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How Much To Like Your Work
- Aim to make an original contribution to the world while also not starving.
- Know how much you're supposed to like your work to avoid settling for less.
Transcript:
David Senra
The definition of work was now to make some original contribution to the world, and in the process, not to starve. How much are you supposed to like what you do? Unless you know that, you don't know when to stop searching. And if, like most people, you underestimate it, you
Work-Life Balance
- To stay happy, do something you like more than any unproductive pleasure.
- If work isn't your favorite thing, you'll procrastinate and produce inferior results.
Transcript:
David Senra
Lying on the beach. If you want to stay happy, you have to do something. As a lower bound, you have to like your work more than any unproductive pleasure. You have to like what you do enough that the concept of quote-unquote spare time seems mistaken, which is not to say that you have to spend all your time working. You can only work so much before you get tired and start to screw up. Then you want to do something else, even something mindless, but you don't regard this time as the prize and the time you spend working as the pain you endure to earn it. I put the lower bound there for practical reasons. If your work is not your favorite thing to do, you'll have terrible problems with procrastination.
Work You Admire
- To be happy, do work you not only enjoy, but also admire.
- You should be able to reflect on your work and think, "Wow, that's pretty cool."
Transcript:
David Senra
To be happy, I think you have to be doing something you not only enjoy, but admire. You
Ignore Prestige and Money
- Don't worry about prestige or the opinions of people you don't know.
- Focus on doing what you like, and prestige will follow naturally.
Transcript:
David Senra
You should not worry about prestige. Prestige the opinion of the rest of the world. When you can ask the opinions of peoples who judgment you respect, what does it add to consider the opinions of people you don't even know? This is easy advice to give. It's hard to follow. If you do anything well enough, you'll make it prestigious. Plenty of things we now consider prestigious were anything but at first. Jazz comes to mind, though almost any established art form would do. So just do what you like and let prestige take care of itself. The other big force leading people astray is money. The test of whether people love what they do is whether they do it even if they weren't paid for it, even if they had to work at another job to make a living. With such powerful forces leading
Finding Work You Love
- Finding work you love is difficult, with most people failing to find it.
- Don't feel discouraged if you haven't found it yet; acknowledging discontent is a step forward.
Transcript:
David Senra
How many people even something they love to work on? A few hundred thousand perhaps, out of billions. It's hard to find work you love. It must be if so few do. So don't underestimate this task, and don't feel bad if you haven't succeeded yet. In fact, if you admit to yourself that you're discontented, you're a step ahead of most people who are still in denial. Although great work takes less discipline than people think, because the way to do great work is to find something you like so much that you don't have to force yourself to do it, finding Work you love does usually require discipline.
Test for Finding Work You Love
- Always produce something.
- If you want to be a novelist, are you writing pages of fiction, even if they are bad?
Transcript:
David Senra
Is there some test you can use to keep yourself honest? Always produce. For example, if you have a day job you don't take seriously because you plan to be a novelist, are you producing? Are you writing pages of fiction, however bad they may be? As long as you're producing, you'll know you're not merely using the hazy vision of the grand novel you plan to write one day as
Flexible Career Paths
- Choose a career path with flexibility, allowing for diverse opportunities.
- Early in your career, seek jobs with varied responsibilities to discover your preferences.
Transcript:
David Senra
In the design of lives, as in the design of most other things, you get better results if you use flexible media. Your best bet may be to choose a type of work that could turn into either an organic or two-job career. That is probably part of the reason I chose computers. You can be a professor or you can make a lot of money or morph into any
Finding Work You Love
- Expect a struggle when searching for work you love, as most people fail to find it.
- Even if you succeed, you might not have the freedom to pursue your passion until your 30s or 40s.
Transcript:
David Senra
Whichever route you take, expect a struggle. Finding work you love is very difficult. Most people fail. Even if you succeed, it's rare to be free to work on what you want until your 30s or 40s. But if you have the destination in sight, you'll be more likely to arrive at it. If you know you can love work, you're in the home stretch. And if you know what work you love, you're practically there. That was
Startup Survival
- For startups, survival is paramount.
- Success (founders getting rich) hinges on it, while failure leads to nothing.
Transcript:
David Senra
The rest is just words. And so Paul Graham saying, hey, there's a binary outcome here. If a startup succeeds and survives, the founders are going to get rich. If not, they're going to die and get nothing, right? So all that matters is
Startup Demoralization
- Many startups fail due to demoralization, even when persistence could lead to success.
- Running a startup is inherently demoralizing, and founders should expect this.
