Top Mistakes and Learnings from My Startup: Postmortem Samsamia
miguelgfierro.com
Top Mistakes and Learnings from My Startup: Postmortem Samsamia
1–10 of 74 posts
Re: Top Mistakes and Learnings from My Startup: Postmortem Samsamia
#2Haven't read the article yet but my first question is: what the heck did they use to make that?! It's beautiful like LaTeX but appears to be plain ol' HTML!
Re: Top Mistakes and Learnings from My Startup: Postmortem Samsamia
#3Haven't read the article yet but my first question is: what the heck did they use to make that?! It's beautiful like LaTeX but appears to be plain ol' HTML!
https://github.com/miguelgfierro/sciblog - Looks pretty sweet!
Re: Top Mistakes and Learnings from My Startup: Postmortem Samsamia
#4The author opens by nobly asserting "I take all responsibility for the failure" yet then, everything that follows is how his co-founder screwed him who he is now suing. Feels kind of inauthentic overall.
Re: Top Mistakes and Learnings from My Startup: Postmortem Samsamia
#5Reading the abstract reminded me that so many people don't understand effective communication. The academic essay style is a travesty of global proportions. Effective communication would start with the conclusion section, then the body, and leave the intro out. Make your statement quickly, and then expand upon it for whoever wants to keep reading. Saying, "in this essay I will tell you what I learned" is not going to keep me reading. Give me the high level points, then expand upon them!
Re: Top Mistakes and Learnings from My Startup: Postmortem Samsamia
#6Haven't read the article yet but my first question is: what the heck did they use to make that?! It's beautiful like LaTeX but appears to be plain ol' HTML!
https://github.com/miguelgfierro/sciblog - Looks pretty sweet!
Look at that... right at the top. LaTeX fonts! https://github.com/miguelgfierro/sciblog/blob/master/blog/st...
Re: Top Mistakes and Learnings from My Startup: Postmortem Samsamia
#7If you are trying to start a startup with a friend, think about this, do you really know this person? are you confident that under high levels of pressure this person is going to help you or is he going to break apart?
I started a startup with my best friend whom I knew for several years. The startup succeeded (kind of, we got acqui-hired by BigTech) but the friendship turned into a deep alienation in the process.
Startup pressure can bring out the true character of a person. The problem though is that you may not know the true character of someone until startup pressure is applied -- even if that someone is your best friend.
I'd actually argue for not starting your startup with a good friend. Friendship bias works against you when your cofounder turns against you under pressure. Instead choose a co-founder that you know professionally and that you have a good gut feeling about.
The problem of the story presented is not that he didn't start the company with someone he knew better, it's that apparently no agreements existed that prevented $ANTISOCIAL_COFOUNDER_BEHAVIOR from happening. I'm certainly guilty of that as well. The resources spent on setting up those agreements are always worth it. Also not a shame at all to bring in lawyers at this stage.
It is super common to divide shares generously the first day of the startup, it's like marrying a girl the first day you know her. Isn't it creepy?
It's common to divide 50/50, but with a vesting schedule. If co-founder shows $ANTISOCIAL_COFOUNDER_BEHAVIOR despite agreements made you may kick him/her out and will only lose shares that vested.
Re: Top Mistakes and Learnings from My Startup: Postmortem Samsamia
#8Reading the abstract reminded me that so many people don't understand effective communication. The academic essay style is a travesty of global proportions. Effective communication would start with the conclusion section, then the body, and leave the intro out. Make your statement quickly, and then expand upon it for whoever wants to keep reading. Saying, "in this essay I will tell you what I learned" is not going to…
Yip yip. It’s called “top-down” communication and every good newspaper does it exactly like you describe
Re: Top Mistakes and Learnings from My Startup: Postmortem Samsamia
#9Sometimes I wonder about what’s more profitable in B2B space - product or consulting/contracting. Doing the latter I manage to pull in more in 3 months what this guy generated it sounds like in 3 years.
That gives me a pause everytime I want to sink 3 months of my time into some startup idea.
Re: Top Mistakes and Learnings from My Startup: Postmortem Samsamia
#10The author opens by nobly asserting "I take all responsibility for the failure" yet then, everything that follows is how his co-founder screwed him who he is now suing. Feels kind of inauthentic overall.
I put some of that down to him not writing in his native language - perhaps it is more difficult for him to translate feelings or concepts to English.
But I do agree that it would have been better to hear about some of his own failings or bad decisions. Hard to imagine his co-founder would try to eject him from the company without at least some perception of an issue with his character, skills or decisions.