

MIT Startup Bootcamp (live @ justin.tv) - huangm
http://www.justin.tv/startupbootcamp

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csallen
I'm at the event, a lot of good talks from an abundance of YCombinator
founders. It's good to see MIT participating in the startup scene. Some of the
best parts of Startup Bootcamp so far:

Kyle Vogt (Justin.tv) emphasized being flexible and remaining committed during
the hard times. Iterate and morph and never quit until you have a
product/service that fits the market. Make something people love, even if that
means completely changing your ideas.

Dan Theobald (Vecna) gave us some warnings about the dangers of "other
people's money", which he jokingly referred to as opium (OPM). He advocated
bootstrapping it, mentioning that he would show up at companies with nothing
but his laptop and say, "I'm from MIT. How can I help you with your tech
needs?" He advised against ever hiring anyone, but said that if you have to
hire then get the smartest people possible: 1 great engineer = 10 good
engineers = 100 average engineers.

Dan recommended reading a paper called "On the folly of rewarding A, while
hoping for B" (title self-explanatory). At Vecna, employees are given points
to distribute to coworkers they find deserving, and these points control
bonuses. People work harder when they know their employees are evaluating
them, and coworkers do a better job than managers. He also spoke a lot about
helping the community, and being non-self. I came away from the the talk
thinking that Dan's a really great guy.

Adam Smith (Xobni), who was the first to speak, talked about raising the
barrier to entry by doing something _hard_. He estimated it would take tens of
millions of dollars for someone to come into Outlook and do what Xobni has
done. Like Vogt, he emphasized being nimble. That is, being able to
effectively change your idea and your product to fit the market. He pointed
out that external deadlines (ex. demoing at a tech conference), can really
work in your favor. He recommended reading Jessica Livingston's _Founders at
Work_ , and also _High St@kes, No Prisoners._ According to him the latter
book's out of print, but Adam brought along six copies and set them on the
stage for anyone to grab near the end of his talk. Luckily, I sat on the front
row, and I move pretty quick if I say so myself :)

Angus Davis (Tellme) had a really cool speech. One, he's a great charistmatic
speaker. Two, he had volumes of knowledge. Three, he made use of this service:
<http://www.polleverywhere.com/>. He prepared a wealth of topics and had us
text the service which topics we wanted to hear about. You could see the poll
behing him being updated in real-time, and he simply talked aobut whatever was
getting the most votes.

Sorry for the book!

~~~
bootload
_"... He estimated it would take tens of millions of dollars for someone to
come into Outlook and do what Xobni has done. ..."_

Anything on the MS platform could be replicated by Microsoft and I've seen
them do this for strategic reasons. Cost is not the issue, understanding the
problem & mindset is.

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jeffd
I'm starting to transfer the HD video off the tapes now. Hopefully we can get
them edited and up within the next 2 weeks. (fingers crossed)

Thanks for those who watched online and those who came out to MIT! :-)

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marcua
I took notes: [http://blog.marcua.net/post/211390022/startup-bootcamp-at-
mi...](http://blog.marcua.net/post/211390022/startup-bootcamp-at-mit) .

Hope these help someone!

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icey
Does anyone have a talk schedule?

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j_b_f
<http://startupbootcamp.mit.edu/schedule.html> \- there you go.

~~~
icey
Awesome, thank you sir.

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saurabh
HD videos of the talks will be availiable a couple of days later. Nice.

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matt1
To anyone else at the event: I'm in the sixth row against the right wall,
probably furiously taking notes on my Macbook. Feel free to say hi before the
evening is over.

Aaron Swartz now...

