BC STARTUP

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Jesse Pujji
@jspujji 2 years, 7 months ago 287 views

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Starting a company is hard.

The hardest part: the euphoric ups followed by the VICIOUS downs

I wasn’t satisfied that this was “the way it had to be”

I started digging. Worked with a coach. Read books

Here’s the #1 I learned to fight the ups and downs

I do it daily 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽

1/ First, let’s back up.

One thing entrepreneurs all have in common is that we are HUMAN.

Newsflash: Humans weren’t designed to be happy. We were designed for one thing: survival.

Now if you were designing an animal to survive, what are some things you may give it?

2/ How about an alert system?

Something to let them know they should be careful or stop doing something: EMOTIONS

Fear - what wants to be paid attention to?
Anger - what wants to be stopped?
Sadness - what wants to be let go?
Joy - what Wants to be celebrated?

What else?

3/ You’d want this animal to be able to use these emotions and quickly spot threats.

In fact, humans are built to walk into a room and first pay attention to anything that could harm them!

But these days, we don’t often experience threats aren’t to our physical survival…

More from Jesse Pujji

Jesse Pujji
@jspujji

Everyone has ONLY one problem.

And it's the SAME problem.

It's called: The Upper Limit Problem.

Here is everything you need to understand and solve it 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽

Each person has an "inner thermostat" of success/happiness that was set for us as children.

When we exceed our "setting," we unconsciously sabotage ourselves to come back into the familiar/comfortable "temperature."

The classic example: a lotto winner.

It's a proven fact that most lotto winners, regardless of the size of the prize, report similar or LOWER happiness 5-10 years post win.

So much "success" in one area overwhelms their neurosis and they "bring themselves down" in other areas

There are plenty of other examples too

The rock star who develops a drug problem.

The entrepreneur who makes it big and then loses it all.

The sports star who gets a huge injury.

Often times, success in one area leads you to "lower temperature" in another area.

Big financial win, you fight with your spouse.

Got married, your startup fails.

Book published, you broke your leg.

Jesse Pujji
@jspujji

Bootstrapped entrepreneurs always have the last laugh.

A son of Iranian immigrants turned a single LA retail store into a $1,000,000,000+ ecommerce giant.

All with $0.00 in funding

Here’s the story 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽

1/ Richard Saghian was born in 1982.

His family was a minority group of Jewish-Iranians who fled during the revolution.

After moving to America, they got into women’s fashion retail.

In 2006, Richard followed in their footsteps…

2/ He started his own store. His idea was simple: affordable, unique clothes to wear to the club.

His goal was to open 100, but he stopped at 5.

Early on, he had the idea of opening up an internet store...

3/ The web dev he hired quickly talked him out of it, “where will you get traffic?” was a question Richard couldn’t answer.

After a few years, the retail stores were going nowhere…

4/ In 2013, Richard noticed several stores online selling the same clothes for over twice what he charged.

He created an Instagram account, took some of his best selling styles and started posting them every day.

At first, crickets.

But then, something magical happened…

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Jesse Pujji
@jspujji

Startups are hard!

One of the hardest parts is managing your team.

How much guidance do you give? Do you do it yourself? When to track others to-dos?

Starting out, I wish I had a cheat sheet for management.

So I wrote one.

23 Hard Won Lessons In Startup Management 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽

1/ Feedback is a gift.

Don't just give it frequently but seek it all the time, in multiple different ways.

Create a culture where feedback is viewed as a gift and given frequently.

2/ Almost without fail, if at any point you think in your head, "this person is not good, we should let them go," then you are probably right.

Try to do it as soon as possible but compassionately.

3/ Leading and managing people well is NOT an innate talent.

Get a coach and a mentor and learn as much as you can.

You will improve continually over time.

4/ Bring on an "HR" person earlier than you think you should.

Let's face it - most folks want to complain/vent to someone.

Without an HR person, you are that person.

As a founder, you take this complaining too personally and too seriously.

Jesse Pujji
@jspujji

Facebook & Instagram are NOT listening to your conversations.

What they are doing is MUCH more effective!

Here’s how it works👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽

1/ The two most valuable pieces of software on earth are:

1. The FB pixel
2. The FB newsfeed

When you wonder how $FB is worth > $400BN while Twitter is < $30BN, these two pieces of software are your answer.

