Building 0-1
This is the overall promise of your startup. Expert level performance through appropriate use of your software to speed up a defined part of a businesses’ key workflow.
Oji Udezue • Where to fish to land a Unicorn (in B2B SaaS)
One of our theories is to seek out opportunities where there’s a major change. Major dislocation in the way things are. Wherever there’s turmoil, there's indecision. And wherever there’s indecision, there’s opportunity. So we look for the confusion when the big companies are confused. When the other venture groups are confused. That’s the time to... See more
Rex Woodbury • Seed Investing: The State of the Union
You and your ragtag team of engineers likely won’t be able to create something that is competitive with any big incumbent product.
However, you can build features, seed content, and brand it in a way that is so obnoxiously relevant for a particular group of people that their only possible reaction is “Well, fuck. You... See more
Nikita Biertwitter.comBelief in oneself and one’s vision for how the world could be different is what fosters a cult — or what I like to call the “atomic unit of human coordination.”
Molly Mielke • conviction
I've been trying to create a "social network for makers" for the last 15 years with different approaches.
I made what was basically WIP multiple times 10+ years ago, but it failed each time. The reason is, that a super early, super small community has different needs from a later stage, larger... See more
Marc Köhlbruggetwitter.comA central thesis is that all products are asking things of their customers: to do things in a certain way, to think of themselves in a certain way — and usually that means changing what one does or how one does it; it often means changing how one thinks of oneself.
Here's a common startup situation. A team busts their ass for months building the first version of their product. It's almost done. Now a big question emerges -- how do you get the first people to use your product? Hmm...
If you find yourself at this moment, then you are already in a bad... See more
andrew chentwitter.comThe hard part about figuring out what customers want is figuring out that you need to figure it out

How to de-risk building a social network
The components that have the most engineering scope tend to be wholly reusable—such as the friendfinder & invite system. The fastest way to arrive at an app that resonates is to run rapid experiments by only changing the interaction model