Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Jessica Livingston: What Goes Wrong

foundersatwork.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 98 posts

Re: Jessica Livingston: What Goes Wrong

#81

Post by Rajiv_N »

jl wrote: post #36
Rajiv_N wrote: post #26

I know this is a minor issue. But when I publish something I want people to inform me of problems. Please note that I don't mean to be disrespectful and just want to help. So here goes: 3rd sentence: "There's a talk I've always want to give at the beginning of each batch...". I think this should be either "I've always wanted to..." or "I always want to..." right?

Fixed - thanks!

Wow! Thanks for replying. I have already been down-voted once for what I posted and was beginning to think my comment was a huge mistake.

As hackers we get trained to look at details. So I was hoping others on "Hacker News" would understand where I was coming from. It's not about right or wrong. It's not about ego. I just thought I could help.

Re: Jessica Livingston: What Goes Wrong

#82

Post by jordo37 »

nadam wrote: post #71

Two of the problems can be easily avoided: 'cofounder disputes' and 'investors' are not problems in case of single-founder bootstrapped startups. :) One thing I would add to the topic of 'determination': Are we speaking about determination to make a startup successful or determination to try out as many ideas in our life as possible, learn as much as possible and try to make at least one startup successful in our lif…

For me and my co-founder, especially during the dark days of 1) tech not working 2) clients stopping service with us or 3)someone yelling at us over Twitter, email or phone - it is Critical to have a team and more importantly to have a partner. I don't share all of my concerns with the whole team because that could shift the mood of the company and damage our internal resolve. But I need to be able to talk about the full reality of the situation with someone and depending on who is having an up day one of us can rally the other person around to being enthused again.

Without that, I know there would be days I would be lost, and if that lingered at all I could see weeks of inactivity at exactly those points where we needed to move fast.

I whole-heartedly agree with Jessica that having a co-founder that, above all, you can trust is huge (I'm lucky that I do), but I agree with the other reply here that a single founder, in almost all situations is more trouble than any sort of cofounder disputes.

Re: Jessica Livingston: What Goes Wrong

#83

Post by pg »

nadam wrote: post #71

Two of the problems can be easily avoided: 'cofounder disputes' and 'investors' are not problems in case of single-founder bootstrapped startups. :) One thing I would add to the topic of 'determination': Are we speaking about determination to make a startup successful or determination to try out as many ideas in our life as possible, learn as much as possible and try to make at least one startup successful in our lif…

You're conflating two distinct ideas: optimizing for the success of an idea, and optimizing for the success of a startup. They're not the same thing, because a startup can switch ideas. In her talk Jessica mentioned OrderAhead, which went through 5 ideas before the current one.

Re: Jessica Livingston: What Goes Wrong

#85

Post by ghshephard »

philwelch wrote: post #41
ghshephard wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point I was trying to make is that they take other people's work, and present it to the world in a different form. Compare 'Founders', to something like Walter Isaacson "Jobs" - both of them had lots of interviews, with transcribing, and edits - but I got a lot more out of 'Founders' (as did everyone I know) than Issacon's book. Issacson supposedly had 100% access with his relationship to Steve Jobs, but I don't…

My reading is that Isaacson cared more about Steve Jobs as a human being than as a living case study for entrepreneurs and wantrepreneurs. Steve Jobs commissioned the biography so his kids would have a better idea of who he was as a human being, not so you and I could learn his secrets for building a startup and being a CEO. (That project was internal to Apple: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/oct/06/business/la-fi-a…

It would have been entirely possible to accomplish both missions. Tell the story of unblinking-dropout-denying-father-commune-living-india-visiting-fruit-eating-acid-dropping steve, at the same time that you tell the story of how he built Apple, Next, Pixar, and Apple 2.0, and what it meant to him.

I don't think there was a single follower of Steve Jobs that was very satisfied with Issacson's Biography. I didn't even really feel like it told me about Steve Jobs the person.

Re: Jessica Livingston: What Goes Wrong

#86

Post by psycho »

pg wrote: post #83
nadam wrote: post #71

Two of the problems can be easily avoided: 'cofounder disputes' and 'investors' are not problems in case of single-founder bootstrapped startups. :) One thing I would add to the topic of 'determination': Are we speaking about determination to make a startup successful or determination to try out as many ideas in our life as possible, learn as much as possible and try to make at least one startup successful in our lif…

You're conflating two distinct ideas: optimizing for the success of an idea, and optimizing for the success of a startup. They're not the same thing, because a startup can switch ideas. In her talk Jessica mentioned OrderAhead, which went through 5 ideas before the current one.

And what do you think about concept "Do fast and fail fast" meaning in general that you should give up idea (and startup that was based on this idea) as fast as you can if you find out that idea doesn't work?

I agree with "smart pivots" idea but "fail fast" is one thing that I don't understand in "Lean startup" concept as I'm quite persistent and I understand that in general it takes several years for startup to succeed.

Re: Jessica Livingston: What Goes Wrong

#87

Post by psycho »

nadam wrote: post #71

Two of the problems can be easily avoided: 'cofounder disputes' and 'investors' are not problems in case of single-founder bootstrapped startups. :) One thing I would add to the topic of 'determination': Are we speaking about determination to make a startup successful or determination to try out as many ideas in our life as possible, learn as much as possible and try to make at least one startup successful in our lif…

In fact, it's much harder to be determined if you work without co-founder (i.e. at least 1 person who supports what you're working on).

Re: Jessica Livingston: What Goes Wrong

#89

Post by blaines »

ericdykstra wrote: post #6

Here's a link to the video version of Jessica Livingston's talk from Startup School: http://startupschool.org/2012/livingston/ It really is great! I encourage everyone on HN to read or watch it if they have not already. As a not-yet founder, it has a lot of interesting advice that I don't think is documented anywhere as concisely and practically as it is here.

As a founder (2x) she has some absolutely fantastic advice. Though I haven't seen every problem/monster, many of them apply to my experience. In addition, the examples she gives are fantastic.

Re: Jessica Livingston: What Goes Wrong

#90

Post by mkramlich »

psycho wrote: post #87
nadam wrote: post #71

Two of the problems can be easily avoided: 'cofounder disputes' and 'investors' are not problems in case of single-founder bootstrapped startups. :) One thing I would add to the topic of 'determination': Are we speaking about determination to make a startup successful or determination to try out as many ideas in our life as possible, learn as much as possible and try to make at least one startup successful in our lif…

In fact, it's much harder to be determined if you work without co-founder (i.e. at least 1 person who supports what you're working on).

> In fact, it's much harder (...)

It's not a fact, just an opinion or anecdotal observation. And I submit it depends on the person in question. Some folks may find it easier to have a co-founder, some may find that to be more of an obstacle. Both cases have merit. Agreed it helps to have other people support you, be a cheerleader, be a listener, etc., but that doesn't have to be a cofounder. Since cofounder implies equity stake, all kinds of painful problems become possible when a newborn business venture has ownership split between multiple people, with different vision, different motivations, different life circumstances, and often (but not always) different equity stakes. In an ideal world, having co-founders/co-owners can be great. But it can also be a path to hell. Depending on the situation.

Post reply on HN