What are they?

2/ The FB pixel is a tiny piece of code that nearly every website/mobile app on the planet has embedded.

It collects anonymized data for FB to aggregate: websites visited, how much time was spent, did you buy or not, etc.

3/ The newsfeed algo looks at that as a signal along with hundreds of other data points like age, friends, what you click on, and even where you post to determine which ad to place in front of you, when.

All of this is done in aggregated groups.

Not personal/specific to you.

4/ When it works: right message in front of right person at right time….everyone wins.

A brand finds a new customer.

You find a product you want.

FB makes $.

Jesse Pujji
@jspujji

“Targeting” doesn't mean what it used to in the marketing world - the days of targeting different ages etc are GONE - algorithms do that now.

“Targeting” means crafting messages that resonate with your customer.

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Frank Rotman
@fintechjunkie

1/23: One #startup trap to avoid (founders and VCs) is to fall in love with a value prop that can’t be delivered IRL now. Good diligence will surface disconnects but they’re often brushed under the rug by #VCs who believe fixing delivery over time will be fine. Unpacked:

2/23: The foundational reason why this matters from day 1 is that building a franchise of loyal customers is difficult for any #startup to pull off but the challenge is amplified if the #startup has to rebuild its franchise as it scales.

3/23: Broken or unfulfilled promises lead to customer behaviors that have real consequences. Poor ratings and reviews. High customer service costs. High complaint volume. Low engagement. High attrition/returns/cancelations. Low organic growth.

4/23: Undoing damage takes time and sometimes is nearly impossible. Convincing inactive customers to “retry” your product isn’t easy. Overcoming bad reviews can be a Herculean task. And resources will be thrown at fixing past sins at the expense of new functionality.

5/23: And guess what happens when #VCs dig into questionable early performance numbers? These conversations tend to revolve around caveats, apologies and synthetic analysis that bakes in significant improvements (many of which are still “unknown” in nature).

Max Koh
@heymaxkoh

One thing I'm always most excited about as an investor:

Watching CEO interviews.

Over the years, I’ve watched over 100s of them.

Here’s 25 traits I’ve seen in the very best leaders.

You can swipe these into your own framework to evaluate management teams:

1. They don’t rely on external motivation

Not status or money.

Instead, they seem to be driven an inner fire.

Sometimes it’s to make the world a better place.

Other times, it’s to prove themselves right.

And that's why they can keep going even after they're already rich AF.

2. They're not human

They don't see the world like 99% of us

Whether it’s creating a culture that’s a sports team vs a family...

Or thinking of everything from first principles…

They have a different modus operandi.

This helps them see solutions that 99% of us muggles miss.

3. They enjoy founder-company fit

The great leaders are great because:

They’re in a company that plays to their unique personality.

The stars have to align for a great leader to be made.

The product + business model + personality of the leader must match.

4. They give lots of freedom and autonomy

They know how to unleash the potential in their team

They know how to paint an exciting vision…

And then give their team the space to roam free.

They understand that people flourish when you give them room to explore and experiment.

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Matthew Paik
@PaikCapital

Build a cold email lead gen agency from scratch

// THREAD //

You've already seen it on this side of twits.

People who have transparently built $10k/mo. agencies with a few resources.

I'm going to reveal exactly how you can start this agency today and the ONLY resources you'll need for it.

Let's begin!

1. Core service

A cold email lead gen agency gets leads using cold email

>> scrapes the emails
>> writes the emails
>> sends the emails
>> books appointments

2. Your clients

Imagine running an agency where ALL appointments are booked for you.

You will target
>> local biz agencies
>> ad agencies
>> ecom agencies
>> coaches / consultants

HUGE MARKET.
PEOPLE GO CRAZY FOR THIS.

3. Cold email clients

Seriously, if you write a killer cold email to an agency, it speaks for itself.

Just ask @blackhatwizardd or @THETYFRANKEL.

What you'll need is obviously a 10/10 first line.

But that's not all.

You need to know exactly what agencies are looking for.