Transcript:
David Senra
And then he gets into a main theme of his essays about just how painful and how difficult it is to create a company. If so many startups get demoralized and fail when merely by hanging on they could get rich, you have to assume that running a startup can be demoralizing. That is certainly true. I've been there and that is why I've never done another startup.
Startup Survival
- The primary goal of a startup is survival.
- If a startup can avoid failing, its founders are likely to get rich.
Transcript:
David Senra
You may have heard that quote about luck consisting of opportunity meeting preparation. You've now done the preparation. The work you've done so far has, in effect, put you in a position to get lucky. You can now get rich by not letting your company die. That is more than most people have. And then he goes back to the grim part. We've seen a bunch of startups die. They generally don't die loudly and heroically. Mostly they crawl off somewhere and die. When startups die, the official cause of death is always either running out of money or a critical founder bailing. Often the two occur simultaneously. But I think the underlying cause is usually that they've become demoralized. You rarely hear of a startup that's working around the clock, doing deals and pumping out new features and dies because they can't pay their bills and their ISP unplugs their server. And then he gets into a main theme of his essays about just how painful and how difficult it is to create a company. If so many startups get demoralized and fail when merely by hanging on they could get rich, you have to assume that running a startup can be demoralizing. That is certainly true. I've been there and that is why I've never done another startup. And then he goes into the point, he's like knowing that this is going to be painful and going to be difficult…
Focus on Your Startup
- Avoid distractions and prioritize your startup.
- If you're saying "but we're going to keep working on a startup," you're likely giving up.
Transcript:
David Senra
Let me mention some things not to do. The number one thing not to do is other things.
Avoiding Startup Failure
- To avoid startup failure, resist distractions and other projects.
- Publicly committing to your startup can motivate you to persevere through challenges, even if it means shifting your initial idea.
Transcript:
David Senra
Is fatal to startups. And this part was actually interesting on like how to kind of reverse hack your own human psychology so you don't quit. And it's by just not wanting to be embarrassed by other people. One of the most interesting things we've discovered from working on Y Combinator is that founders are more motivated by the fear of looking bad than by the hope of getting millions of Dollars. So if you want to to get millions of dollars, put yourself in a position where failure will be public and humiliating. So he tells this quick story of the founders of something called Octopart. And somehow one of the founders winds up getting on the cover of Newsweek with the word billionaire printed across his chest. And so then Paul makes the point, he's like, well, he can't fail now. At least he's not going to give up on his own. He's like, everyone he knows has seen that picture. And so it says at this point, he is committed to fight to the death. And he also talks about the change. I shouldn't be laughing, but I completely understand what he's saying here. But the change that this can cause in their demeanor, unfortunately, when we first knew them, they were lighthearted, cheery guys. Now, when we talk to them, they seem grimly…
Recession-Proofing Startups
- Make your startup recession-proof by running it as cheaply as possible.
- The immediate cause of death for a startup is running out of money, so the cheaper it is to operate, the harder it is to kill.
Transcript:
David Senra
So it says the way to make a startup recession proof is to do exactly what you should do anyway. Run it as cheaply as possible. For years, I've been telling founders that the surest route to success is to be the cockroaches of the corporate world. The immediate cause of death in a startup is always running out of money. So the cheaper your company is to operate, the harder it is to kill.
Recession-Proof Startups
- Make your startup recession-proof by running it as cheaply as possible.
- This makes it harder to kill and gives you an advantage when others are cowering.
Transcript:
David Senra
So it says the way to make a startup recession proof is to do exactly what you should do anyway. Run it as cheaply as possible. For years, I've been telling founders that the surest route to success is to be the cockroaches of the corporate world. The immediate cause of death in a startup is always running out of money. So the cheaper your company is to operate, the harder it is to kill. Be hard to kill is the metaphor there. Frugality is just a main reoccurring theme in the history of entrepreneurship. I said before, if you could search every single episode of Founders, I think the word frugal or frugality might be the most repeated phrase. And I just love the way that Paul put that. How to make your startup recession proof is to do exactly what you should be doing anyways. Run it as cheaply as possible. The cheaper your company is to operate, the harder it is to kill. Another great line here, another advantage of bad times is that there's less competition. Technology trains leave the station at regular intervals. If everyone else is cowering in a corner, you may have the whole car to yourself. And I love the idea behind this next paragraph. You're an investor too. As a founder, you're buying stock with work. The reason Larry and Sergey are so rich is not so much that…
Determination over Smartness
- Determination is more crucial than smartness for success.
