
How to Avoid Distractions and Start the Right Company - justin
https://www.atrium.co/blog/sam-altman-start-the-right-company/?hn
======
fermienrico
I honestly do not gain anything from articles like this. They are so abstract
that when it comes down to an actual actionable information - it doesn't apply
anymore. It is sort of like reading one of those fluffy "How to become a
millionaire" advice books. Nothing of substance comes out of it and they do
not work for me.

I recently watched Sam Altman's MIT lecture [1] on Youtube about startup
advice for hard tech companies. It was such a waste of time.

Instead, I find it much more informative and educational to read and watch
stories about how a specific company was formed. Each story is unique and the
just goes to show that each startup has unique challenges. There is so much to
learn from these stories and their mistakes. For example, watch the SolidWorks
founder presenting at Harvard about their initial marketing/pricing phase [2].
It is absolutely fascinating.

Reading generalized abstract fluff bothers me.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7HyWFJMAxg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7HyWFJMAxg)
[2] [https://youtu.be/t-EaWM8miHw](https://youtu.be/t-EaWM8miHw)

~~~
liquid153
All his stuff are fluff pieces, it's like listening to a pitch coach. I have
no idea why people see him as an authoritative figure in this space, when all
he had was 1 failed start up.

~~~
kolbe
I know it's not his fault per se, but YC has had a horrible track record since
he joined, too.

~~~
pen2l
Do you think it would have been any different if pg was in charge? I don't.

I think it's rather that the 'low hanging fruit' are all gone. The whole mood
has changed. It's become harder. Notice for example that YC places a lot of
importance on growth when evaluating applicants, I think in early stages you
could've had practically zero users of your product and they would have
considered you -- now, not so much.

Secondly, there hasn't been enough time to see what his track record really
is, we'll need a few years to really see.

~~~
wtvanhest
They are just part of the signaling echo chamber now. No gutsy calls. When I
started reading HN in 2010, it was all information about early stage tech. PG
was saying that founders can lead companies all the way and that founders
should have the power.

Now they do... YC is just an average investor now with more scale. The next
gutsy call or intuition is simply not there with the current team.

HN is a news site and I enjoy it for that, but the community has been moved to
a private network and the current YC team is more focused on looking good than
doing anything innovative.

~~~
smcquade
What is the name of the private network?

~~~
captain_perl
It's called BookFace, and is a private social network-style platform for YC
alumni.

------
paulgb
The annoying pop-up over the content appeared just as I started reading
"beware the distractions" so I closed the tab. Good advice.

~~~
birken
Wait a second, you don't want more of this "high quality", "totally-not-
retread", "seriously-not-trying-to-get-you-to-sign-up-for-our-lawfirm" content
that Sam Altman assures us is as much of a must-read as Paul Graham's essays?
What is wrong with you!?

------
ttul
Altman’s on point here: don’t follow a trend, focus on solving problems. And
choose something hard. When money is growing on trees, pick a major problem
with a huge upside should you solve it. Startups are hard; at least make it
have a chance of being really worthwhile.

— Someone who picked a small problem.

~~~
jonbarker
Where it gets difficult to answer the very real internal almost contemplative
question of 'am I solving a hard problem?' is when one looks at the history of
fluffy rhetoric used by companies solving seemingly easy problems, making it
impossible to convince them or their supporters they aren't solving something
hard. For example, a website with photo sharing and a forum like feature
called a newsfeed claims to be connecting everyone. Can't fault them for
having audacious goals, I guess, but then it makes it harder to know how to
approach one's own hard problems. What's the MVP for a product that attacks
world hunger, cancer, or energy scarcity, for example?

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lalos
I always feel bad when I see startups come from a rich guy chasing fame or
increasing the family wealth, they have a great and vital tool (money) but not
a problem to solve nor an edge in the industry they are attacking. Kind of
ironic, but hey throwing money to random ideas at least generates jobs and
moves the economy.

~~~
tlb
Throwing money at unworkable ideas makes the world worse, because it employs
people that could be working on good ideas instead. For example, Theranos was
a tragedy not because investors lost money (it's part of the deal) but because
hundreds of smart scientists and engineers spent years working on something
that went nowhere. All that talent directed elsewhere could have built
something great.

~~~
mattthebaker
The 'unworkable ideas' can typically only be determined in hindsight. Pushing
the cutting edge will always result in some paths that lead to nowhere.

Theranos was a good idea, the tragedy was rampant fraud.

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jaredklewis
A lot of sama hate in this thread for some reason, but the criticisms just
come off as petty.

