https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxKXJWf-WMg
Founding teams
- Fatal conflicts
looking at having different vision
- looking at having the same role
- complementary pairs
technical owner
- business / product owner
Best startups
- hired the least
- more people less effective
- 70 productive hours -
focus those hours on users
- focus on getting a really small number of users that really love the product
Best founders
- The ability to clearly articulate the vision of what they are trying to do
easier to recruit
- easier to promote
- easier to raise fund
- determined
- passionate
- intelligence
- Effective in execution
Early stage investing
- network effects at play
Reason to launch quickly
- gain conviction
- Recognize a shift in the world
- see that people are constantly using the app over and over again even when being ridiculed by the masses
- figure our core metric that gets better 10% each week
Pivots
- Found an opportunity that worked
- Built the stuff that you originally wanted to work
- Found an opportunity that could be monetized
- A rush to get an idea is very bad! If original idea is bad. Shut down the company, return the money and go travel the world for an organic idea
Learnings
- The only most valuable pre-start experience is to join a really successful rapidly growing company so that you get put into different roles that you don't have much experience yet for
Most critical mistake
- Not firing bad people fast enough
it hurts both the company and the employee by keeping them around longer
- the employee will stagnate during the time he is with the company
- explain clearly and be firm in the decision that the employee needs to go
- allow the employee to communicate his needs prior to departure
he could work from home while looking for a new position
- he could state that he is still working for the company while looking for a new position
- preparing the termination letter prior to communication only creates a highly adversarial environment
Time window
- You only have a relatively short window of 20 years to be great.
between 25 - 45 years old
- focus on the one single problem that you really find important and want to solve
- learn how to become a great CEO then or
- join a company whose mission you really care about
Valuation
- An employee should consider the valuation of the company 5 years down the road and how many percent of the valuation he owns.
- current valuation for a position that is illiquid is only a distraction
- valuation only means something when someone else is willing to pay for the shares at that valuation