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Startup advice, briefly

blog.samaltman.com

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Re: Startup advice, briefly

#41

Post by coralreef »

The best startup ideas are the ones that seem like bad ideas but are good ideas.

I've thought about this one a lot. Obviously we can't apply these one liners to everything, for example Dropbox and Stripe seemed like plainly obvious good ideas (to me).

You can make them seem like bad ideas in retrospect ("Oh, personal file hosting in the cloud? Been done a million times!") but I think even the traction of Dropbox's first HN post showed it was a good idea.

Is there a better way we can phrase this rule to be closer to an absolute truth?

Re: Startup advice, briefly

#42

Post by derefr »

tomasien wrote: post #20
kirinan wrote: post #2

Maybe Ive read too many blogs. Maybe its because I watched the class but Im starting to feel like this is the "generic" advice for startups. It doesn't make it any less true or valuable, but everytime I read it I feel somewhat empty; as if there is something critical missing that everyone but me knows but doesn't write down because it feels like common sense. I'm not sure other people feel this way or how to not feel…

I think it needs to keep being synthesized and summarized and codified only because there's always a generation of founders that haven't seen it. I feel the same way you do, but it's a good reminder to read it and it's good for new founders to have it freshly in front of them.

Why can't it just be put in a definitive book and handed around?

Re: Startup advice, briefly

#43

Post by pgroves »

kirinan wrote: post #2

Maybe Ive read too many blogs. Maybe its because I watched the class but Im starting to feel like this is the "generic" advice for startups. It doesn't make it any less true or valuable, but everytime I read it I feel somewhat empty; as if there is something critical missing that everyone but me knows but doesn't write down because it feels like common sense. I'm not sure other people feel this way or how to not feel…

It seems that way until you find yourself in a situation where none of this advice is being followed. The opposite of doing these things doesn't look terribly sinister, just has poor results. A founder/CEO that pressures the engineers to cut corners on the product to get a few more customers before the next fund-raising round is an easy trap to fall in to. The investors will often be providing this pressure directly. (E.g. "I'd invest if you were showing a little more growth.") It all seems very reasonable when you're in the middle of it.

Re: Startup advice, briefly

#44

Post by cjf4 »

kirinan wrote: post #2

Maybe Ive read too many blogs. Maybe its because I watched the class but Im starting to feel like this is the "generic" advice for startups. It doesn't make it any less true or valuable, but everytime I read it I feel somewhat empty; as if there is something critical missing that everyone but me knows but doesn't write down because it feels like common sense. I'm not sure other people feel this way or how to not feel…

I started to get the same sense, and remembering a couple of the following things have helped me keep my bearings:

-Startup advice, especially from this corner of the world, applies to a very specific way of creating a software company through venture capital, and subsequently, aggressive growth. It is also built to take advantage of a highly optimistic financial environment that, to me, seems to be temporary (look at VC's performance as an asset class).

-The main purveyors of "startup canon", if you will, just so happen to directly benefit from more people taking their advice and entering the startup pool. In the most jaded view, Graham and the like's advice/essays/mantras are propaganda that, if more people listen to, directly improves their portfolio. I don't go quite that far as a lot of the advice is sensible and experience based, but it's really important to remember that their advice isn't philanthropic.

-Finally, startups are just businesses. The entrance of venture capital into the equation suspends the normal rules of business for a while, but eventually they do return. And while the way software allows people/companies with little to no capital attack large markets is unique, I feel like a lot of founders would do well to broaden their perspective beyond the relatively brief history of silicon valley when looking for insight on guiding their businesses.

