It's not just for ideas or those considering startups. Definitely a good reminder of what the "roots" are even for later stage companies. A lot of things hit home for me in terms of CEO roles, growth, hiring, culture and product.
Startup Playbook (2015)
41–50 of 60 posts
Re: Startup Playbook (2015)
#42While I agree, and I give a lot of this advice to our portfolio companies the biggest problem with do things that don’t scale and monopolizing small markets is that other VCs often don’t buy into this vision and founders are forced to follow their path: loose focus, chase the biggest market, and do things that scale, just to raise capital. What’s great about YC is that it recalibrated the VCs in their orbit which is good for their portfolio companies.
Re: Startup Playbook (2015)
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
> My advice : be open, respond to criticism, don't stay silent on touchy topics, encourage YC staff to share their opinions on controversial topics. We already tried this in the larger tech community. At best the controversial or contrarian views were silenced, at worst, people’s lives were ruined.
Can you give me a tl;dr of what you are referring to. Links to articles would be great too!
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Re: Startup Playbook (2015)
#44This is awesome! I'm Helena Ronis, co-founder and CEO of VoxSnap, the startup that did the audio & player embedded in the post. Feel free to share your feedback with us about the player or audio.
Re: Startup Playbook (2015)
#45This is awesome! I'm Helena Ronis, co-founder and CEO of VoxSnap, the startup that did the audio & player embedded in the post. Feel free to share your feedback with us about the player or audio.
Hi Helana! Really beautiful player, the embedded player looks like it belongs on the page. As a founder, would love to hear your feedback on what you think of Sam Altman's Playbook!
Re: Startup Playbook (2015)
#46I just re-read this for the first time in years--it needs a re-write. I will try! But first this has inspired me to get to work on the forgotten Part II.
Hi Sam! Can you please interact a little more with the HN community? I realize you are an extremely busy man, but drop in here once in a while and just...comment. Not to stir up a hornet's nest, but weighing in on YC related news once in a while is not a bad idea. Eg- No doubt you and YC are well intentioned people and the YC china move, while controversial, is probably a reasonable move. A private company can only d…
Maybe we should all be getting off HN and doing our jobs like Sam hopefully is?
Re: Startup Playbook (2015)
#47I just re-read this for the first time in years--it needs a re-write. I will try! But first this has inspired me to get to work on the forgotten Part II.
Please do. I have read your work and it is great. Anytime I am struggling with my projects/ideas...I always go back to your work and start from the fundamentals...carefully reviewing my work to see where it could be improved and how to better satisfy the needs of my customers.
Re: Startup Playbook (2015)
#481. I’ve made an outline of this Playbook on paper, works well to review it monthly/quarterly to refresh knowledge.
2. Many times I shared the Playbook, people failed to consume it.
3. Based on (1+2) idea: to make a short overview of the Playbook. Like those 3-minute hand-drawing YouTube videos. @sama could narrate one and make it as widespread as “Here’s to the crazy ones...” mp3 we all might have, narrated by Steve Jobs.
Re: Startup Playbook (2015)
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
> My advice : be open, respond to criticism, don't stay silent on touchy topics, encourage YC staff to share their opinions on controversial topics. We already tried this in the larger tech community. At best the controversial or contrarian views were silenced, at worst, people’s lives were ruined.
Can you give me a tl;dr of what you are referring to. Links to articles would be great too!
James Damore's Google memo probably qualifies -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google%27s_Ideological_Echo_Ch...
Re: Startup Playbook (2015)
#50"You should talk to your users and watch them use your product, figure out what parts are sub-par, and then make your product better. Then do it again. This cycle should be the number one focus of the company, and it should drive everything else."
"Literally watch them use your product. Sit in their office if you can. Value both what they tell you and what they actually do. "
^^ If anyone is having a hard time with any of the above, let me know. Happy to offer a free user video on us. We work on an on-demand/automated remote user testing service to help you learn from your users much more easily and quickly: