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Stanford's new course on building a startup

startup.stanford.edu

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Re: Stanford's new course on building a startup

#51

Post by TimPC »

csomar wrote: post #25

Building a startup is different than building a web app. It's sad to see that the instructors are not aware of the massive difference between the two. Building a startup course should have no technical details. I'd recommend Udacity "How to build a startup" course any time and even for small businesses.

It's also the case that this course is designed as a follow-up to CS183. So it's expected that students have a full course that wasn't programming related on start-ups already. It's designed as 1-semester of non-tech skills and 1-semester of build.

Re: Stanford's new course on building a startup

#52

Post by clubhi »

I was excited about this. But then I realized it was mostly about software development.

Something I've realized was that it's not even worth it for me to work on my own ideas. I might as well focus on taking all the money my clients are willing to throw at me and look into hiring people to work on my ideas for much less money than I can make.

I'd love to see a course along the lines of transitioning from software developer to small business owner. At some point it stops making financial sense to read about balancing photons in radioactive black trees when you already make more point and clicking on a DBMS UI. I need to hire a few people to start helping me out. So much comes along with that that I'm not prepared for.

Re: Stanford's new course on building a startup

#53

Post by jonathanjaeger »

clubhi wrote: post #52

I was excited about this. But then I realized it was mostly about software development. Something I've realized was that it's not even worth it for me to work on my own ideas. I might as well focus on taking all the money my clients are willing to throw at me and look into hiring people to work on my ideas for much less money than I can make. I'd love to see a course along the lines of transitioning from software dev…

While there's some merit to what you're saying -- you're advocating an arbitrage, since you make more money developing for clients and can hire people for much less you still have money left over. But keep in mind the passion and dedication it takes to make a great product and know that you might not get that when simply hiring someone for less money than you make.

Re: Stanford's new course on building a startup

#54

Post by clubhi »

jonathanjaeger wrote: post #53
clubhi wrote: post #52

I was excited about this. But then I realized it was mostly about software development. Something I've realized was that it's not even worth it for me to work on my own ideas. I might as well focus on taking all the money my clients are willing to throw at me and look into hiring people to work on my ideas for much less money than I can make. I'd love to see a course along the lines of transitioning from software dev…

While there's some merit to what you're saying -- you're advocating an arbitrage, since you make more money developing for clients and can hire people for much less you still have money left over. But keep in mind the passion and dedication it takes to make a great product and know that you might not get that when simply hiring someone for less money than you make.

You make a valid point. One that I often make. However, I'm more of talking about moving my passion and dedication over to running a business and not just blindly sending projects to other firms/freelancers.

Re: Stanford's new course on building a startup

#55

Post by QEDturtles »

hasenj wrote: post #36
cjbarber wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also took this class at Stanford - extremely valuable, and it does devote a significant portion to marketing and discovering what is valuable to build. Things such as ways to create extremely minimum viable products, how to generate, and quickly validate ideas are all covered - so it definitely covers more than just the things you note.

Hm, interesting. Though the skeptic in me wonders how much of the course is focused on these aspects? A lecture or two? vs a week or two?

It looks like weeks 8 (Founding: Conception, Composition, Capitalization) and 9 (Business Scaling: Promotion, CAC/LTV/Funnel, Regulation, Accounting) cover the crux of the business stuff.

Re: Stanford's new course on building a startup

#56

Post by rfnslyr »

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Re: Stanford's new course on building a startup

#57

Post by kriro »

skarmklart wrote: post #43
hasenj wrote: post #23

Sounds more like a "how to build a web app" course. [0] Building a startup involves a lot of "soft skills" that not all developers are familiar with: marketing, talking to customers, overcoming all sorts of psychological blockers/fears about putting yourself, your ideas, and your product "out there" for all people to judge. When I saw the title, I hoped that it would focus on those aspects of building a startup, sort…

Building a startup involves a lot of "soft skills" that not all developers are familiar with: marketing, talking to customers, overcoming all sorts of psychological blockers/fears about putting yourself, your ideas, and your product "out there" for all people to judge. Give me the specs for a $19.9 ebook on that, please :) I've been of the mind to write something like that for a while.

"Running Lean" (O'Reilly) is excellent and Ash has a bunch of useful videos as well. I think it's currently the best "business side of a startup" book out there.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCimRGeoiwUPmIddym-HdaCg

"The Lean Startup" by Ries is also good but RL is more condensed (lean?!) imo

"Startup Owner's Manual" is also good and they have a course on edx iirc

Edit: It's a udacity class, close enough. Link:

https://www.udacity.com/course/ep245

Re: Stanford's new course on building a startup

#58

Post by wilfra »

hasenj wrote: post #33
abromberg wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've mentioned this in a couple comments below, but I think that this class teaches you a lot more than that. I took the class when it was offered at Stanford and one of the most valuable things I took out of the class was how to build APIs for different business functions. Being able to automate huge parts of your business, regardless of what industry you're in, is a huge advantage. Think about an energy company bui…

Sure, but my main point was about the types of things taught in the class: mostly technical things. Most developers are already good at these things (or can learn them fairly quickly). The hard part of building a startup, at least for developers, is actually learning how to run a business and grow it. How to acquire users/customers, how to market, how to take care of all the "nasty but necessary" paperwork.

The class is the sequel to the class by Peter Thiel that covered those things. Unfortunately that class isn't available online, to my knowledge - but the Stanford students who first took that and then this would be learning both.

As somebody who is already reasonably good at the soft skills, I have really been looking forward to this class as a primer and entry point (though clearly not a silver bullet) to learn the technical skills.

Re: Stanford's new course on building a startup

#59

Post by dasil003 »

hasenj wrote: post #45
skarmklart wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Building a startup involves a lot of "soft skills" that not all developers are familiar with: marketing, talking to customers, overcoming all sorts of psychological blockers/fears about putting yourself, your ideas, and your product "out there" for all people to judge. Give me the specs for a $19.9 ebook on that, please :) I've been of the mind to write something like that for a while.

Haha, a book would be nice, but I think really the only way to learn this is by experiencing it. The book should be more of a guide about how to put yourself in the environment that forces you to learn this stuff.

Yes, I agree you can only actually learn by doing. No amount of book-reading will equal your first startup in terms of practical knowledge and how to apply it. That said, one's own startup is necessarily narrow in scope and there is a ton that the active practitioner can learn from anecdotes from other startups, especially across different markets and industries, and with different talent and network constraints.

Re: Stanford's new course on building a startup

#60

Post by HunterV »

harshagowda wrote: post #50

I have an idea, and requires lot of coding hours , I feel if i start coding , By the time i finish the product will have many more competitors :) , Should i do a Proof of concept and look out for investors ?

No. No. No. No.

I just spent the last year of my life doing a 'proof of concept' and 'looking out for investors'. You'll spend your life always with a sense of insecurity drawn on by the fact that you don't have a real product.

Now, if your favorite Uncle is an investor and absolutely loves you, that's a whole different story. But realistically, make a product, find users who love it, then campaign for them by finding people to invest.

Otherwise you'll lose sight of why you're doing this.

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