- A highly determined person can still achieve wealth, even with less intelligence, while a brilliant but less determined person may become ineffectual.
Transcript:
David Senra
It was published August 31st, 2018. So almost 10 years apart from when he's writing this essay to, again, saying, repeating an idea about why he feels it's more important to be determined than smart. So he says, it turns out it is much more important to be determined than smart. If you imagine this hypothetical person that is 100 out of 100 for smart and 100
Determination over Smartness
- Determination is more crucial for success than intelligence.
- Reducing determination quickly leads to ineffectiveness, while reducing smartness in a determined person can still result in wealth.
Transcript:
David Senra
So he says, it turns out it is much more important to be determined than smart. If you imagine this hypothetical person that is 100 out of 100 for smart and 100 out of 100 for determination, and then you start taking away determination, it doesn't take very long Until you have this ineffectual but brilliant person.
Determination vs. Talent
- In most fields, talent is overrated compared to determination.
- Determination eventually starts to resemble talent.
Transcript:
David Senra
In most domains, talent is overrated compared to determination. And then I love this line. After a while, determination starts to look like talent. And another great line. I cannot think of any field in which determination is overrated. And then he continues. This is the next page. The simplest form of determination is sheer willfulness. Willfulness. When you want something, you must have it no matter what.
Determination vs. Talent
- Talent is often overrated, while determination is crucial for success.
- Over time, consistent determination can appear like talent itself.
Transcript:
David Senra
In most domains, talent is overrated compared to determination. And then I love this line. After a while, determination starts to look like talent. And another great line. I cannot think of any field in which determination is overrated. And then he continues. This is the next page. The simplest form of determination is sheer willfulness. Willfulness. When you want something, you must have it no matter what.
Maintaining High Achievement
- High achievement is difficult to maintain long-term because indiscipline becomes more dangerous with increased temptation.
- Greater determination can lead to greater temptations, making sustained success a challenge.
Transcript:
David Senra
And then this next paragraph I wrote down, this is a very novel thought. This may be why high levels of achievement are so difficult to maintain over a long period of time. The dangers of indiscipline increase with temptation. If you're sufficiently determined to achieve great things, this will probably increase the number of temptations around you. That's a very interesting idea. I'm going to read the whole thing again. The dangers of indiscipline increase with temptation.
Ambition Can Be Cultivated
- Ambition is a key component of determination, influencing the goals you pursue.
- Unlike willpower or discipline, ambition is malleable and can be developed.
Transcript:
David Senra
Ambition seems to be quite malleable. There's a lot you can do to increase it. This is a really excellent point. I'm going to, so in all of his essays, he leaves footnotes. So I'm going to read this paragraph. I'm going to read the footnote right after it. Ambitious people are rare. So if everyone is mixed together randomly, as they tend to be early in people's lives, then the ambitious ones won't have many other or many ambitious peers. When you take people like this and you put them together with other ambitious people, so that is another main theme of Paul's essays, is the importance of founders, ambitious people In general, to be around other people like them.
Ambition Catalyst
- Bringing ambitious people together ignites their potential.
- They encourage and inspire each other, leading to significant growth, similar to how dying plants bloom when watered.
Transcript:
David Senra
Ambition seems to be quite malleable. There's a lot you can do to increase it. This is a really excellent point. I'm going to, so in all of his essays, he leaves footnotes. So I'm going to read this paragraph. I'm going to read the footnote right after it. Ambitious people are rare. So if everyone is mixed together randomly, as they tend to be early in people's lives, then the ambitious ones won't have many other or many ambitious peers. When you take people like this and you put them together with other ambitious people, so that is another main theme of Paul's essays, is the importance of founders, ambitious people In general, to be around other people like them. So a huge component of YC is like that they're constantly getting together. There's like a community around them. He talks about like being in like either in the same city as people or in like physical events. He just that's it's very I don't even know why I say surprising, but it was surprising how much he mentions this idea. It's like there's a huge benefit to being around people and that are like you because being a founder and being interested in this stuff is weird. And it also in this case, what he's about to tell us here is like it just it takes you up another level. Right. So it says…
Bring Ambitious People Together
- One of the best ways to help society is to create events and institutions that bring ambitious people together.
- This acts like "pulling the control rods out of a reactor," amplifying their energy and encouraging others.
