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.

• How valuable is what I’m doing?


• What makes this hard for others to do?


• Could this get dramatically easier because of what others launch or how the industry evolves?


• If this does get easier, do I have a “Plan B” to create differentiated value?
  
  Note: An early version of this post appeared in my personal blog (still a work in progress). Decided to

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i have thought about this hacker news comment nearly every day since november ninth twenty seventeen https://t.co/mz5auDBkKl

Inspiration is a productivity multiplier, but it’s perishable. Act quickly.

if the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) gains traction, then the company will likely receive funding and a growth period will occur. Invariably, that means more people will join the team and the vision from the initial engineer needs to be shared.

Early on, when the team is small (2–15 people), typically processes are loose as the overhead in aligning... See more

Instead of doing broad but thin market research (e.g., customer surveys), focus on one person (or a small group) and go as deep as you can, learning everything about how your product fits into their broader lives. Or become your customer—spend a day, a month, or even a few years in the role you're trying to sell to before attempting to build a... See more