Flo Crivello
@Altimor

1/ I'm insanely excited to announce what I've been working on for the last year:

Teamflow, a virtual office that makes you feel like a team again. Coming out of stealth and announcing our $3.9M seed round today 🎉🎉🎉

2/ @getTeamflow lets you see your video in an office where your team can hang out.

You can move yourself around, and only hear and see people around you.

So when you want to chat with someone, you can just drag yourself over and say hi — no more juggling with Zoom links

3/ You can also open apps in the space, like Figma, Trello or Google Docs.

Everybody can see and use them together — so you can meet around your sprint board in the morning for standup.

4/ You can customize and furnish meeting rooms, which persist — so you can create:
- one room for a project launch, with tasks, metrics dashboard…
- one room for each 1:1 with your meeting notes
- one game room with a bunch of online games
[- one room to bring them all…]

5/ I actually had this idea when my team at Uber had to go remote, and I felt both camaraderie and productivity fall off a cliff.

We had an outage one day. Not my 1st, but remote made this one especially painful — jumping from Zoom to Zoom to coordinate ops, marketing, eng…

Elizabeth Yin
@dunkhippo33

A thread on employee equity in early stage startups -- what are the compensation norms? What every early employee should ask? Some thoughts on whether the structure is fair.

Read on >>

1) First, there are NO NORMS! Hah. I have literally seen everything from giving early employees no equity to giving employee #1s near co-founder level of shares.

But what is more common than not?

2) In the Silicon Valley, if you're hiring your 1st employee, & you've raised NO $$ & are paying very little (e.g $0-$10k / yr or thereabouts), your first employee is basically a co-founder.

And the equity tranche for employee 1 should be closer to a co-founder level.

3) For ex, a friend of mine gave his employee #1 10% (vesting over 4 yrs of course) of the business. This employee was only getting his housing paid for. And this was 10 yrs ago, so it was during the bust.

4) On the flip side, if you have raised some $$ & are paying employee #1 near mkt rate, typically I see around here ppl get 1-5% (w/ vesting).

Caveat - near mkt rate doesn't mean compared to Google or FB salary rates. I mean compared to "normal big cos"

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Kentaur Wolf2
@fragma_dia2

Хајде да направимо мали осврт на случај Мика Алексић .

Алексић је жртва енглеске освете преко Оливере Иванчић .
Мика је одбио да снима филм о блаћењу Срба и мењању историје Срба , иза целокупног пројекта стоји дипломатски кор Британаца у Београду и Оливера Иванчић

Оливера Илинчић је иначе мајка једне од његових ученица .
Која је претила да ће се осветити .

Мика се налази у притвору због наводних оптужби глумице Милене Радуловић да ју је наводно силовао човек од 70 година , са три бајпаса и извађеном простатом пре пет година

Иста персона је и обезбедила финансије за филм преко Беча а филм је требао да се бави животом Десанке Максимовић .
А сетите се и ко је иницирао да се Десанка Максимовић избаци из уџбеника и школства у Србији .

И тако уместо романсиране верзије Десанке Максимовић утицај Британаца

У Србији стави на пиједестал и да се Британци у Србији позитивно афирмишу како би се на тај начин усмерила будућност али и мењао ток историје .
Зато Мика са гнушањем и поносно одбија да снима такав филм тада и почиње хајка и претње која потиче из британских дипломатских кругова

Најгоре од свега што је то Мика Алексић изговорио у присуству високих дипломатских представника , а одговор је био да се све неће на томе завршити и да ће га то скупо коштати .
Нашта им је Мика рекао да је он свој живот проживео и да могу да му раде шта хоће и силно их извређао

JayneshKasliwal
@JayneshKasliwal

ULTIMATE GUIDE TO 21 and 200 Moving Average
SUNDAY THREAD 🔖
A trend Following System That will Help You Improve Trading immensely.