Re: Startup advice, briefly

#45

Post by pcrh »

bokonist wrote: post #37
kirinan wrote: post #2

Maybe Ive read too many blogs. Maybe its because I watched the class but Im starting to feel like this is the "generic" advice for startups. It doesn't make it any less true or valuable, but everytime I read it I feel somewhat empty; as if there is something critical missing that everyone but me knows but doesn't write down because it feels like common sense. I'm not sure other people feel this way or how to not feel…

The issue is that you need to find an idea for a product, wherein 1) the product has the potential to generate tens of millions of dollars of value 2) the first, valuable, version of the product can be built in a couple man years. That is really, really hard to do. There are tens of thousands of smart, competent people searching for such ideas, working on such ideas. If you want to make millions of dollars, if you wa…

I agree with this. Unfortunately it is against the common notions that ideas don't matter, and execution is all.

My own take is that truly great ideas are as rare as hen's teeth, i.e.those that fulfill your description.

Re: Startup advice, briefly

#46

Post by seanflyon »

und3rw4t3rp00ps wrote: post #24
kirinan wrote: post #2

Maybe Ive read too many blogs. Maybe its because I watched the class but Im starting to feel like this is the "generic" advice for startups. It doesn't make it any less true or valuable, but everytime I read it I feel somewhat empty; as if there is something critical missing that everyone but me knows but doesn't write down because it feels like common sense. I'm not sure other people feel this way or how to not feel…

"It just feels hollow." - I'm probably too blue collar for these airy advice musings... but I really turn my nose up when a business man tells me to "work hard". Never do these manifestos acknowledge the basic truth that all entrepreneurs are escaping professions, trades, and "jobs". Scoff this terse anonymous message away all you like, the entrepreneur redefines work, then audaciously proclaims himself the hardest w…

Work: activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result.

I'm not sure what definition you are using or how "the entrepreneur redefines work", but if you think that 'real' work must include lifting heavy things, then you are selling humanity short.

Re: Startup advice, briefly

#47

Post by derefr »

coralreef wrote: post #41

The best startup ideas are the ones that seem like bad ideas but are good ideas. I've thought about this one a lot. Obviously we can't apply these one liners to everything, for example Dropbox and Stripe seemed like plainly obvious good ideas (to me). You can make them seem like bad ideas in retrospect ("Oh, personal file hosting in the cloud? Been done a million times!") but I think even the traction of Dropbox's fi…

The best startup ideas are noncentral members of a reference class of generally bad ideas. Everyone (including everyone else who could be executing on the idea) notices the reference class and thinks "bad idea", not stopping to notice what makes this particular idea not-so-bad.

Re: Startup advice, briefly

#49

Post by stephenhess »

coralreef wrote: post #41

The best startup ideas are the ones that seem like bad ideas but are good ideas. I've thought about this one a lot. Obviously we can't apply these one liners to everything, for example Dropbox and Stripe seemed like plainly obvious good ideas (to me). You can make them seem like bad ideas in retrospect ("Oh, personal file hosting in the cloud? Been done a million times!") but I think even the traction of Dropbox's fi…

I think there's probably something here related to timing. You want to be early enough that most people think what you're tackling isn't feasible (and therefore low competition) but not so early that it's impossible to capitalize a business that can go after the problem. In these cases, the idea being "bad" is more about people thinking you'r overly optimistic rather than people thinking it's not something that's useful.

Re: Startup advice, briefly

#50

Post by derefr »

cjf4 wrote: post #44
kirinan wrote: post #2

Maybe Ive read too many blogs. Maybe its because I watched the class but Im starting to feel like this is the "generic" advice for startups. It doesn't make it any less true or valuable, but everytime I read it I feel somewhat empty; as if there is something critical missing that everyone but me knows but doesn't write down because it feels like common sense. I'm not sure other people feel this way or how to not feel…

I started to get the same sense, and remembering a couple of the following things have helped me keep my bearings: -Startup advice, especially from this corner of the world, applies to a very specific way of creating a software company through venture capital, and subsequently, aggressive growth. It is also built to take advantage of a highly optimistic financial environment that, to me, seems to be temporary (look a…

I'd love a list of tried-and-tested-to-the-point-of-being-cloying bootstrapping advice.
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