Counterintuitive Parts of Startups, and How to Have Ideas
1
Just pick people the way you would pick people if you were picking friends. […] Work with people you would generally like and respect and that you have known long enough to be sure about because there are a lot of people who are really good at seeming likable for a while.
2
What you need to know to succeed in a startup is not expertise in startups, what you need is expertise in your own users.
3
starting a startup is where gaming the system stops working.
o, stop looking for the trick. There are tricks in startups, as there are in any domain, but they are an order of magnitude less important than solving the real problem. Someone who knows zero about fundraising, but has made something users really love, will have an easier time raising money than someone who knows every trick in the book, but has a flat usage graph.
4
…startups are all consuming. If you start a startup, it will take over your life.
Starting a successful startup is similar to having kids; it’s like a button you press and it changes your life irrevocably.
Yet when it comes to starting startups a lot of people seem to think they are supposed to start them in college. Are you crazy?
There are things that you can do in your early twenties that you cannot do as well before or after.
5
Unless you have had a very strange life indeed you have not done much that’s like starting a startup. Meaning starting a startup will change you a lot if it works out. So what you’re trying to estimate is not just what you are, but what you could become. And who can do that?
6
The way to get start up ideas is not to try to think of startup ideas
«If you want to start a startup what you have to do in college is to learn powerful things.»
«What really matters in entrepreneurship is domain expertise.»
Sixth counterintuitive idea while starting a sturtup: the way to find a startup idea is stop thinking in startup ideas. «Turn your brain into the type that have startup ideas unconsciously; so unconsciously that you don’t even recognize them as startup ideas in the beginning.»
How to turn your mind into unconscious startup ideas mode:
- Learn a lot about things that matter.
- work on problems that interest you
- with people you like and respect