Transcript:
David Senra
Their age and so this is the footnote on that paragraph which means one of the best ways to help a society generally is to create events and institutions that bring ambitious people together. It's like pulling the control rods out of a reactor. The energy they emit encourages other ambitious people instead of being absorbed by the normal people that they're usually surrounded with. What I wrote here, and I don't know if I'll do this idea, but I wonder if there's a benefit to having an in-person version of Founders Podcast. Because Paul is telling us right here, one of the best ways to help societies generally create events and institutions that bring ambitious people together. I'd have a hard time understanding why somebody that's not ambitious would be even listening to this. Back to Paul. Achievements also tend to
Choosing a Co-founder
- Prioritize character and commitment over ability when selecting a co-founder.
- Avoid co-founders who might abandon the project.
Transcript:
David Senra
What people wish they paid more attention to when choosing co-founders was character and commitment, not ability. I think Paul says it here, but if not, the best way I heard this described, it's like you pick your co-founder like you pick somebody you're going to get married to. It's not like a light decision, right? What people wish they paid more attention to when choosing co-founders was character and commitment, not ability. This was particularly true with the startups have failed. The lesson, don't pick co-founders who will flake.
Co-founder Relationships
- The co-founder relationship is intensely close, like a marriage, requiring careful selection and maintenance.
- It's the foundation of the startup.
Transcript:
David Senra
Back to Paul. Several people use the word married. It is far more intense relationship than you usually see between coworkers.
Founder dynamics after acquisition
- David Senra's friend, John Coogan, researched historical examples of successful founders collaborating on new projects after acquisitions.
- He found that it consistently resulted in failure, typically with one founder taking a subordinate role, similar to Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick.
Transcript:
David Senra
And based on his research, he said it seems like it always failed. And I went through every single episode, like the episode title is just trying to see if I come up with anything. So I'm just going to read you this long text, like thought that I sent him. And it's not specific to you know founders one founder buying another company's another founder's company and then working together this kind of clear uh theme in the history of entrepreneurship And it says my get my initial guess is no because it tends to evolve into one clear main founder and even if the co-founder or the partner stays it's usually and it's clearly in a subordinate Role I immediately think of Andrew carnegie and henry k flick both two super successful founders andrew buys henry's company episode 73 is on this what happened i go episode 73 is on A book called meet you in hell about their partnership and then their bitter bitter lifelong rivalry years after their fight meet you in hell the title comes
Startup Immersion
- Paul Graham didn't realize he would spend almost every waking moment working on or thinking about his startup.
- In the best case, this total immersion can be exciting and not feel like work.
Transcript:
David Senra
And then Paul says, in the best case, total immersion can be exciting. Here's an example of that. It's surprising how much you become consumed by your startup in that you think about it day and night but never once does it feel like work so i mentioned you before i have all these weird Ways to brainwash
Conor McGregor's Total Immersion
- Conor McGregor, while on welfare and living with his parents, visualized his success in MMA through total immersion.
- He was so focused on his craft that it bordered on insanity, demonstrating extreme dedication.
Transcript:
David Senra
And then Paul says, in the best case, total immersion can be exciting. Here's an example of that. It's surprising how much you become consumed by your startup in that you think about it day and night but never once does it feel like work so i mentioned you before i have all these weird Ways to brainwash myself these videos i watch these clips i watch over and over again these quotes i save on my phone one of them is conor mcgregor talking about total immersion at the Beginning of his career there's a fantastic documentary on netflix i think it's called like notorious or something like that and it shows conor mcgregor when he was on welfare he was Living with his parents couldn't pay his bills and you know he just keeps saying he's like i'm gonna make it i'm gonna dedicate my entire life i'm not gonna think about anything else like And he was like talking about visualization he's just like i know i'm gonna be a champion one day i know i'm gonna have more money than i than i know what to do with i'm gonna be able to take Care of my entire family and it's crazy because he's saying these things when he's going he's like leafing through mail and it's like you know bill collector after bill collector after Bill…
Conor McGregor's Total Immersion
- Conor McGregor, while on welfare, visualized his future success through total immersion in his craft.
- He prioritized his training above all else, even ignoring everyday conversations to mentally rehearse fight sequences.
