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Jessica Livingston’s Pretty Complete List on How Not to Fail

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Re: Jessica Livingston’s Pretty Complete List on How Not to Fail

#41

Post by CodyReichert »

humanrebar wrote: post #21
pfarnsworth wrote: post #5

You can do all of the above and still fail. Often, success or failure is luck-based and completely not skill-based.

If it's true that luck is important, shouldn't it be 'smart' to try many 'fail fast' things so there's room in a career to fail 20-30 times and have a more reasonable shot at success?

Absolutely, and that's why there is the term "MVP". It's easy to get sucked into thinking "Before anyone will buy it, must be done". That is false thinking 99% of the time.

You need to get out a product, and get it out fast. Keep your feet moving, talk to users, and build in the direction they want.

Re: Jessica Livingston’s Pretty Complete List on How Not to Fail

#43

Post by CodyReichert »

zeeshanm wrote: post #6

I also think it's super important to make something you can sell in addition to making something people want. Frankly, there are so many things people want but not every founder has resources or is well-equipped to sell it. Your goal as a founder is to maximize chances of __your__ success. Having the right founder-market fit goes a long way.

Definitely agree. It's easy to think of a cool "new social sharing blah" idea -- but guess what? If you're a new founder, without a large persuasive network to get word out to free users -- you're going to have a very hard time.

On the other hand, if you build something useful, and can start racking up subscriptions by doing some footwork (talking to users, giving out free accounts, etc), then you've got a much better chance.

Re: Jessica Livingston’s Pretty Complete List on How Not to Fail

#44

Post by dasil003 »

pfarnsworth wrote: post #5

You can do all of the above and still fail. Often, success or failure is luck-based and completely not skill-based.

It bothers me people proclaim the importance of luck to successful startups. Usually it is either sour grapes at someone else's success, or conversely, an act humility from someone who is successful.

But in either case I don't find it to be a useful sentiment. The fact is that as entrepreneurs we have agency to make decisions, and we each have uniquely imperfect information on which to base those decisions. "Luck" is nothing more than this universal phenomenon of imperfect information. What might be luck for one person might not be for another. At the end of the day, lucky or not, we are all tossed about by the whims of fortune. That should not blunt our drive, or check our decisions, or detract from our accomplishments. Sincerely acknowledging luck is an admirably humble thing to say in a press conference, but luck as a concept will not help you take the best action for the future.

Re: Jessica Livingston’s Pretty Complete List on How Not to Fail

#45

Post by pfarnsworth »

humanrebar wrote: post #21
pfarnsworth wrote: post #5

You can do all of the above and still fail. Often, success or failure is luck-based and completely not skill-based.

If it's true that luck is important, shouldn't it be 'smart' to try many 'fail fast' things so there's room in a career to fail 20-30 times and have a more reasonable shot at success?

What about those that stuck with an idea and hit gold eventually at some point? What if failing fast is too fast and you don't give an idea enough time to grow? MVPs and failing fast is an idea that started in the past ~7 years, and it works for some people and not for others.

Re: Jessica Livingston’s Pretty Complete List on How Not to Fail

#46

Post by kayhi »

"The best metric to choose is good old fashioned revenue."

The best metric to choose is good old fashioned profit.

I appreciate that growth can be hindered by making a profit, but isn't that what matters in the end? Amazon, Twitter, Box and many other public tech companies went public without turning a profit so it seems I'm wrong.

Re: Jessica Livingston’s Pretty Complete List on How Not to Fail

#47

Post by ap22213 »

logicallee wrote: post #23

Could someone help me understand her list under Point 2, Stay Focused? She writes: >One of the most conspicuous patterns we’ve seen among the thousand startups we’ve funded is that the most successful founders are always totally focused on their product and their users. To the point of being fanatical. The best founders don’t have time to get caught up in other things. >Here’s a list of things that I see easily distr…

Having failed because of some of those reasons, I think it's because those activities are very time-consuming and distract from being fanatical about the product.

It would be different if they were fruitful, but more often (in my experience) they are dead-ends, and worse they spawn other activities that are dead-ends. It becomes a huge time sink. That said, it seems difficult to make legit connections without having them initially. Where I live, there are a few major companies that had succeeded decades ago, and most of the startups in the city seem to be run by ex-employees of those companies.

I think the advantages of living in the bay are 1) more opportunity to bump into someone who knows someone, and 2) having access to more (passionate and active) early adopters.

Re: Jessica Livingston’s Pretty Complete List on How Not to Fail

#48

Post by pbreit »

cableshaft wrote: post #25
pbreit wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever someone advises "don't do this", it's usually pretty easy to come up with valid reason to do this. Fine. The lesson here is either avoid the sinkhole of conferences/events. Or, if you are so inclined to go, make sure you understand that unless you are extremely focused and efficient, it is likely to be a waste of time for you.

Fair enough. It's also very easy for people to treat what she says as gospel and go "I must not go to a conventions because this very knowledgeable person who has much more experience than I do said they're not useful. So therefore they must not be useful." It goes both ways.

Except that you'd be better off following that knowledgable person's advice. People think it goes both ways but it generally doesn't. And that's the trick.

Re: Jessica Livingston’s Pretty Complete List on How Not to Fail

#49

Post by CodyReichert »

draw_down wrote: post #42

- Don't do bad stuff. - Do do good stuff.

Believe it or not, it's not always that obvious to new (or even seasoned) founders. Heck "going to a conference" still sounds like a good idea -- in reality, talking to some of my existing users about the product fit could be a much better way to spend that time.

Re: Jessica Livingston’s Pretty Complete List on How Not to Fail

#50

Post by balls187 »

danso wrote: post #40

> 1. Make something people want. I haven't had a ton of experience in startups...once I had to work out of a startup space. And it amazed me the number of conversations I would hear between aspiring entrepreneurs and random strangers that were variations of, "Please tell me if you think this is a good idea". Everyone knows what it's like to want something. I didn't really hear about Tinder until after it blew up into…

> Do you often base your decision on the looks of a potential mate?

Curse my ethnic looks!

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