Startup Advice
sari and
Startup Advice
the idea here is not to eliminate risk—risk-free projects tend to be incremental. Instead, the goal is to name, quantify, and work steadily to chip away at risk. As a corollary, when presenting an idea for a new project or startup company, be candid about risk—it has the paradoxical effect of making your case more convincing.
Problem choice and decision trees in science and engineering: Cell
There are different paths to success in the building of a startup, and it’s important to choose the one that aligns with your goals and values. Do you want to build the biggest business possible, or do you want to build a business you’re proud of and want to continue working at?
Lenny Rachitsky • Jason Fried challenges your thinking on fundraising, goals, growth, and more
One of the best ways to introduce a sense of urgency is to create a series of forcing functions: deadlines, milestones and goals with clearly-defined objectives,” Palan writes in a Medium article about the experience. “TechCrunch Disrupt was just the forcing function we needed. It forced us to tackle many of the things we’d been postponing. We... See more
Productboard’s Path to Product-Market Fit
“All the talent in the world is meaningless without an atomic work ethic.”
Kieran O‘Hare • Following the ‘White-hot Fire Inside of You’
Don't build features for the sake of building 'something.' Build features to unlock something for your users. Make sure they value it. Otherwise, you're wasting your time building trash.
instagram.com
On building “Flavored” startups
Enterprise software is (mostly) not flavor-based. Sure, there are enterprise fads like the metaverse, but generally speaking, large companies only sign contracts when it feels like there is an obvious commercial advantage to doing so.
Networks are (mostly) not flavor-based. If you’re using an app because of the content created by its other users, it’s not necessarily a guarantee for success, but at least if it fails it probably won’t be because it hit a flavor-based asymptote. For instance, BeReal leveraged a unique flavor of photo sharing to build a network, but people are still using it because they like the way it helps them stay in touch with their friends. If it were just a single-player utility, it would not have scaled in the same way. Another historical example is Instagram versus Hipstamatic. Both had a cool new flavor called “photo filters,” but one had a network and the other did not. Here’s a more recent example: the network is what sets Substack stands apart from its flavor-based competition.
Tech-enabled services are not flavor-based. If you act like a tech company but really do grocery delivery, banking, education, housing, healthcare, or any other real-world service, your competition is mostly not flavor-based because starting this type of business involves a lot of cost and complexity. (Also, some, like ride hailing and delivery, are networks.) The downside is that your cost structure is probably not as great as pure tech companies, but the upside is that you have less competition.
All of these types of products can involve some flavoring to help them get off the ground. The point is not that flavoring is bad. It’s good! But it has a very specific role. Flavor provides an initial product wedge. It’s helpful for standing out initially but doesn’t provide long-term differentiation or durable advantage.
0/ The Chief of Staff role has reached a tipping point, from startups to trillion-dollar companies. I've talked to ~100 CEOs, from @NotionHQ, @Patreon, @blendlabsinc, @benchling and more, all asking same q:
How should I hire a chief of staff?
Here's what I tell them 🧵
nametwitter.comI’ve come to learn through first-hand experience that monopolies often serve as the ideal competitor to take on. There are four main reasons why:
- Monopolies have already proven the industry is viable and lucrative
- Monopolies refuse to cannibalize their own dominance
- Monopolies have institutionalized their inefficiencies
- Monopolies have the most to
Nir Zicherman • Don’t Be Scared to Take on a Monopoly
“Liberation,” viewed through a behavioral lens, is the ability to orient toward what’s appetitive (i.e., pleasant or meaningful), even in an environment full of aversive stimuli. For me, this has meant learning to stay connected to a larger vision and the joy of creativity, even during difficult times.
Yet, this is hard to do. When we perceive a... See more
Yet, this is hard to do. When we perceive a... See more