Transcript:
David Senra
And then Paul says, in the best case, total immersion can be exciting. Here's an example of that. It's surprising how much you become consumed by your startup in that you think about it day and night but never once does it feel like work so i mentioned you before i have all these weird Ways to brainwash myself these videos i watch these clips i watch over and over again these quotes i save on my phone one of them is conor mcgregor talking about total immersion at the Beginning of his career there's a fantastic documentary on netflix i think it's called like notorious or something like that and it shows conor mcgregor when he was on welfare he was Living with his parents couldn't pay his bills and you know he just keeps saying he's like i'm gonna make it i'm gonna dedicate my entire life i'm not gonna think about anything else like And he was like talking about visualization he's just like i know i'm gonna be a champion one day i know i'm gonna have more money than i than i know what to do with i'm gonna be able to take Care of my entire family and it's crazy because he's saying these things when he's going he's like leafing through mail and it's like you know bill collector after bill collector…
Think Long Term
- Be persistent in your startup because everything takes longer than expected.
- Founders are often surprised by this because they work fast and are overconfident.
Transcript:
David Senra
Remember, the name of this essay is what startups are really like. Number six, think long term. You need persistence because everything takes longer than you expect. A lot of people were surprised by that. Founder says, I'm continually surprised by how long everything can take.
Incremental Progress
- Don't bet on any single feature or deal for success.
- Focus on incremental progress and keep iterating on lots of little things.
Transcript:
David Senra
It's never just a single thing. Everything is just incremental and you just keep going. You just keep doing lots and lots of these little things
Open Mind
- Experienced founders learn to keep an open mind.
- You can never tell what will work.
Transcript:
David Senra
And then Paul says, experienced founders learn to keep an open mind. This is an excerpt from an email on that.
Customer Acquisition
- Focus on the cost of customer acquisition.
- Y Combinator's advice to "make something people want" should also emphasize acquisition costs.
Transcript:
David Senra
The sharpest criticism of YC came from a founder who said we did not focus enough on customer acquisition. This is what the founder said. YC preaches make something people want. There is very little focus on the cost of customer acquisition. And that's actually something I learned from Steve Jobs because he talks
Moral Obligation to Market
- If you believe your product improves customers' lives, you're morally obligated to market it well.
- Apple's goal to have everyone use their products required great marketing.
Transcript:
David Senra
And to do that, Apple must not only make great products, but they must become a great marketing company. And they weren't at the time he was saying this, right? And the way I interpreted what he was saying
Startup Deals
- Expect deals to fall through in the startup world.
- Operate under the assumption that you might not get outside investment.
Transcript:
David Senra
That is a constant of the startup world. Startups are powerless. And they also apply not only to deals with bigger companies, but they say this applies to investors too.
Paul Graham's Startup Advice
- Raise a small amount of money initially, around $500,000.
- Focus on working closely with users to build something amazing, staying small and reaching profitability before raising more money.
Transcript:
David Senra
But assuming I got in, I would not get sucked into raising a huge amount on demo day. Okay. And so this is what he would do if he was starting a company. Now I would raise maybe $500,000. I'd keep the company small for the first year. I would work closely with users to make something amazing. And otherwise I would stay off of Silicon Valley's radar. In other words, I'd be the opposite of a scenester. Ideally I would get to profitability on that initial 500k.
Paul Graham's Startup Advice
- Apply to YC, but don't raise a huge amount on Demo Day.
- Instead, raise a smaller amount, stay small for a year, and focus on building an amazing product with close user interaction, staying off Silicon Valley's radar.
Transcript:
David Senra
Which is not that surprising since it was designed to be what I wish I had had when I did start one. But assuming I got in, I would not get sucked into raising a huge amount on demo day. Okay. And so this is what he would do if he was starting a company. Now I would raise maybe $500,000. I'd keep the company small for the first year. I would work closely with users to make something amazing. And otherwise I would stay off of Silicon Valley's radar. In other words, I'd be the opposite of a scenester. Ideally I would get to profitability on that initial 500k. Later, I could raise more if I felt like it. Or not, but it would be on my terms. At every point, this is, I think, the part that I actually found most interesting personally. At every point in the company's growth, I'd keep the company as small as I could. I'd always want people to be surprised by how few employees we had. Fewer employees equal lower costs and less need to turn into a manager. And so that popped to mind when you have this email from the founder saying, it would have been much better if we had operated under the assumption that we would never get any additional Outside capital. And so then Paul adds on to that. My advice is…
Keep Companies Small
- Keep your company as small as possible at every stage of growth.
- Fewer employees means lower costs and less management.
Transcript:
David Senra
At every point, this is, I think, the part that I actually found most interesting personally. At every point in the company's growth, I'd keep the company as small as I could. I'd always want people to be surprised by how few employees we had. Fewer employees equal lower costs and less need to turn into a manager. And so that popped to mind when you have this email from the founder
Clueless Investors
- Some investors didn't know about their investments.
- One couldn't even demo a hardware device they'd funded.
