
Things about being a founder I wish I had known two years ago - antr
https://speakerdeck.com/giladvdn/ten-things-about-being-a-founder-i-wish-i-knew-two-years-ago?utm_source=buffer&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=buffer1015c&utm_medium=twitter
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TheBiv
This is very helpful deck in the context of B2C (business to consumer)
companies who are looking for funding. The deck does not contain the text, so
here is the text of all high-level points in the deck:

1\. Identify your perfect customers --Focus on them and on nothing else.

2\. Stop writing code. --Did you talk to customers yet?

3\. Investment != success --It's a means to an end.

4\. Investor meetings aren't job interviews --Build a relationship over time.

5\. Talk about your idea --startups die from obscurity but thrive on feedback.

6\. Be careful with hires --Trust your gut feeling.

7\. Don't worry about engineering --Worry about getting users.

8\. It's a marathon, not a sprint --90% of the time, it's about endurance.

9\. Don't study the outliers --Study real business.

10\. Your relationship with your co-founders is critical --Don't "go to bed"
angry.

11\. Relax. --You're going to make mistakes. It's fine.

Author can be reached at gilad@smore.com

~~~
Retric
While spam filers work well, posting someone else's email in plain text seems
rude IMO.

~~~
TheBiv
Fair. Although the individual did post it in his slide deck to be reached for
contact.

~~~
pavedwalden
I think the concern is that there are crawlers that collect plaintext
addresses, so typing out an address is a different level of disclosure than
including it in an image.

~~~
randartie
At least he had good intentions, I wouldn't call it rude like Rentric did.

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jbapple
Slide 16:

"Be careful with hires and team

...

If you aren't sure and don't like the person after a week, fire them. There's
enough people that you WOULD like after a week"

I moved hundreds of miles for my last two jobs. If I were fired a week into a
new job in a new city by a boss who "wasn't sure and didn't like me after a
week", I would be devastated.

I would rather get 100 job rejections than have to go through one experience
like the last bullet on slide 16.

~~~
giladvdn
Good point. I did not consider people relocating for the job. In that case, I
would _want_ to try the person out before actually hiring her. If that's not
possible, then obviously I wouldn't recommend ruining someone's life
logistically for the sake of getting a better hire.

My main point was that after a week you'll probably either get along with an
employee or not get along with them. In my experience, if you don't get along
with someone, it usually does not get better over time.

~~~
jbapple
How many people have you fired after a week?

Have you ever been fired after a week?

~~~
giladvdn
TBH, I've never been fired. I have fired a handful of people. All of them have
been fired after more than a week (in some case, much more). I believe that
all of them could have been fired earlier, saving both us and them a lot of
time and trouble.

I know this is a black-and-white type of argument, and in real life things are
obviously more complicated.

~~~
jdotjdot
Or maybe some of them could have been mentored away from the problems they
had? Or maybe someone could have done a better job not hiring them in the
first place and not starting a relationship?

I don't agree so much with the implication of "VC meetings aren't job
interviews, they're relationships." Jobs are relationships, too. In fact, your
employees are often sacrificing more than your investors to be with you. For
your investors, it's just money, and they have enough or they wouldn't be
risking it in investments. For your employees, it's their livelihood, health
insurance (in the US), families, and 8+ hours out of every day--time which is
key when in your life, time is really all you ultimately have.

In other words, don't be so non chalant about employees. They're people too.

~~~
dnc
I couldn't agree more. I would never want to work for someone who is able to
fire anyone after only a week for whatever reason (assuming he does good
screening of candidates, otherwise the problem is his broken hiring process
and I don't want to work for him in that case either).

~~~
johnjlocke
That's why the screening process is so important, and should not be rushed.

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wasd
For additional discussion, check out the previous time this was posted:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5357123](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5357123)

My favourite comment is the top.

>> Question: "So why didn't anyone tell me?"

>> Answer: "Because it wouldn't have mattered."

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7Figures2Commas
I think "stop writing code" is decent advice in principle, but is practically
difficult. A few points:

1\. If you have no domain experience or expertise, you shouldn't just stop
writing code, you should stop what you're doing. A lot of startups fail before
any code is written because the founders know little to nothing about the
market or industry they're targeting.

2\. While it is absolutely possible to sell software before it has been
written, unless you're well-connected and have trusted relationships that will
deliver customers on tap, to get meaningful conversations started, you will
often need to have _something_ to show, even if it's mockups or a basic
prototype.

3\. A lot of startups write _too much code_ because they try to support use
cases that they think are important. Ironically, some of these use cases are
actually discovered through conversations with potential customers, which
highlights the fact that it's not simply enough to talk to people you hope
might become your customers; you need to know _how_ to talk to them.

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tmzt
A question that's been on my mind. Since this deck discusses B2C startups, how
to do you reach out to a consumer on a telephone to determine if they would be
a good customer? How do you figure out what that consumer wants?

I see all the advice to do all of this stuff before writing code, but I see
others that suggest "failing fast" by building something and seeing who
ultimately uses it and what they use it for.

Let's say I wanted to make a picture hosting site (I don't), I would find my
unique selling proposition and build a site around that, get the URL out in
front of people that probably want to host pictures, then see how many of them
sign up and how many ultimately use the USP feature that I built.

In my case it's not as broad or generic a concept, so I can't throw a URL out
there and just see how many people sign up for the site. I mean I can but I
can't expect that to actually work, for anybody to actually show up.

I know there are online communities out there I need to reach, blogs that
focus on the target audience I am reaching for, and quite possibly thought
leaders.

What am I missing when it comes to building and marketing a B2C product?

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vermontdevil
What does it mean by identify the perfect customer?

Does it mean to find the customers that you know needs your product and focus
on them first? Persuade customers that may or may not need your product later?

~~~
cynusx
it means you make a list of 20 companies (existing, real companies) that you
think would be your perfect customer. This is a very good tip as it helps you
focus resources. The biggest benefit is that you define the characteristics of
your customer segment. In fact, it becomes very simple to find out if your
product is suitable for this customer segment since you can contact any of
those companies (or similar) on that list and test product fit.

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zaidf
"Don't keep looking for greener pastures" is something I needed to hear.

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lucidrains
This is excellent, agreed on all points

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alexjv89
Great post :) thanks ...

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ronreiter
Great post :)

