> YC founders aren't just inspired by one another. They also help one another. That's the happiest thing I've learned about startup founders: how generous they can be in helping one another.
Synergy is a powerful thing.
What I’ve learned from users
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Re: What I’ve learned from users
#12Off-topic, but I wonder how much traffic is lost on PG's site due to not having a valid TLS certificate for his domain.
And not mobile-friendly
Re: What I’ve learned from users
#13Re: What I’ve learned from users
#14Re: What I’ve learned from users
#15I thought this article was about what PG learned from users but he just wrote about how good he is at identifying startup problems because they are all the same but actually not so same when it comes to replacing his job with an automated FAQ.
I think he's referring to startups as his "users". In that context, I guess he's saying he's learnt the common patterns of why startups fail.
FTA: What have I learned from YC's users, the startups we've funded?
Re: What I’ve learned from users
#16Re: What I’ve learned from users
#17No post body was provided.
Re: What I’ve learned from users
#18I adore pg’s essay. But this time something is tripping my spider sense, so I had to take a closer look (at my spider sense, and a bit on the essay too).
This is the first time an essay feels like a sale pitch. Specifically, a sale pitch for YC. I’ve read pg’s essay about YC for about 15 years, and this is the first one I have that feeling.
This one is a bit too abstract. I’m getting the idea that YC can help founders tremendously, that their knowledge is specialized and hard to get elsewhere. But I’m eagerly waiting for one concrete example, and none are to be found. Normally I’d expect a real set of examples from startups, instead of the analogy in horror movies. I still remember the essay where pg described how he came up with Jessica the idea of YC, while walking somewhere, explaining very concretely what he thought at the time.
For any other writer or organization, I’d just guess they are trying to “keep their secret recipe”. That is neither pg or YC’s MO.
So yeah, this feels strange.
Re: What I’ve learned from users
#19Off-topic, but I wonder how much traffic is lost on PG's site due to not having a valid TLS certificate for his domain.
i've got an ultrawide screen god i wish he'd centre texts
used to be bothered by the same thing but have since adopted one of those "quickly position window" utilities -- so e.g. you can quickly move the whole window to a reasonable column-width in the middle of the screen
i use "rectangle" for the mac, but there are lots of alternatives on lots of platforms. very nice QOL improvement.
Re: What I’ve learned from users
#20Funny, we're literally launching a new project today that allows for distributed focus groups. We haven't changed over the DNS -- here's the Heroku link (https://opinion-graphs-website.herokuapp.com)
How we got here: for a while we had been struggling with breaking through on another project that user voice input to measure sentiment for office space.
Last week, we took a step back and thought that having a tool that could allow start-ups to ask opened ended questions where people could just "talk" and what they said is analyzed for sentiment would be valuable. So that's what we're building with OpinionGraphs. IMHO this is directly in the vein of PG's points about learning from users.
With whatever you're building, if you're interested in trying a new way to connect to users or targeted customers along the lines of PG's advice, please dm me or just leave a comment here and I'll reach out.