Transcript:
David Senra
This is one founder said, they don't even know about the stuff they've invested in. I met some investors that had invested in a hardware device, and when I asked them to demo the device, they had difficulty switching it on. And then another founder says, investors don't know half the time what they're talking about. A few were great, but 95% of the investors we dealt with were unprofessional. They didn't seem to be very good at business or have any kind of creative vision. They said angels were generally much
Pessimistic Planning for Startups
- Assume you won't get funding, and if you do, assume it's the last you'll receive.
- This pessimistic approach allows founders to stay in control and make decisions based on their company's needs, rather than external pressures.
Transcript:
David Senra
And so then Paul adds on to that. My advice is generally pessimistic. Assume you won't get money. And if someone does offer you any, assume you'll never get any more of it. And then he talks about, hey, founders don't take this advice. They don't listen to me. Why do founders ignore me? Mostly because they're optimistic by nature. The mistake is to be optimistic about things you can't control. That is excellent. So that's why his whole point is like, you need to be in charge of your own destiny. And then once you're in there, you have a lot more options and you get to pick and choose what's best for you and your company. Number 14, investors are clueless. A lot of founders mentioned how surprised they were by the cluelessness of investors. This is one founder said, they don't even know about the stuff they've invested in. I met some investors that had invested in a hardware device, and when I asked them to demo the device, they had difficulty switching it on. And then another founder says, investors don't know half the time what they're talking about. A few were great, but 95% of the investors we dealt with were unprofessional. They didn't seem to be very good at business or have any kind…
Founder Community
- Read "Against the Odds" by James Dyson to understand the challenges of being a founder.
- This book offers comfort and shows that the difficulties faced are not unique.
Transcript:
David Senra
It's why my number one recommendation, my number one book recommendation is Against the Odds, an autobiography by James Dyson. The last time I read it, I read it a few times. It was episode 200 because I think James can serve as like a mentor in a historical context about how difficult and lonely the job of the founder can be. So I think it's like you're going to find that reading that book, there's a lot of good information on company building in there, but I think you'll find it comforting. Like, oh, okay. The way I feel and the difficulty I'm going through and the pain I'm enduring is not unique to me. And then Paul talks about the value of community. It's like one of the reasons he likes being part of the world because of this world is because even as people get super successful, they're still trying to help.
Restocking the Stream
- Bob Noyce, founder of Intel, mentored founders like Steve Jobs and Nolan Bushnell.
- He described it as "restocking the stream that I fished from."
Transcript:
David Senra
I think Bob Noyce, the founder of intel talked about this the best i think he said something like uh after he got successful as an entrepreneur he tried to help and mentor a bunch of people He mentored you know steve jobs he mentored nolan bushnell a bunch of other founders and he said something it was like restocking the fish or restocking the stream that i fished from I think is the way he put it so paul says this is one of the reasons i like being part of this world creating wealth is not
Resourceful Founders
- Least successful startups seemed hard to talk to, with a wall between them and their funders.
- Most successful startups were "fire and forget," closing any lead given to them.
Transcript:
David Senra
He says, I noticed a pattern in the least successful startups that we funded. They all seemed hard to talk to. It felt as if there were some kind of wall between us. I could never quite tell if they understood what I was saying. What was surprising is what comes next, where he compares the opposite of this. And this is not what you'd expect it to be the opposite to be again a word to the resourceful this is what it's talking about this caught my attention because earlier we noticed a pattern Among the most successful startups and it seemed to hinge on a different quality we found the startups that did the best were the ones with the sort of founders about whom we'd say they Can take care of themselves the startups that do the best and as a for the proxy that you and I are using this for here, it's like the kind of founders that we want to be, right?
Resourceful Founders
- The most successful startup founders are resourceful and "fire and forget."
- Give them a one-line intro to a VC and they'll independently chase down the funding, understanding all the implications.
Transcript:
David Senra
What was surprising is what comes next, where he compares the opposite of this. And this is not what you'd expect it to be the opposite to be again a word to the resourceful this is what it's talking about this caught my attention because earlier we noticed a pattern Among the most successful startups and it seemed to hinge on a different quality we found the startups that did the best were the ones with the sort of founders about whom we'd say they Can take care of themselves the startups that do the best and as a for the proxy that you and I are using this for here, it's like the kind of founders that we want to be, right? So it's like the startups that do the best, the founders that are the best, right? So it says the startups that do the best are fire and forget it in the sense that all you have to do is give them a lead and they'll close it, whatever type of lead it is. So I just want to go over one line in that paragraph. Again, we found the startups that did the best were the ones with the sort of founders about whom we'd say they can take care of themselves. It seemed odd that the outliers at the two ends of the spectrum, which is failure and success, right, could be detected by what appeared to be unrelated tests. This is…
Resourcefulness and Understanding
- Resourceful founders quickly grasp the implications of advice or opportunities, similar to how a 'word to the wise is sufficient'.
