Job descriptions are never exhaustive, even from the beginning. They represent a set of needs for a specific context and time, which after a few months no longer reflects reality. Yet companies hire people based on their ability to match that fixed job description. They hire for the short-term.
Why start from something so specific? Instead, find... See more
Two thoughts: The best startups are masters of asymmetric warfare -- they don't fight on the battlefield the incumbent selects. And, users often understand their problems well but are horrible at suggesting features to solve these problems.
Sam Altman on why you shouldn’t track absolute user growth in the early days of a startup
“Nothing but a great product will save you; you can get everything else right and it still won’t work.”
He points out that almost all startup founders get the following... See more
-1 to 0 is when you figure out what you want to work on. It’s when you decide where to allocate the next 5-10 years of your life.
This may sound simple, but it can be overwhelming and isolating in practice. That period before SPC was not my first -1 to 0 experience. I spent the year after leaving Facebook to start Cove feeling like I was banging my... See more
It can help to reverse the polarity of our relationship with new ideas. We often treat them with reverence; before long, confirmation bias sets in and we begin looking for reasons why they will succeed and ignoring evidence suggesting they might fail. A common failure mode is to jump on the first idea and get started—this is probably the worst... See more