Good enough ideas are rare
. But even weak ideas have to be realized by people. Assessing people can be done in under 15 minutes. Y-Combinator has mastered a state of the art methodology to do so thanks to analyzing myriads of applications and thousands of interviews annually.
Based on outlines mostly of Sam Altman. YC funded 3,500 startups under his 6-year presidency. These rules doom all startups, not only Zero-To-One.
“The road to startup failure is paved with excuses…” — Sam Altman
Ideas
Be clear & concise.
You’re not a special case. Explaining why you are is what those who fail do.
Start with a product early users ‘love’.
‘Love’ means: they onboard friends without being prompt to.
You must be the target user — or find another idea. Exception: you’re closely connected to the target group.
Check authenticity: founders have obvious honest motivations to attack their field.
Define the minimal subset of technology by talking to users. Build MVP. Measure ‘love’ through event analytics. In b2b — zero coding before Letters-of-Intent;
Start with a large portion of a fast growing market;
It’s easier to succeed building new & hard things.
Cofounders: two willful friends
Cofounder breakups are the #1 cause of failure.
Founded by 2 or 3 friends after 1+ years of hanging out; Four is too many.
Comparable shares vested in 48 months.
At least one talks to users, at least one builds the product without outside help.
Personal Traits: unstoppable, determined, formidable, resourceful. You feel he’ll get it done. Rigid in mission and flexible in everything else. Responsive; easy to talk.
Product: event-analytics → iterate
Startups are product-improvement engines. You build a product people ‘love’ or you fail — no matter what else you succeed in.
Put nobody between founders and users.
Increase +5% revenue weekly. Slower = bad product.
Onboard users in-person and build features they want.
Ship faster: break product into smaller pieces — build as simple as possible and always ship before it’s ready.
Keep list “what’s blocking growth”. Hack it.
Retention is equally important as user growth.
Arrange the drumbeat: weekly celebrate wins, set goals, review.
Employees must see the key metrics and work to improve it. Share what users say: good and bad.
Earn friends who can be capable cofounders
About mistakes please tweet @antonabramov
Get emails with new posts. Become a better founder now, just enter your e-mail below