
Live Stream: How to Start a Hard Tech Startup with Sam Altman, 6:00 EST - joelg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7HyWFJMAxg
======
minimaxir
Why is this being streamed from an unknown YouTube account vs. an official
YC/MIT organization?

EDIT: Stream is actually real

~~~
joelg
Not sure. But it's the one that was posted in the official Facebook event.

------
Jugurtha
Preliminary notes jotted down on the fly. If something seems odd or silly, I
probably didn't hear well or mixed things up.

 _YC: \- 11 years.

\- 1200 startups.

\- Recently started to fund "hard tech" (few are funding them).

_How to start a hard tech company:

\- What do you need to do differently than a software startup:

    
    
        - The least amount possible. You're not that different.
    
        - Same principles apply.
    
        - They were first segregated at YC. Turned out to be bad.
    
        - Most important change:
    
            - YC & the market don't care: Create value or fail.
    
            - Don't think you're that different:
    
                - "But my idea takes 10 years!":
    
                    - What can be done in 3 months?
    
                    - Consistent incremental wins compound. 
    
                        - 10% every week for years.
    
                        - Find something small and get it done.
    
    

\- Advantage:

    
    
        - 11,000th photosharing app is hard.
    
        - Competitive advantage (4 nuclear fusion companies in North America).
    
            - Tesla, SpaceX, etc. cf. Michael E. Porter.
    

\- Pay attention to what software companies did well/right:

    
    
        - If in doubt about a field, 2 important things (good indicators):
    
            - Cost down.
    
            - Cycle time is getting shorter.
    

\- Difference:

    
    
      - SW companies are usually "clearer" than HW.
    

\- It's a great time to start a HW company. Make sure:

    
    
        - Weekly wins.
    
        - Keep costs down.
    

\- Make peace with the "world":

    
    
        - "Big companies don't play by the rules":
    
             - Make peace with that.
    
             - No excuses.
    
             - Your duty as a founder to get that 10%/small wins consistently.
    
             - Keeping cycle times down is important because:
    
                 - Maintains *momentum*.
    
                 - Avoids mistakes (typically made by bigger companies).
    
             - Establish a culture of winning from the beginning, no matter how small.
    
             - Momentum attracts good people:
    
                 - People want to join a winning team.
    
             - How?:
    
                 - SW startups drive cycle time down by getting closer to the customer.
    

\- Detours:

    
    
        - Sometimes you can't reach "final" goal directly.
    
            - ex: Tesla - Roadster (revenue) --> Model S --> Model X --> Model 3.
    
            - Not from 0 to mass produced car. SpaceX: Not from 0 to colony on Mars.
    
        - Even if you're not in YC, you can adopt this model.
    
        - More people fail because of "grandeur" than because they did small things.
    
    

\- Raising capital:

    
    
        - Too much money can kill you. (ruins your focus, for example).
    
        - Statistically (YC):
    
            - Companies that raised $40MM tended to fail.
    

\- Business side:

    
    
        - Don't be all hardcore science and bad at everything else.
    
        - Someone should take care of the business side.
    
        - Not hard: you can do science, you can do business.
    
        - It can be boring for some, but it needs to be tended to.
    

\- Many will do the thing everyone is doing. Think of a worthy problem. (?)

\- U.S. Context:

    
    
        - Centuries of abundance and massive growth.
    
        - Not so much recently (2%) --> Democracy works badly in this context.
    
        - The only hope is innovation (and a more important growth).

