Startup Systems
systems that power startups
Startup Systems
From James Clear's 3-2-1: Why small things matter, reframing failure, and how to cherish life
"Life rewards action, not intelligence.
Many brilliant people talk themselves out of getting started, and being smart doesn't help very much without the courage to act.
You can't win if you're not in the game."
To actually engage in deep work, they not only have to create the time on their calendar, but also have to experience the anxiety and uncertainty that comes with being offline. Getting more precision around what you find aversive is the first step in learning more effective ways to deal with the emotions that come up.
Casey Rosengren • Hack Your Focus With Body Doubling
From James Clear's 3-2-1 Email: The work required to be happy, and important lessons that aren't taught in school
... See moreMany people won't attempt something unless they can find an example of someone else who is already doing it. Rely on this type of thinking too much and you'll never do anything interesting.
Your path through life is unique. It is importan
from nfx.com The AI Spectrum for Founders
Maximum leverage is the result of commitment, of daily persistence, of gradual and insane and apparently useless effort over time.
The moment of maximum leverage
Replacing bad systems with bad systems
seths.blog
The network effect is sticky and hard to overcome, and as we move the internet of things from our phones to just about everything we touch, it’s worth thinking about resilience, flexibility and the reason we need something in the first place.
Often, we end up compromising about our compromises, maximizing for the wrong outcomes and getting hooked on a new system that forgot what the original system was even for.
When a system is new, few are watching, so a handful of people with intent can design it and optimize it. As it gains in scale and impact, it calcifies at the same time that new tech arrives to codify the decisions that were made when the conditions were very different.
You can do what's called the board mission pledge where the people on your board are required as a condition of being on your board to pledge that they'll use their business judgment under Delaware law to support the mission, not just the narrow interest of shareholders. You can build, we call it an LTSPV, which is basically a financing instrument ... See more
Reflections on a movement | Eric Ries (creator of the Lean Startup methodology)
We try to be as rigorous and data-driven as possible in quarterly planning. All objectives are measurable, either in terms of quantifiable thresholds or Boolean “was X completed or not.” Our objectives are very aggressive, and often at the end of the quarter we only end up completing 70% in one direction or another. The remaining 30% helps identify... See more
Lenny Rachitsky • How Perplexity builds product
how Perplexity builds
So why wouldn't all founders start by engaging with users individually? Because it's hard and demoralizing. Sales gives you a kind of harsh feedback that "marketing" doesn't. You try to convince someone to use what you've built, and they won't. These conversations are painful, but necessary. I suspect from my experience that founders who want to re... See more