RETWEET AND SHARE 🔄
@kuttrapali26 @AmitabhJha3
#stocks #StockMarket
1/n

Moving averages
EMA and SMA
1. Exponential Moving Average (EMA) is similar to Simple Moving Average (SMA), measuring trend direction over a period of time.
2. However, whereas SMA simply calculates an average of price data, EMA applies more weight to data that is more current
2/

21 EMA : SHORT TERM TREND
1. Calculates the Average Price of past 21 days
2. A stock above 21 ema is in strong momentum , which will give pullbacks to 21 ema again and again.
3. Stock above 21 ema should never be shorted so as to stay with the trend
3/n

3. A stock which moves 10-15% above 21 ema will be too extended and hence will generally pullback
Stocks take dynamic support on 21 ema
4. You can Short only if its too extended like 15 to 20% from 21 ema ( Not advised )
#ADANIPOWER:
#pnbhousing
4/n

1. Whenever 21 ema is sloping upwards its called uptrend
2. Whenever 21 ema is sloping downwards its called dowtrend
3. Whenever 21 ema is sideways its called consolidation
⏫Buy in uptrend
⏬Sell in downtrend
Examples:
5/n

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Lakshminarayan G
@narayanagl

The Chanting of following names of Bhagwan Vishnu, immensely helps us in overcoming the obstacles in our daily life.
These names are from Sri Vishnu Sahasranama!
|. "Om Vashatkaaraaya Namaha" : For Success in Business.
||. "Om Aksharaaya Namaha" : For Success in Studies.

|||. "Om Bhuthabhavanaya Namaha" : For Good Health.
|V. "Om Paramaathmane Namaha" : For Self Confidence.

Src: VAK magazine from Chilkur Balaji Temple, Hyderabad - Sri @csranga
#SanatanaDharma #SanatanaSanskriti #Sattology

One needs to chant the following slokas 28 times to get rid of certain problems in life.
Om Hrushikesaya Namah - For Overcoming Bad habits
Om Vashatkaaraya Namah - For Success in Business, Interviews, visa interviews, building relationships

Om Srimate Namah - For Handsome appearance & wealth
Om Aksharaya Namah - For Education & better financial strength
Om Paramatmane Namah - For self employed people, for promotions and success in games.
Om Putatmane Namah - To remove mental stress & for mental peace

Om Sarmane Namah - For Job Satisfaction
Om Bhutadaye Namah -To amend soured friendship or any personal relationship
Om Dhatre Namah - For issueless couple
Om vidhatre Namah - Pregnant Ladies to Chant for healthy babies.
Chant the following 108 times :

Patrick McKenzie
@patio11

A thread on HN about bad code in legacy projects both makes me think how little we've learned as a discipline over the years and, honestly, how little credit we give ourselves for some pretty major

Fun going down this list and thinking: "Hmm, plausible at a well-run modern software shop", "Hmm, possible, but requires implausible tradeoffs", "Literally disallowed by languages", and "If you were to attempt doing that our test suite wouldn't let you merge."

I think we as an industry celebrate (not quite the right word) failure too much and don't celebrate success nearly enough. There is no DailyWTF for competent execution, word of which generally stays pretty local to the source while incompetence passes into legend.

Alrighty let me try to thread the needle on being the change I want to see in the world while not giving away anything that will get me in trouble:

Ruby has wonderful developer ergonomics. Typed languages are easier for machines to guarantee the correctness of. We built a type checker for Ruby (and I believe it is slated for OSS release sometime).

c.f.

$\u0939\u0920\u092f\u094b\u0917\u0940$

हठयोगी...
@hathyogi31

#3/thread on Angkor wat

Christianity and islam may be the largest religion of today’s world but Sanatan dharm has the largest religious monument in the world in the form of Angkor wat. It is situated in combodia and spread across over 400 acres / 1.6 km².

It was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992, which encouraged an international effort to save the complex.
It was originally built as a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Vishnu. In Khmer, the Cambodian language, Angkor means "city" and Wat means "temple grounds".

So Angkor Wat means "Temple City". Its original name was Vrah Vishnuloka or Parama Vishnuloka, meaning the sacred dwelling of Vishnu in Sanskrit.
But, it gradually turned into a Buddhist temple towards the end of the 12th century & is still used for worship today.

Angkor Wat was initially designed and constructed in the first half of the 12th century, during the reign of Suryavarman II, as the king’s state temple and capital city. It was built without the aid of any machinery, as there was no machinery available at that time.

Evidence for these dates comes in part from inscriptions, which are vague, but also from the architectural design and artistic style of the temple and its associated sculptures.

Another aspect is that the five central towers of Angkor Wat symbolize the peaks of Mount Meru,