dale Carnegie's How
| to Win Friends and Influence People. When a friend recommended
| this book, I couldn't believe he was serious. But he insisted it
| was good, so I read it, and he was right. It deals with the most
| difficult problem in human experience: how to see things from
| other people's point of view, instead of thinking only of
| yourself. [...] Most smart people don't do that very well. But
| adding this ability to raw brainpower is like adding tin to
| copper. The result is bronze, which is so much harder that it
| seems a different metal.
|
| I think building things that _you_ want is a bit of a red
| herring. Every time I 'm working on a project that solely solves
| _my_ problems, the solution tends to be solipsistic and myopic.
| In any case, jl 's essay is a great read, and I really do miss
| when HN had mostly startup content on the front page :)
|
| [1] http://www.paulgraham.com/bronze.html
| jl wrote:
| "But remember that making something for yourself is just a
| heuristic to guide you in finding an idea. In the actual
| execution, you need to focus on users. You need to understand
| what they want, and be fanatically dedicated to making them
| happy."
|
| This point aside, I haven't written anything in 2 years, so
| it's possible I'm out of shape :)
| dvt wrote:
| > This point aside, I haven't written anything in 2 years, so
| it's possible I'm out of shape :)
|
| Not at all, it was a great read! And perhaps, as @eloff
| mentioned, my own biases might be at work. As an introvert,
| it's a more significant effort for me to go _out there_ and
| investigate other people 's problems (so pg's point might be
| more salient).
| eloff wrote:
| Those bits of advice don't necessarily contradict. Also startup
| advice is a bit like proverbs. There's wisdom there, but you
| have to apply it correctly. It's not algebra. The founder of
| Angel List, Naval Ravikant, specifically called that kind of
| reasoning out as faulty logic in his famous tweet storm (which
| you can also find recorded on YouTube.)
|
| You do have to make sure you're solving a problem that other
| people share. If you're the only one who has the problem you
| won't be able to make a business out of it. However, if you're
| solving a problem you yourself have, Jessica is right that
| you'll have special insight into what your customers want that
| you wouldn't with another kind of problem you don't know about.
| I think it's great as initial guidance in building the MVP if
| you have a solution in mind to aim for. Once you've launched
| (and before then, if you can) you should be talking to users.
|
| Also every time one of PG's essays shows up here, I see this
| criticism that he's out of touch. Which is possible. It's also
| possible he's still an expert at evaluating and advising
| startups and it's your own bias talking - because now you see
| him as an out of touch rich guy. Careful with that kind of
| criticism, because very often the problem is just you and your
| own perceptions.
| ignoramous wrote:
| That pg quote isn't necessarily at odds with the jl quote you
| pointed out?
|
| I believe, pg is talking about scaling up your product so that
| multiple users that feel the same pain as you do can use it as
| well: In other words, fixing users' "jobs to be done" [0].
|
| In fact, one of the other pg essays really drives home jl's
| point that one comes across things they need but don't exist,
| regularly: http://paulgraham.com/schlep.html
|
| [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21457259
| blackrock wrote:
| It seems that some of these startups are solving some small
| problem to automate tasks, on another company's platform.
|
| Like to update your content across multiple social media
| platforms. While they are useful to some people, I don't really
| see them as game changers worthy of startup funding.
| twmahna wrote:
| Jessica (the author of this article) is too nice to give this
| article the clickbaity title it deserves: "The 3 things it takes
| to be a successful startup founder".
| lianaherrera wrote:
| > Don't worry about being a woman. Yes, it may be a little harder
| for you as a female founder. But it's not going to be so much
| harder that it will make the difference between success and
| failure. Startups at least have this advantage over the corporate
| world: they are already so hard that the additional difficulty
| imposed by being a woman is rounding error in comparison.
|
| As a female founder of a YC startup (bottomless.com, YC W19), I
| totally resonate with this. While it is true that being a female
| in tech can be difficult, those difficulties don't even compare
| to how hard it is to get and sustain traction in a startup.
| stevenj wrote:
| I really appreciated this piece, Jessica. Primarily because of
| its focus. I've heard many of the points in it before, but the
| fact you narrowed it down to these three and then included
| practical and specific commentary (based on your deep experience
| with startups) on each was very helpful.
|
| Thank you.
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