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(Btw very nice thread. Thanks)
Senior dev chiming in here (44yo), mainly replying to some other comments here, that claim once your team is > 1 person, your overall productivity does not increase with a person every time.
I would say a good 2 person team is more productive than 2x 1 developer for the following reasons:
1. It's easier for 2 people to keep each other motivated than 1 person alone.
2. When you get stuck on something, or have a difficult problem, you sometimes lose a lot of time as a solo developer. Having a second expert to consult might save you tons of time.
3. Individual developers have their own preferences and expertise. I mainly divide developers in 2 groups: bottom-up and top-down developers. Bottom-up are interested in technology, math and everything close to the hardware. They don't like squishy stuff like users. Top-down developers love to crunch out features, and technology is just a means to an end. Having a team of one top-down and one bottom-up developer is ideal.
If you are still not convinced, let me ask you the following: Which is most productive? John Carmack for 1 year, John Romero for 1 year, or Carmack and Romero for 6 months?
If you talk full-stack, is your bottom-up developer really good at the user interface, and will the top-down develop get bored with the backend stuff?
3. Don't chaise investors, chase users, and then investors will be chasing you. 4. Never hire managers. Only hire doers until PMF. 5. Landing page is the least important thing in a startup > My experience at multiple startups from 2017-2020 suggests differently. I wish it weren't the case, but it seems there is a certain type of company that can focus solely on hype and fundraising and headcount, and make it quite fa…
you're right, there is this type. however, it's a very rare type. We see them often in the news, but it's less than 1% of the startups
3. Don't chaise investors, chase users, and then investors will be chasing you. 4. Never hire managers. Only hire doers until PMF. 5. Landing page is the least important thing in a startup > My experience at multiple startups from 2017-2020 suggests differently. I wish it weren't the case, but it seems there is a certain type of company that can focus solely on hype and fundraising and headcount, and make it quite fa…
That used to be true in 2017-2020 for certain sectors of company and funding source; where did they raise funding from? And is that funding source no longer investing? > and make it quite far Is that measured by funding rounds and valuation, or by paid users/revenue?
>6. Hire only fullstack devs. There is nothing less productive in this world than a team of developers. While I can agree that hiring full stacks may be better at the beginning, then I dont understand 2nd part "There is nothing less productive in this world than a team of developers." WTF?
See the author's developers; raise him a faculty lounge full of academics. Then defenestrate myself.
User Traction Before Investor Attention: Concentrate on acquiring users first; investors will follow if your user base is strong.
Hiring Philosophy: Hire proactive, multifunctional team members (like full-stack developers) who align with your company culture and avoid hiring managers or people you don't connect with until reaching Product-Market Fit (PMF).
Market Strategy: Aim for the global market from the start and prioritize SEO early on to maximize reach and growth potential.
Feature Development and Feedback: Sell and discuss potential features with current users before development to ensure relevance and demand.
Investment Strategy: Reinvest profits into your startup and trusted networks rather than external investments like cryptocurrencies or stocks.
Online Presence and Networking: Maintain active social media engagement, especially on platforms like Twitter, for networking and traffic.
Avoiding External Distractions: Stay clear of partnerships with corporations and distractions like hype markets, as they often lead to time wastage and misaligned priorities.
Business Focus and Decision Making: Prefer B2B over consumer apps due to higher success rates and easier monetization, and don’t hesitate to abandon non-performing projects within a year.
Project Management and Outsourcing: Avoid methodologies like Scrum if they don't fit your team's style and refrain from outsourcing until achieving PMF to ensure alignment with your vision.
Funding and Time Management: Bootstrap your startup if possible, avoiding the time-consuming process of raising funds, and recognize that tech conferences may not always provide value.
Focus on Users Over Personal Preferences: Prioritize validating your idea and catering to user needs over personal ego or preferences. User Traction Before Investor Attention: Concentrate on acquiring users first; investors will follow if your user base is strong. Hiring Philosophy: Hire proactive, multifunctional team members (like full-stack developers) who align with your company culture and avoid hiring managers…
But why? Do you have any evidence that if you did these things you would be more successful? Why is this the list of things that matters? If I had the opposite perspective for every item on this list, what would be convincing that I should change my perspective?
Im open to consider alternatives, if someone brings real facts with proving results. If it's just the debate, I won't go into it. The whole internet is full of fantasies and debates. I live in a factbased world.
14. Don't get ever distracted by hype, e.g. crypt0. I lost 1.5 years of my life this way. Currently there is a lot of hype around LLM. Do people think, it will go the same way?. I understand we cannot compare. But usually we get carried away assuming its different this time. (Btw very nice thread. Thanks)