

Startup Lessons - a manual for aspiring entrepreneurs - martian
http://jottit.com/x65sj/

======
dennykmiu
There are infinite number of ways to fail a startup but in my experience,
there is only one way to recover which is similar to getting up after a fall
from riding a bike. You must first decide if you want to ride again. In
another words, you must first make a binary decision, which is whether or not
you want to try again. If you believe that being a successful entrepreneur is
in your destiny, then there is no point of crying in the dirt (or even writing
a post-mortem). But on the other hand, if you believe that you have had enough
and don’t want to be an entrepreneur again, then you can do whatever you want
and heck with what other people think. Either way entrepreneurship is a lonely
business. Good luck, everyone.

------
mcantor
I wish there were more detail to some of these points. For example, "Have an
office, not someone's living room." This sounds reasonable, but _why_? What is
it, specifically, about having an office that makes it so important? What if
what he really meant to say was, "Have a space where your team can work
without distractions; an office is ideal, a living room is not, because
roommates will be walking through, the casual atmosphere is too distracting,
and phone calls will disrupt the atmosphere." Otherwise, someone could read
this manual, then go ahead and fill an office with couches, video games and
other distractions that make it just as bad as (or worse than) an apartment.

~~~
steve___
I agree. It would have been interesting if they would have explained why they
thought this.

Just before our exit, we ran our company from a condo. Here are some pictures
under 'Environment'[1]. One major upside for us working in residential space
was the cost. Electricity, rent/condo fees, parking, and internet fees are all
less expensive than commercial rates. As well owning residential space is far
less expensive than owning commercial space.

[1] <http://www.igeejo.com/blog/default/photos>

------
swombat
This article seems a bit stupid. Most of those are not lessons, but pieces of
advice, and they're generally unsubstantiated. Some of them I would outright
disagree with. For example:

 _Have an office._

 _This should not be someone's apartment. It should not be a bunch of couches,
though a couch for naps is good. It can be a coffee shop, though that's far
from ideal. It should have tables and good wifi -- and some whiteboards if
possible._

How is that a start-up lesson? Or even a valid piece of advice? Maybe the
author(s) needs an office, but not everyone does.

Other pieces of advice are borderline useless:

 _Don't take too many shortcuts. Brute-force algorithms should be used
judiciously. Encourage modularity when possible. Remember that ultimately
components of your product might be worth money independently of the whole._

If you need this specific piece of advice, you can't understand this
description of it.

All in all, this seems like a pot-pourri of oft-rehashed advice from blogs
about starting up.

Probably this "article" seems to bad because it is not actually an article,
but a wiki page where people have added their pieces of advice. Not a great
strategy for writing a good article.

~~~
swombat
So, why are you downvoting, eh? Because I used the word "stupid"? If that's
the case, you're stupid right along with the article. Thanks for your
attention.

------
idlewords
I think this kind of post is more interesting when presented as a detailed
post-mortem, rather than a HOWTO. If you've just failed at X, don't try to
teach others how to do X. Instead, write up your failure, dust yourself off,
and have another go.

~~~
martian
> dust yourself off, have another go.

Exactly. Hopefully these will be useful guidelines for the next time around.

------
edw519
I read this post with great interest thinking, "This all pretty much makes
sense, good advice, but nothing really earth shattering." Then a strange thing
happened. I went back and reread the first paragraph under #1...

 _Be able to name names of users or potential users. They need to have a
specific problem or pain point. Master that before moving on to bigger or
better things, even if those bigger and better things are really tempting. If
your product can serve multiple purposes, make sure it serves one of them
completely before moving on to the others._

I realized that this is the most important advice that my mentor ever gave me.
If you do this well, you really don't need to worry about anything else in
this post.

I understand that this is tough in a B2C web app; you're not always sure who
your consumer will be. But in a B2B app, this is the same advice as, "Find a
Customer."

Working for a consumer (or consumers), busting your butt focusing on what is
important to them, cures most of the other ills that the rest of this post
addresses.

Just take a look at the rest of the bullets:

    
    
      - Have a clear and consistent vision, but refine it as often as needed.
      - Design is important.
      - Build your product well.
      - Iterate often.
      - Do your homework.
      - Work (mostly) normal hours.
      - Have an office.
      - Have a budget.
      - Be direct when dealing with personal differences.
      - Hold one another accountable.
      - Leaders need to handle company resources impeccably.
      - Provide communication channels.
      - Use your human resources wisely.
      - Poke your users often.
      - Build a solid and regular communication network.
      - Co-author any outgoing messages.
      - Use language your users (and potential users) can understand.
    

These are all important, but if you think about it for a moment, having a
customer automatically forces you to do most of these already. You won't even
have to think about them. Your customer(s) will make you do them well.

Even if what you build for your first set of consumers isn't exactly what you
final product will be, it doesn't matter. They will make you get good at
delivering _something_ and that will be a good starting point for a more
"industrial strength" product for everyone else.

Refining something built well for your early consumer(s) will be a lot easier
than constantly thinking about what you're doing and how to do it. Do #1 well
and the rest will follow.

~~~
swombat
You're certainly right about the first point, and some of the other advice in
the article is good, under the right circumstances. However, it's hardly worth
putting this wiki page on any kind of pedestal (or even, I'd argue, posting it
here). A thousand people (even me: [http://inter-
sections.net/2008/05/07/13-tips-for-creating-a-...](http://inter-
sections.net/2008/05/07/13-tips-for-creating-a-successful-new-online-product)
\- see tip 1) have already posted this and other "startup tips" in far more
coherent forms.

This one does not seem to add anything whatsoever to the discussion. In fact,
it is considerably less good than some of the stuff out there (e.g.
<http://www.paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html> ).

~~~
mistermann
Perhaps, but I found it interesting, and it led me to two more good articles
thanks to you....thanks! :)

------
yosho
a little fluffy.

------
aik
Some good advice I think, though I would hardly call it a manual. A manual is
all encompassing, not just a few tips.

