
How to Start a Startup – Lecture 14: How to Operate - kqr2
http://startupclass.samaltman.com/courses/lec14/
======
quizotic
+1 Track complementary KPIs, so as you go up on one, you don't go down too far
on the other

+1 Grade/compensate based on ratio of output divided by resources, so that
managers don't have incentive to create empires.

+1 Calendar audit vs stated priorities

+1 Company must have one voice and a simple message

------
lukasm
> The second counterintuitive point, this might come as a little bit of a
> disappointment, but what you need to succeed in a startup is not expertise
> in startups. That makes this class different from most other classes you
> take. You take a French class, at the end of it you've learned how to speech
> French. You do the work, you may not sound exactly like a French person, but
> pretty close, right? This class can teach you about startups, but that is
> not what you need to know. What you need to know to succeed in a startup is
> not expertise in startups, what you need is expertise in your own users.

Mark Zuckerberg did not succeed at Facebook because he was an expert in
startups, he succeeded despite being a complete noob at startups; I mean
Facebook was first incorporated as a Florida LLC. Even you guys know better
than that. He succeeded despite being a complete noob at startups because he
understood his users very well. Most of you don't know the mechanics of
raising an angel round, right? If you feel bad about that, don't, because I
can tell you Mark Zuckerberg probably doesn't know the mechanics of raising an
angel round either; if he was even paying attention when Ron Conway wrote him
the big check, he probably has forgotten about it by now.

I agree that this talk is useless, even dangerous, unless you are post A
series.

~~~
Iftheshoefits
Mark Zuckerberg is probably the worst possible example to use about anything
startup related other than how to use one's wealthy parents' money and
connections (and the connections' money) to start a company.

Edit for further explanation: Zuckerberg's initial capital for Facebook came
from his father and his father's friends. He had been tutored privately from a
young age, much like Bill Gates was, and he'd already had extensive experience
working in founder-like roles by the time he made Facebook. His life is best
used an example to demonstrate the immense advantage being born into a life of
wealth and privilege confers, not as an example for what (or what not) to do
when starting up a company for the typical person. His life is so removed from
that that using it as an example is tantamount to uttering gibberish.

~~~
dbecker
Zuckerberg's bio on Wikipedia says that he is the son of a dentist and a
psychiatrist. I'm sure there are plenty of Americans with wealthier or more
connected families, and none of them have succeeded with their startup the way
he has.

~~~
petercooper
_I 'm sure there are plenty of Americans with wealthier or more connected
families_

Sure, but only about 5%. The median salary for a dentist and a psychiatrist
adds up to $333,000 which is the 95% percentile for household income today. A
verrry long way from average.

~~~
Retric
333k is well above most people in the top 5%. Just $166,200 = top 5%. 250K =
Top 1.5%

So, really we are talking about the top 1%.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affluence_in_the_United_States](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affluence_in_the_United_States)

------
graycat
The lectures are from a good sampling of the most successful _start-up_ people
in Silicon Valley.

So, for any of the lectures, if not all the content seems earth shaking, Nobel
prize level stuff, then just accept the good news: It's possible to be one of
the most successful at the level of content often in the lectures! Comforting!

~~~
Udo
They definitely send a signal that success is possible, and even though the
advice is (has to be, probably!) quite generic, it's still good to get a
distilled overview of what the people who made this journey before us found
important in hindsight.

Of course the best overall statement I ever heard from a successful person
comes from Notch, who, when asked what advice he would give to someone who
wanted to become as successful as him, replied: _first of all, don 't listen
to advice_. The deeper wisdom behind this that really hit a chord with me is
there is no big secret which successful people can hand down to others so they
may reliably replicate that success.

You might learn something, or even a lot, about procedures and attitudes that
were essential, but at a fundamental level I don't think a successful person
can meaningfully grasp all the factors that were instrumental to their story.
A lot of what they think is essential may in fact be superstition, as they
lack enough data points.

I found it's still valuable information, but as with anything, you have to
weigh it critically. All things being equal, I'd put a lot more weight on
advice coming from VCs or people running incubators as compared to the
observations of super successful billionaire founders, simply because they
have access to more data.

------
rajens
The two big takeaways for me were: 1) The editor analogy for founders and 2)
The Ammunition and Barrels metaphor. Looking at yourself as an editor that has
to apply 'red ink' to your startup (especially as it grows) makes sense to me
intuitively. As for the Ammunition and Barrels, I think this is counter
intuitive but true. More manpower doesn't mean more results, unless you have
the right type of manpower and process in place.

I'd probably distill most of his lecture down to these two core ideas...as a
method of operating you're startup. As a result, I've summarized most of the
useful quotes from the lecture here: [https://medium.com/how-to-start-a-
startup/56-quotes-from-kei...](https://medium.com/how-to-start-a-
startup/56-quotes-from-keith-rabois-how-to-operate-6cd16052ec08)

------
wslh
I don't know if the last page of the presentation is inspiring... Nowadays, I
imagine the CEOs of successful companies more relaxed than the people below
them.

