minutes about how to start a startup
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009origin reading: http://www.paulgraham.com/start.html
writing following lines is just for my own minutes
3 big things:
- to start with good people
- make something customers actually want
- spend as little money as possible
useful points:
- the overall plan is straightforward
- don’t think about how to do database matches instead of how stuff works in the real world
- an idea for a startup is only beginning, and from that point all you have to do is execute
- what matters is not ideas, but the people who have them. good people can fix bad ideas, but good ideas can’t save bad people
- in a technology startup, which most startups are, the founders should include technical people
- in nearly every failed startup, the real problem was that customers didn’t want the product
the things every startup need to do:
get a version 1 out as soon as you can, but must include the thing customers want.
the only way to make something customers want is to get a prototype in front of them and refine it based on their reactions.
talk to as many VCs as you can, even if you don’t want their money, because a) they may be on the board of someone who will buy you, and b) if you seem impressive, they’ll be discouraged from investing in your competitors. but you may wonder how much to tell VCs. some of them may one day be funding your competitors. i think the best plan is not to be overtly secretive, but not to tell them everything either.
once you get big (in users or employees) it gets hard change your product.
that’s the key to success as a startup. there is nothing more important than understanding your business. google’s secret weapon waas simply that they understood search.
negative lessons is straightfoward to avoid errors:
- don’t have a lot of meetings
- don’t have chunk of code that multiple people own
- don’t have a sales guy running company
- don’t make a high-end product
- don’t let your code too big
- don’t leave finding bugs to QA people
- don’t go too long between releases
- don’t isolate developers from users