It's a less than 1000 word article giving a 30,000 ft ariel overview of making
a startup. Not sure what people expected. If you have 10 years experience in
graphic design, you are probably not going to find much of interest in a 1000
word article titled "Getting started in graphic design." Deal with it.

And everyone seems very glib to point out that his startup "failed," but I am
not sure how that is relevant here. He's the president of Y Combinator and
last time I checked they are doing fine. In art and science, some of the most
accomplished figures are lousy teachers and vice versa. Any reason why this
would be different in business?

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modi15
Broadly disagree with ALL the points, except for the first one.

IMO this happens with a LOT of standard advice regarding startups. The problem
is that there are as many ways to do a startup as there are founders and its
too tempting for VC's to infer 'wisdom' from their immediate samples.

I suspect that this happens because as an observer its extremely hard to
distinguish causation from correlation. Also, it seems that VC's tend to view
'emergent' success in terms of their own work ethics.

Sam's not the only one though. Paul Graham did this too with his two founder
rule for startups.

~~~
tlb
From an investor point of view, correlation can be good enough. If startups
with property X are measurably more likely to succeed, it doesn't matter
whether X causes success or if X is caused by some other property Y of the
startup that causes success but isn't easy to determine in an interview.

In your example, X = "has multiple founders", Y = "first founder is not
impossible to work with". Clearly Y causes success, but X is easier for
investors to determine.

From a founder point of view, you want to focus mainly on the real causes of
success rather than appearances, but give some thought to appearances.
Customers are far more influenced by appearances than investors (because they
have less time to dig in), so when you devote time to appearances you should
think mainly about customers. Customers tend to be skeptical of one-man shows.

~~~
modi15
The concern is that Sam is offering this advice for founders not investors -
and many would lap it up given the authority he has and make suboptimal
decisions about their startup.

I think YC is probably HEAVILY influenced by appearance. Wrestle with the data
little bit, check all the right boxes, prep that video, get some intros and
your YC MBA is set.

Customers largely couldnt care less about one-man shows and even if in any
specific case they do, it is very easy to 'look' like a company on the
internet or in real life.

Amazon has always been a one-man show - but maybe thats why they never made
money.

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AJRF
50 likes and 2 comments over an hour seems like too little engagement to be
second on the list. Are posts about Sam effectively sticked on HN? Is there
any more information on how the front page works?

~~~
tristanho
I'm a simple man: I see something by Sam Altman, I upvote and read it. I
suspect many folks on HN (you know, being on a YC site) are the same.

This, and HN simply working based on an upvote algorithm, seems much more
plausible than there being some kind of conspiracy to amplify Sam's posts.

~~~
AJRF
I never for a second suggested it was a conspiracy, I'm not entirely sure
where you got that idea from. I merely asked was there information about
weighing his posts and posts about him higher.

~~~
tristanho
Fair enough... sorry for taking your post uncharitably. To me that's a bit of
a conspiracy, as it would be kind of dishonest to weigh his posts higher.

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andyidsinga
Something doesn't quite sit right with me about #5 "Think Bigger" and the
example that a recruit might think "So what? Your company is just another
enterprise software startup."

To me there are a lot of interesting opportunities in solving problems, that
might initially seem mundane or tedious but could turn into successful,
profitable businesses. #5 seems to sort of go against some of the sentiment in
PG's article Shelp Blindness (
[http://www.paulgraham.com/schlep.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/schlep.html)
).

I suppose I might attempt to re-state #5 thusly: "The difficult and seemingly
tedious work done in the early stages might show a path to providing solutions
larger problems 1..n"

I'd like to be able to recruit people who are interested in a that journey
more so than the end-state.

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justin
Distractions are everywhere, and one of the most insidious things in startups.
Once you become a founder there is lots of "fun" stuff to do: go to
conferences, have coffee meetings with important people, etc.

The discipline is to be able to say "No". To be honest it is still a skill I
feel I haven't mastered yet, 7+ companies later :)

I recommend reading Essentialism, by Greg McKeown.

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bedros
slightly offtopic, but startup related:

why Sam Altman would post on atrium.co website?

when checking their services, they provide incorporating and other legal
services,

is it more custom legal service than clerky.com? any idea about pricing?

I'm looking to incorporate but slightly more complex than clerky standard
templates

~~~
ameister14
Atrium is a YC alum

------
ministrator
I keep seeing Sam Altman tied to clickbaity 'How-to' articles, but never
managed to apply any of the lessons to start and grow a _successful_ company
himself. Obviously from his position now, he has a lot of insights into what
other companies do, so It'd be great to see factual data from his insights,
rather than top-down advice that he wasn't able to apply to his own career.