- This ability allows them to independently pursue leads and achieve success with minimal guidance.
Transcript:
David Senra
If someone is wise, all you have to do is say one word to them, and they'll understand immediately. You don't have to explain in detail. They'll chase down all the implications. He doesn't say this, but the way I think about what he's saying is they'll chase down all the implications on their own. Back to Paul, in much the same way that all you have to do is give the right sort of founder a one-line intro to a VC and he'll chase down the money. Understanding all the implications is a subset of resourcefulness. That is a really unique
Resourcefulness in Successful Founders
- Successful founders possess a resourcefulness that allows them to understand implications quickly and act accordingly.
- This is in contrast to unsuccessful founders who exhibit a conservatism stemming from weakness and navigate the idea space cautiously.
Transcript:
David Senra
It turns out there is, and the key to the mystery is the old adage, a word to the wise is sufficient. If someone is wise, all you have to do is say one word to them, and they'll understand immediately. You don't have to explain in detail. They'll chase down all the implications. He doesn't say this, but the way I think about what he's saying is they'll chase down all the implications on their own. Back to Paul, in much the same way that all you have to do is give the right sort of founder a one-line intro to a VC and he'll chase down the money. Understanding all the implications is a subset of resourcefulness. That is a really unique thought. And this is where, this is why Paul's writing makes you feel something. Paul's writing evokes emotion. It's just like, wait a minute. And it's in the same way that all you have to do is give the right sort of founder a one-line intro to a VC and he'll chase down the money. And then the punchline right here is so fantastic. Understanding all the implications is a subset of resourcefulness. That is a description of the successful founders. Then he ties it back to, okay, so what are the unsuccessful founders doing wrong?…
Startups Take Off
- Startups don't just take off automatically; founders make them take off through deliberate actions.
- The market doesn't simply come to you; you have to proactively recruit users, especially in the early stages.
Transcript:
David Senra
Or they don't, in which case the market must not exist. Actually, startups take off because the founders make them take off. I had to double underline that one. That one's fantastic. It's actually startups take off because the founders make them take off.
Collison Installation
- Stripe aggressively acquired early users.
- Y Combinator called Stripe's method the "Collison installation."
Transcript:
David Senra
Obviously, we can think about that as customers as well. You have to go out and get them. Stripe is the most successful startup we funded, or it's one of the most successful startups we funded and the problem they solved was an urgent one if anyone could have sat back and waited For users it was stripe i love this story i've mentioned this story on past podcasts a few times too but in fact they're famous for aggressive early user acquisition so they have a term He says YC, we use the term Collison installation. Collison is the last name of
Collison Installation
- The Collison brothers, founders of Stripe, used a technique called 'Collison installation'
- Instead of sending beta links, they asked for users' laptops and set up their product on the spot.
Transcript:
David Senra
Collison is the last name of the two brothers that founded Stripe. Okay. So it says at YC, we use the term Collison installation for the technique they invented. More diffident founders, meaning more default passive founders, right, would ask, will you try our beta? And if the answer is yes, they'll say, great, we'll send you a link. But the Collison brothers were not going to wait. When anyone agreed to try Stripe, they'd say, right. They would say, right then, give me your laptop. And they would set them up on the spot. That is the Collison installation. That's fantastic. For a startup to succeed, at least one founder will have to spend a lot of time on sales marketing. When I got to that section, it made me think of one of my favorite quotes from the book Zero to One by Peter Thiel. Superior sales and distribution by itself can create a monopoly, even with no product differentiation.
Estée Lauder’s Personalized Approach
- Estée Lauder gave individual makeovers, even on buses, which didn't seem scalable.
- Decades later, she still received letters from those early customers, demonstrating the long-term impact of personalized service.
