Sam shares the 10 most common mistakes he sees founders make when raising money
https://t.co/Ds2dTDLwCL
Sam Altman is the CEO of OpenAI and was President of Y Combinator
He's written 111 essays about startups
Here are the 14 that will help you think clearly about the future:
Sam shares the 10 most common mistakes he sees founders make when raising money
https://t.co/Ds2dTDLwCL
Productivity in the wrong direction isn’t worth anything at all
Think more about what to work on first
https://t.co/pU6yJ3p7Cj
The companies that become huge tend to have common traits in their earliest days
https://t.co/OIjM96usNV
It's really hard and really important to hire good people
In fact, it’s probably the most important thing a founder does
https://t.co/RZQxFf0IZX
Sam makes the case that there's no one right path, as long as you optimize for what gets you closer to something great
https://t.co/8x8fTPRbee
There are two kinds of people in the world
1. The ones that build the future
2. The ones who write posts on the internet about why the other type will fail
https://t.co/ziEgRDwiZl
All companies that grow really big do so because people recommend the product or service to other people
https://t.co/5wNzLirtUl
Until users are spontaneously telling other people to use a product, founders are generally better off focusing on making that happen instead of a specific growth target
https://t.co/z6xTsoCjTk
Easy startups are easy to start but hard to succeed with
Hard startups are hard to start but easier to succeed with
https://t.co/ymUmyy9ieM
A good test for an idea is if you can articulate why most people think it’s a bad idea, but you understand what makes it good
https://t.co/J7SP4G3FdJ
Sam's answer? A combination of focus and personal connections
https://t.co/jEbAfPmbYr
Stay a project as long as you can — eventually you'll have no choice but to become a company
https://t.co/4eHlkrOPoO
1. Follow me @callmehouck for weekly threads about startups
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Sam Altman is the CEO of OpenAI and was President of Y Combinator
— houck\u26a1\ufe0f (@callmehouck) December 1, 2022
He's written 111 essays about startups
Here are the 14 that will help you think clearly about the future:
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1/ Some initial thoughts on personal moats:
Like company moats, your personal moat should be a competitive advantage that is not only durable—it should also compound over time.
Characteristics of a personal moat below:
2/ Like a company moat, you want to build career capital while you sleep.
As Andrew Chen noted:
3/ You don’t want to build a competitive advantage that is fleeting or that will get commoditized
Things that might get commoditized over time (some longer than
4/ Before the arrival of recorded music, what used to be scarce was the actual music itself — required an in-person artist.
After recorded music, the music itself became abundant and what became scarce was curation, distribution, and self space.
5/ Similarly, in careers, what used to be (more) scarce were things like ideas, money, and exclusive relationships.
In the internet economy, what has become scarce are things like specific knowledge, rare & valuable skills, and great reputations.
Like company moats, your personal moat should be a competitive advantage that is not only durable—it should also compound over time.
Characteristics of a personal moat below:
I'm increasingly interested in the idea of "personal moats" in the context of careers.
— Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg) November 22, 2018
Moats should be:
- Hard to learn and hard to do (but perhaps easier for you)
- Skills that are rare and valuable
- Legible
- Compounding over time
- Unique to your own talents & interests https://t.co/bB3k1YcH5b
2/ Like a company moat, you want to build career capital while you sleep.
As Andrew Chen noted:
People talk about \u201cpassive income\u201d a lot but not about \u201cpassive social capital\u201d or \u201cpassive networking\u201d or \u201cpassive knowledge gaining\u201d but that\u2019s what you can architect if you have a thing and it grows over time without intensive constant effort to sustain it
— Andrew Chen (@andrewchen) November 22, 2018
3/ You don’t want to build a competitive advantage that is fleeting or that will get commoditized
Things that might get commoditized over time (some longer than
Things that look like moats but likely aren\u2019t or may fade:
— Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg) November 22, 2018
- Proprietary networks
- Being something other than one of the best at any tournament style-game
- Many "awards"
- Twitter followers or general reach without "respect"
- Anything that depends on information asymmetry https://t.co/abjxesVIh9
4/ Before the arrival of recorded music, what used to be scarce was the actual music itself — required an in-person artist.
After recorded music, the music itself became abundant and what became scarce was curation, distribution, and self space.
5/ Similarly, in careers, what used to be (more) scarce were things like ideas, money, and exclusive relationships.
In the internet economy, what has become scarce are things like specific knowledge, rare & valuable skills, and great reputations.