Paul Graham – Lessons For Startups (2006)
We extracted the key points from a talk by Paul Graham titled Paul Graham’s Lessons For Startups 2006
- Release early – iterate based on users’ reactions & create a sense of urgency to fix live bugs
- Keep pumping out features – force yourself to improve by listening to users & avoiding complexity, continuous improvement is great marketing
- Make users happy – show users what the software does, loyal users are worth more than gold
- Fear the right things – worry about startups and future competitors, not big companies or current competitors. Top concerns: internal miscues, inertia, ignoring users
- Commitment is a self-fulfilling prophecy – investors judge startups by the founders’ commitment
- There’s always room – think of the possibilities for improvement, not the status quo
- Don’t get your hopes up – be flexible, keep other options open, focus on users, be realistic about what you expect from others (users, employees, deals)
Startups are fun 🙂