

12 Learnings As a Startup CEO (Jobster, ~$48m in VC) - webwright
http://www.socialmedian.com/2008/01/12_learnings_from_my_first_sta.html

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mrtron
I can't say this enough, or nearly as well:

    
    
        Try to ride some powerful existing waves vs. just creating new waves.  Find some big and important industry trends and ride on top of them.  It is very very hard to create your own industry trends.  Be careful about getting out too far ahead of any wave. 
    

It is where I made a major error - getting way out in front of the wave.

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gigamon
I agree. I think the article basically summarizes what we have all learned
(the hard way) ... ahead of your competitors but never too far ahead of your
customers.

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gigamon
This is a fantastic article summarizing what I have learned and what I tried
to write on my own (<http://www.startupforless.com>).

I am humble by it.

Basically it boils down to the following ...

1) Create "value", not "valuation" 2) Be a "surrogate" customer, live their
lives and adopt their persona 3) Be frugal, use your VC money as working
capital and treat it as the last money you ever going to have and need 4) ...
and more

\--Denny--

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edu
From <http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>

_Please don't sign comments, especially with your url. They're already signed
with your username. If other users want to learn more about you, they can
click on it to see your profile._

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gigamon
Thanks. I am from the old World.

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bayareaguy
That'll learn ya.

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jimmygambier
As a former startup CEO, I think Jason pointed some really good pointers on
priorities and what it takes to make it. I'd like to see more articles like
this from other CEO's.

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sabat
Learning #1: "learning" is not a noun. You can't have "learnings". You can
have knowledge. You can learn things. Saying you have "learnings" makes you
sound retarded.

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whacked_new
Part of speech in English is determined by word order. If you attach "s" to
"learning" it simply forces it to become a noun. It's not proper in the books,
but neither was "Google" a verb 10 years ago.

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sabat
While I agree that you're right -- English is not an especially logical
language, and one that is quite fluid -- I think what I'm really hoping is
that ugly corporatisms like "learnings" and "planful" don't get their ugly
roots very deep. I'm also arguing that "learnings" is unnecessary (as is
"pushback" and "monetizing") because we already have words for the idea.

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ojbyrne
Learnings? From looking at his site, it doesn't appear that english is his
second language. Lots of stuff on valleywag about jobster, e.g.
[http://valleywag.com/tech/startup-hell/jobsters-death-
march-...](http://valleywag.com/tech/startup-hell/jobsters-death-
march-267843.php)

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webwright
Having worked at Jobster, I can safely say that 95% of the stuff on Valleywag
about Jason is just plain wrong or horribly exaggerated. Pointing people there
is the startup equivalent of pointing people to the National Enquirer.

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ojbyrne
I used to love the National Enquirer ;-) I love Valleywag too.

