Startups: The Very Beginning

Startups: The Very Beginning
foundersatwork.posthaven.com

For example, this quote by Jessica: "A good way to ensure that you make something people want is to make something you yourself want." -- is at odds with the ethos of one of my favorite pg essays (all the way from 2005[1]) in which I feel he really gets to the core of "building what people want:"

> If you want to learn what people want, read Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People. When a friend recommended this book, I couldn't believe he was serious. But he insisted it was good, so I read it, and he was right. It deals with the most difficult problem in human experience: how to see things from other people's point of view, instead of thinking only of yourself. [...] Most smart people don't do that very well. But adding this ability to raw brainpower is like adding tin to copper. The result is bronze, which is so much harder that it seems a different metal.

I think building things that you want is a bit of a red herring. Every time I'm working on a project that solely solves my problems, the solution tends to be solipsistic and myopic. In any case, jl's essay is a great read, and I really do miss when HN had mostly startup content on the front page :)

[1] http://www.paulgraham.com/bronze.html

You do have to make sure you're solving a problem that other people share. If you're the only one who has the problem you won't be able to make a business out of it. However, if you're solving a problem you yourself have, Jessica is right that you'll have special insight into what your customers want that you wouldn't with another kind of problem you don't know about. I think it's great as initial guidance in building the MVP if you have a solution in mind to aim for. Once you've launched (and before then, if you can) you should be talking to users.

Also every time one of PG's essays shows up here, I see this criticism that he's out of touch. Which is possible. It's also possible he's still an expert at evaluating and advising startups and it's your own bias talking - because now you see him as an out of touch rich guy. Careful with that kind of criticism, because very often the problem is just you and your own perceptions.

This point aside, I haven't written anything in 2 years, so it's possible I'm out of shape :)

Not at all, it was a great read! And perhaps, as @eloff mentioned, my own biases might be at work. As an introvert, it's a more significant effort for me to go out there and investigate other people's problems (so pg's point might be more salient).