~~~
edmack
quite the opposite..!

~~~
wslh
We don't have real data about this to compare but I imagine that if your
company is doing well you can make it work without stress. That's why you have
thousands of employees and billions of dollars to spend. I don't think you are
a good CEO if you can't see the stuff at a higher level and not rest well.

~~~
rpedela
I think you might be conflating owner and CEO. Owners often don't have to work
every day after the business is running smoothly and they have hired good
people to manage it. CEOs have to work every day just like all other employees
and they have different types of stress than the typical employee. Sure the
CEO probably doesn't have to worry about money or about getting fired
(mostly), they still have plenty of stress because their job is to always deal
with the worst problem. The problem no one else can handle or wants to handle.
Plus they have to worry about the business as a whole and they understand that
if they screw up, 10s or 100s or 1000s of people are hurt.

~~~
wslh
No, I am not saying that the CEO doesn't work and he/she is in the beach all
week. Also, it is impossible to generalize but if you build a good team you
can focus in very specific issues, the major part are solved by your team.

I am not talking about startups, just about established and successful
companies.

In this context you can read about Zuckerberg speaking Mandarin...
[http://fusion.net/story/23532/facebook-ceo-mark-
zuckerberg-s...](http://fusion.net/story/23532/facebook-ceo-mark-zuckerberg-
speaks-chinese-looks-unusually-relaxed/)

------
graycat
He wants to keep some things really simple. Good.

I'm reminded of the description of the order during WWII for the US landing at
Leyte Gulf: "Land and establish a base" or some such. Just that short. For
some hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

So, for, say, the CTO, maybe "Implement the server farm."

In other ways he liked some things to be complicated, e.g., the story of the
three page memo on how the receptionist should answer the phone.

------
jonalmeida
Notes: [http://jonalmeida.com/posts/2014/11/06/htsas-
lec14/](http://jonalmeida.com/posts/2014/11/06/htsas-lec14/)

This is my (new) most interesting lecture. There's a psychological side to
employee startup culture which is covered in some management classes that I
haven't heard about being covered here.

Great stuff!

------
sreyaNotfilc
"I hate watching this at lunch time during work hours" This is a complement on
how great I think the series is.

I absolutely love this series of videos. Its supremely comprehensive and makes
me just want to quit my job, drive home, and build an amazing company.

Unfortunately bills gets in the way so I have to work these 8 hours. That
said, every time I do watch these videos I'm coding and planning on my off
hours. Startup school in NYC was an amazing experience as well.

------
mceoin
This was fantastic. Does anyone know good resources for building internal
dashboards? (I can't help but think of the Business Model Canvas as a proxy
example of the style of resource I mean)

------
ITpro
The lecture is valuable, the presenter is engaging.

I guess this sums up the lecture :

"How to manage efficiently >irrational< people to get an output"

However I believe my previous comment is on topic & valuable too.

------
avemuri
While we're on the topic, recommendations for books that cover these topics in
more depth?

------
bernardlunn
Very valuable lecture, basics of management explained very well

------
edmack
really good practical advice! Thank you KR!

------
marylu
today i will continue to find these work.

------
marylu
you just need to browse and download all the things you need

------
marylu
eventhough today is friday,i think i will continue my work as yesterday.

------
spoiledtechie
Are these lectures actually any good? I really don't want to watch them if
they aren't any good.

Are there lessons to be learned?

[link][https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hacker-
News/1558365107716690](https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hacker-
News/1558365107716690)

~~~
Udo
In this series there have been a lot of lectures that really resonated with
me, while others didn't for various reasons. I don't think you can find out
without at least partially watching them.

------
ITpro
"Lectures"/"Talk" these do not compute in the real world.

If you know your field then you do not need this.

If you don't it won't make you succeed.

You need a capital, & that's the bottom line!

Without any kind of money which is time you simply can not do a startup.

Now, why people give up money to others? That's the real question.

I confidently can say at least 80% of the time it has nothing to do with the
venture itself!

Connections, how you look/sound etc.

If you watch Shark tank you can see this clearly where Sharks bend the "rules"
when they like someone.

Money is never an issue for them here, it's why would I give this person my
money.

People tend to revert to these things because no one knows the future &
unfortunately instead of making decisions rationally they end up going to the
other end which is almost like consulting an oracle.

I am doing a Startup & have launched a fundraiser www.9mim.com & will share
the process

Please check it out & give me your honest feedback to me this is more
important than the $ itself as I'll do it regardless but with the $ it'll
happen faster & have a better chance of succeeding.

Please do your feedback here

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8567801](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8567801)

