Valuable Lessons in Building a Company
Building a successful company is a challenging journey filled with valuable lessons. From the importance of thorough research before starting to the impact of talented individuals and the value of faking it till you make it, this content shares insights on the realities of entrepreneurship and what it takes to thrive in the tech sector. Explore key takeaways on startup growth, team building, and smart decision-making to help guide your entrepreneurial endeavors.
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Presentation Transcript
Lessons Ive learned building a company TYE 2014
A little about me 2011: Jatalo (www.jatalo.com) - socially- conscious backpack company 2012: Crowdery (www.crowdery.com) - predictive analytics for retail brands, YC S13 2013: Stanford
Startups are hard. Everything you plan will take twice as long and cost three times as much. Most successful companies in the high- growth tech sector take at least 5 years to reach a desired outcome. Paul Graham s startup growth graph
Before starting a company... Think of all the reasons to not work on the company Ask others to poke holes in your idea Do research to understand why your solution does not currently exist (is there demand?) After all of this, if the expected outcome of doing the company is greater than the opportunity cost, then it might be something to work on.
People are the single biggest influencer of success in a company. Compatibility as well as quality Pedigree is largely unimportant (look for results) Fight hard for the best and don t settle Go after people who others recommend
Dont wait to find a rockstar programmer. Talent attracts talent Hard problems are more fun/satisfying If you re not technical, become technical. If it s not possible to become sufficiently technical, you re probably working on the wrong problem.
Fake it till you make it Hold off building an actual product for as long as possible. Validate the solution first. Tools Amazon Mechanical Turk (distributed data collection) Form builders (Google, Wufoo) 1 fake hr ~ 10+ engg hrs
VC value Venture capitalists are not going to build your business for you. Venture capitalists will provide you with connections/introductions. Beg and borrow before taking VC money o Successful examples: Sun, Apple, Google, Microsoft
Know your metrics/KPIs Numbers are only statistically significant if your sample is significant Test, test, test Iterate, iterate, iterate Qualitative feedback can be as useful if not more than quantitative feedback o Make it easy for customers to ask for what they want
Transitioning from founder to CEO is like going from being a full- time programmer to a full-time psychologist. - Drew Houston, founder/CEO of Dropbox
Limited life experience + overgeneralization = advice - Paul Buchheit, founder of Gmail
