Part 1 : Ideas & Products
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Most great companies start with ideas , not pivots
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Idea : Size & growth of market , growth strategy , defensibility strategy etc.
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You need to build a business that is difficult to replicate
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Best companies are always mission oriented. People need an important mission to stay motivated including you. People outside will be more inclined to help you
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(Check the market size of second-hand clothes)
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You need to get an idea about the wave that’s growing in the market that you are targeting and how will you be riding it
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Why is this the perfect time to start this particular idea? Why now?
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Good startups are very easy to explain and very easy to understand. More than 1 sentence = very complicated
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Until you build a great product , nothing else happens
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Talk to users as much as possible and create something that they really love!
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Try to create something that a very small group of people really love instead of a large group of people like
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If you make something that people love , people will tell their friends about it
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Very few startups die of competition , most die because they can’t create something that users love
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The initial users , you should go pick them by hand as they will be the ones to give you frequent feedback - Understand them extremely well , get close to them , ask them what they like & don’t like and watch them use it , ask them what they would recommend to their friends
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Need to have a system in the company that transforms feedback from users into product decisions.
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Early founders will need to do sales & customer support on their own
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Metrics : Focus on growth
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#1 goal of a CEO is managing your own psychology
Part 2 : Team & Execution
Team
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Random founder = bad decision
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Technical co-founder is very important
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Less Employees > More Employees while starting out (Year 1)
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Cost of getting an early hire wrong is very high
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When hiring , you NEED to get the best people
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Spend 0 time hiring or 25% time
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Mediocre engineers do not build great companies
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Best source for hiring is people who you know or whom your employees know ( Personal referrals )
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3 Core Things to look for : Smart ? Get things done ? Want to spend alot of time with them?
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5 Extra things to look for : Communication , Determination , The Animal Test , Feel comfortable reporting to them if roles were reversed
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Work on a quick project with someone before hiring them
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Interview question : Ask what projects have people worked on?
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Employee Equity : 10% of the company -> 1st 10 employees . Be generous with employee equity
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Fight with investors to reduce the equity that they get
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You NEED to make sure your employees are happy and feel valued
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Let your team take all the credit for the good and you take the hit for the bad
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Don’t micromanage , give people responsibilities
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Fire Fast when it’s not working out - Creating office politics or negative = fire
Execution
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For a culture where people work hard , pay attention to details & customers , YOU need to set the bar
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CEO Job roles
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Set the vision
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Raise money
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Evangelize the company
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Hiring MGT team
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Make sure the entire company executes
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Can you figure out what to do?
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Can you get it done?
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Focus - Critical : What are you spending your time and money on? FIGURE OUT THE 2-3 MOST IMPORTANT THINGS EVERY DAY AND GET THOSE DONE ( 100’s of things will be fighting for your attention)
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Intensity :
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What ever the founder thinks are key roles - the whole company focuses on
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Have the right metrics and GROW THOSE METRICS
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Ways to keep momentum :
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Reviewing metrics and milestones weekly
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Launching new features
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Part 3 : Before the startup
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Cannot trust your intuition at all times in terms of the startup business aspect
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You can trust your intuition in terms of people though
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Work with people you genuinely like and respect
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Need to understand users very well
Part 4 : How to be a great founder
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Great founders seek the networks that are vital to their problem & task
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Go talk to every smart person you talk to and ask them what they think
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You should take Risks however think smartly in a way to minimize risks
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When raising your current round of funding , you should already have thought of your next round
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Recognizing whether or not you are on track with your investment thesis is a core quality for great founders
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Collective problem solving & learning = secret sauce for a great team
Part 5 : Competition is for losers
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ALWAYS aim for monopoly
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How to build a monopoly ?
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Go after a small market and monopolize
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For Wardo , if I start with a market for simply Wardrobe services and become the best at it : It will be a better stepping stone than to add selling right from the start. (Adding the AI Aspect , Styling Aspect , Disabilities Aspect)
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Key selling point for Wardo : Proprietary Technology -> Adding clothes to the app ( It’s an order of magnitude better )
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Why will your company have the last big breakthrough for a long time & How will you keep innovating and keep people from catching up
Part 6 : Building product , Talking to users & growing
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Pre-Requisites of startups - Have a lot of time on hand
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Noob approach for startups :
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Build product in secret
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Exclusive press launch
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Wait for users
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Buy users
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Give up
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Where to start ?
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Learn alot , become an expert in your field
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Research all your competitors
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Read as much about your industry
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Identify customer segments
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Starting with 1 customer segment
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Have a VERY VERY clear value proposition for your users
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First few users? - Social circle , online communities , local communities , niche influencers , cold
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Storyboard the user experience
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Customer Feedback
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Interviews are much better than surveys - It seems like a slog but this is where the best feedback is going to come from
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Make it more of a conversation , you should have a personal connection with them so they open up and give you honest feedback
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If someone is asking you to build a feature , figure out what’s the underlying need
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What to do when trying to get alot of users
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Take one channel , execute on it for a week and if it works , keep working on it until it caps out INSTEAD of trying 5 different channels at once
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Types of growth
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Sticky - Trying to get existing users to come back and use you more
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Viral - People talking about you
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Need to have a good referral program.
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Where are people learning that they can refer to other people? - Should ideally be put when the user is highly engaged
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Program mechanics : You invite a friend , you get $10 , they get $10
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Paid - Works out if you have money to spend for getting users
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Alot of businesses crash because they start spending beyond their potential
Part 7 : Doing things that don’t scale
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Do whatever it takes to bring in your first customers
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Sending 100 emails a day
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Going through a network
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Making phone calls everyday
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Don’t focus on ROI , focus on growth
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How to make users advocate your product?
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Delight them with an experience they will remember
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Ways to talk to customers?
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Run customer service as long as possible
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Proactively reach out to current & churned customers
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Optimize for SPEED over SCALABILITY/CLEAN CODE initially
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What is your goal for press ? Who are you targeting ?
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You should have a target audience ; investors , customers , industry
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Types of stories for press (Before launching these , think about these objectively : will anyone actually want to read this?)
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Launches
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Fund raising
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Milestones/Metrics - Revenue etc.
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Business overviews
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Stunts
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When pitching your story to press , have a bunch of bullet points sequentially ready and ensure that you mention all of these points
Part 8 : Culture
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Everyday (A) & (B) of each member of the team in pursuit of our company (C)
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A = Assumptions , beliefs , values
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B = , Actions
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C = Mission / Bhag (Big hairy audacious goals)
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Best practices for culture :
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Incorporate your mission to your values
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Performance = think harder , deeper & longer about your values
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Interview for culture fit
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Evaluate performance on culture as well
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Make it a daily habit
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Build a team that is so talented that you are uncomfortable working with them
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Phase 1 : Building product -> Phase 2 : Building company that builds a product
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You don’t want a diversity of values g