Transcript:
David Senra
This is why, again, I've already said it, I don't know, probably twice so far, you got to go back and study Estee Lauder. She was a master at this. Everywhere she'd go, she would offer to it on an individual basis right she's sitting on a train sitting on a bus wherever she's at she's like hey she sees a woman sitting there hey do you Mind if i do your makeup if i beautify you or i forgot the term she uses and she would do like a one-on you know maybe five ten minutes i don't even know how long it took and then what would happen Is uh she did at the beginning uh you know when he's saying you have to do things that don't scale one-on uh like make makeovers is definitely not that's a definition of things that doesn't Scale right but it does scale with time because she would say decades later she would still be getting cards and letters in the mail from people that she took the time on an individual Basis to provide a service for that are still customers so think about that. Like she recruited a user, a customer on a bus 30 years earlier. That person is still a client of hers, still a customer of hers, still sending her information or still sending her communication and letters and things. How many…
Compounding Growth
- Underestimating the power of compounding growth is a common mistake.
- While small initial growth might seem insignificant, consistent growth over time leads to surprising results.
Transcript:
David Senra
This can't be how the big famous startups got started, I think. The mistake they make is to underestimate the power of compounding growth. We encourage every startup to measure their progress by weekly growth rate. And so his point here and what I wrote in the margin is humans do not understand this intuitively. We encourage every startup to measure their progress by weekly growth rate. If you have 100 users, you need to get 10 more next week to grow 10% a week, and while 100% 110 might not seem much better than 100. If you keep going at 10% a week, you'll be surprised how big the numbers get. After a year, you'll have 14,000 users. And after two years, you'll have 2 million. Almost all startups are fragile initially. And that's one of the biggest things inexperienced founders and investors and reporters and know-it he lists a bunch of people here, get wrong about them. They unconsciously judge larval startups by the standards of established ones. They're like someone looking at a newborn baby and concluding there's no way this tiny creature could ever
Judging Early Startups
- Inexperienced founders, investors, and reporters often misjudge early-stage startups by comparing them to established companies.
- It's like judging a newborn's potential based on its current size.
Transcript:
David Senra
They unconsciously judge larval startups by the standards of established ones. They're like someone looking at a newborn baby and concluding there's no way this tiny creature could ever accomplish anything. The question, oh, this is so fantastic. The question to ask about early stage startups is not, is this company going to take over the world? But how big could this company get if the founders did the right, if the founders And the right things often seem laborious and inconsequential at the time. That is such a good line.
Focus on Individual Customers
- Don't worry about scaling customer delight too early.
- Focus on making your initial users incredibly happy, as larval startups have nothing to lose.
Transcript:
David Senra
And then just more great advice here, another reason founders don't focus enough on individual customers is that they worry it won't scale. But when founders of larval startups worry about this, I point out that in their current state, they have nothing to
Insanely Great Service
- Focus on delighting individual customers, especially in the early stages of a startup.
- Provide an insanely great level of service that big companies can't, like sending handwritten thank you notes.
Transcript:
David Senra
And then just more great advice here, another reason founders don't focus enough on individual customers is that they worry it won't scale. But when founders of larval startups worry about this, I point out that in their current state, they have nothing to lose. Maybe if they go out of their way to make existing users super happy, they'll one day have too many to do so much for. See if you can make that happen. And the fact that you can delight customers on a one-by basis when you're just starting out is actually an advantage that big companies do not have. Tim Cook of Apple doesn't send you a handwritten note after you buy a laptop. He can't. But you can. That's one advantage of being small. You can provide a level of service no big company can. And this is fantastic. I never thought about this. I was trying to think of a phrase to convey how extreme your attention to users should be. And I realized Steve Jobs had already done it. Insanely great. Steve wasn't just using insanely as a synonym
Make Users Feel Special
- Go above and beyond to delight your initial users.
- Make signing up feel like one of their best choices, like Wufu did with handwritten thank-you notes.
Transcript:
David Senra
And then just more great advice here, another reason founders don't focus enough on individual customers is that they worry it won't scale. But when founders of larval startups worry about this, I point out that in their current state, they have nothing to lose. Maybe if they go out of their way to make existing users super happy, they'll one day have too many to do so much for. See if you can make that happen. And the fact that you can delight customers on a one-by basis when you're just starting out is actually an advantage that big companies do not have. Tim Cook of Apple doesn't send you a handwritten note after you buy a laptop. He can't. But you can. That's one advantage of being small. You can provide a level of service no big company can. And this is fantastic. I never thought about this. I was trying to think of a phrase to convey how extreme your attention to users should be. And I realized Steve Jobs had already done it. Insanely great. Steve wasn't just using insanely as a synonym for very. He meant it more literally. That one should focus on quality of execution to a degree that in everyday life would be considered pathological. And he's going to give some advice on how you go about doing this. Sometimes the right unscalable trick is to focus on a deliberately…
