Friday, May 21, 2021

Startup: how to:

Motivation and intention

Fight the fear

Not only this is required to jump start the business. What is more important: to sustain and keep motivation reliable continuously during long period of time. Failures and weather changes should not prevent us from keep going.

Michael Seibel said: "I know the guy who grew up during terrorist bombings in Colombia. He has done it very hard. And you are telling me that merely doing a startup is hard?"

Enjoy the process

Michael Seibel from Y Combinator in his cool speech described the reality of startup world. More than 90% fail. Majority of those having success make their founders financially independent in about 10 years from start. So the question is are we ready to waste 10 years of life if we get nothing out of that with 90% probability? The answer is yes if and only if we enjoy these 10 years.

How can we enjoy them then? There could be 2 options. First is just doing what we like to do. Engineers like coding, painters like painting. We should not base a startup on the activity we don't like. Second is to find our life mission. It is honorable to deserve life to something great, to change the world, to build a temple. Investors of Silicone Valley are overwhelmed and tired of people who are doing startup just for money.

Low burning rate

Experience is of Michael Seibel from Y Combinator. At the first stage of startup (though later on also) low burning rate is critical. Many startups fail just because investment money are over, founders are not engineers and 3rd party engineer needs his paycheck every month. Unlike this, the best case is when the founder is an engineer, doing van dwelling instead of paying rent, eating food pantry instead of store groceries. If the burning rate is next to zero, investment money is not important for the startup.

Launch as fast as possible

Feedback from the first customers is crucial. Otherwise, we could lose months or even years developing something nobody needs.

How to get first customers?

Michael Seibel from Y Combinator: friends and investors are not our first customers. The best bet is to think about: where is the society of customers who are screaming about this problem? Who will say "Thank God this app exists!"




No comments:

Post a Comment