

Guy Kawasaki’s 10 Questions to Ask Before You Join a Startup - psogle
http://www.mint.com/blog/how-to/guy-kawasaki-startup-tips/

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redorb
#11: is Guy Kawasaki on the board or associated with your company. (serious) I
wouldn't be on a start up with him; seems too willing to whore his name out
for anything, perhaps I just respected his earlier days more than I do
currently.

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jlees
What am I going to do, will I have the freedom to do it or will I be working
on somebody's baby, and can you pay me?

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quizbiz
I must say that <http://www.mint.com/blog/> is incredibly well done.

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dlevine
What was your primary motivation for starting this company?

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netsp
Will a startup honestly answer all of these questions?

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potatolicious
That's the point - if they don't, _run_.

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devin
Yay! Not a fluff post about how "passion" will magically line your pockets
with dough. Real advice from one of the true visionaries out there.

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devin
Really? A down vote for this?

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rokhayakebe
1- What are we going to build? Can we build it?

2- Does the (potential) market size justify the resources we will invest in
it?

3- Can it create enough revenue to support development, and turn a profit by
MM/YY?

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gizmo
Nice questions, but any startup that claims to know the answers is lying.

1\. When the company knows exactly what they're going to build, I'm going to
be worried the idea is somebody's "brainchild", and that any suggested changes
to the product will be met with a lot of resistance. No plan is said to
survive contact with the enemy. This also applies for product concepts and the
first (potential) customers. The second half of the question (Can we build
it?), will always be answered in the affirmative. We're hopelessly optimistic
that way.

Questions 2 and 3 are questions that are very important, but what's the point
of asking when you can't tell if the answer is a realistic forecast or some
numbers pulled out of nowhere? A company that has absolutely no idea about
market size, or the revenue model can still stumble upon a working business
model.

Questions that can only be answered in hindsight won't give you the
information you need before you join.

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mgenzel
I think the point of asking such questions is to see whether they have even
thought of the difficult issues. It's not the answer, it's the thought process
(just like the questions they'll ask you, theoretically).

