BC STARTUP
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I just gave a talk to the W2021 YC batch. It's my favorite startup audience to talk to. Here are some of the highlights:

 Finding product market fit is the critical thing to do in a startup.

Everything else: demo day, what investors you get, how much you raise, what press covers you -- it is all window dressing.
Many founders don’t want to talk to their customers because it makes them vulnerable, because it's hard work, because it's scary. Creating a tight feedback loop with customers is the one thing that will help you discover PMF.
If a customer isn't one of your cofounders, try to create a customer panel that allows as tight of a loop as possible. Call them daily. Put them in your Slack.
My Twitch cofounder Emmett Shear has a great analogy on PMF here: it's like rolling a boulder downhill. https://t.co/WEORUcnB4c
At Atrium, I confused myself on whether we had PMF because I was really good at sales. Basically, I was really strong and could roll the boulder uphill more easily. But it was still uphill.
It is often very unclear from the outside who is doing well or not in Silicon Valley. Example: people thought https://t.co/JQ2skuQnoc sucked, but Atrium was super successful. If you read the outside narrative you would be confused.
The outside narrative is irrelevant to your startup. Only focus on PMF. Just talk to your customers and build your product. Fuck the outside world.
You should be willing to toil on PMF in obscurity for as long as it takes. The best companies start with a narrow wedge of PMF and it turns out that many people want it.
Most founders start motivated extrinsically (money, success, security) but the best founders shift to being motivated intrinsically (they are doing things that give them joy). Intrinsic motivation will keep you working when extrinsic motivation will not.
It is ok to have extrinsic motivation - even if some of those desires aren’t the most attractive things to admit to yourself.
You can find investors without YC. You can raise money without YC.

YC is really an accountability framework for you to make fast progress in finding PMF. No one wants to be the person that shows up during office hours and reports that nothing got done the last two weeks.
Work is a kind of habit. If you want to be productive, set up the frameworks for yourself to improve your work habit. Make it easy, make it accessible, make it rewarding.
Example: I used to eat pizza every day for lunch, and then would take a nap. I thought I was just a tired motherfucker. But it turns out if I change my work diet, I am more productive.
On balancing ruthlessness vs compassion/kindness in a startup:

You should outline your values up front. Then make decisions in accordance with your values. I can’t tell you what they should be (and no one else can).
How to create a great cofounder team dynamic:

Start with values. Values will keep you together when you face stressful decision points (selling the company, shutting down, pivoting).
Make sure there are clear cofounder roles and a clear decision making structure. Have this conversation up front even if it is uncomfortable.

With your cofounders, build trust through vulnerability, clear communication, clear areas of responsibility.
Everyone wants famous investors to invest. Famous investors won’t make your company. Finding PMF will.
When you are successful, everyone will want to help you out, whether they invested or not. When you are failing, no one will want to help you, whether they invested or not.
Getting rich won’t solve your problems. You will still experience stress. Yes, this may be sound ridiculous. True equanimity can only come from getting right with your inner work.
More knowledge drops and summaries from my podcast The Quest on my free newsletter: https://t.co/U09RoOa8HI
One other thing I forgot: work with people who put a smile on your face. Life is short!

More from Justin Kan

Justin Kan
Justin Kan
@justinkan
1/ Throughout my startup career, I’ve seen many founders have an aversion to sales. This is a mistake that can kill your startup.

2/ Sales is often viewed as either a saving grace or proof that the product isn’t good enough (because it should sell itself). Neither are ever true. Some common mistakes that result in...

3/ Mistake 1: Hire a sales rep before reaching product/market fit to get your initial batch of customers. This is a mistake because founders need to work through their MVP with early adopters to truly understand what it is they’re selling.

4/ Mistake 2: Reach product/market fit, need to scale, and rely entirely on self-serve. For enterprise products that require big commitments and internal shifts, almost no product is self-explanatory enough to sell itself.

5/ Mistake 3: Make a first sales hire who isn’t scrappy enough to help mold the sales process from scratch. Some salespeople are amazing at their jobs, but not cut out to establish the processes that others end up following. This skillset is what @rdedatta calls a “sales ninja”.
STARTUPS
Justin Kan
Justin Kan
@justinkan
10 months ago we shut down Atrium after raising $75m in venture capital. Anyone hearing that knows I made tons of mistakes along the way. Someone asked me today what my biggest lessons learned were. Here they are:

Start with the mission
.

It is very hard to write the mission after the fact. You should start with a clear reason to exist and filter early hires for believers.

Start remote. SFBA is over for startups: the cost of housing and rent gives you much worse operating leverage. Many talented people choose jobs they want to be flexible re: location. Remote is better at this time in the market.

I wrote that before COVID, now it's extra true.

There is no skipping of the R&D phase of a company - if you try to skip this you miss the part where you are forced to develop something differentiated. Very hard to solve this with money.

Don’t build a services company. It’s more work to manage everyone and the reward isn’t there at the end of the day.
STARTUP LESSONS
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Justin Kan
Justin Kan
@justinkan
Just got a tip that Citadel reloaded their shorts before they told Robinhood to stop trading $GME.

If this is true, Ken Griffin and the Robinhood founders should be in jail.

This is class warfare.

@aoc there should be a congressional hearing
TRADING
Justin Kan
Justin Kan
@justinkan
1/ Silicon Valley has changed a lot over the past 13 years since I started my first company (an AJAX calendar called Kiko that was funded in the first batch of YC).

2/ Tech has gone from an industry no one cared about, to every random person I knew in college rushing to be part of it, to the evil industry destroying the fabric of society

3/ Starting a startup is easier than ever. Lots of resources: YC, more financing at the seed stage, much more information online. Starting a company is no longer a risky path.

4/ New businesses in every industry are now being built with methodologies that used to be just for tech startups (fast iteration, access to venture capital). Applies to D2C companies like Allbirds, full stack companies like Atrium, etc.

5/ Personally, I’ve felt recently that the overall risk appetite of the people working in tech has changed. People used to want to join frontier companies building something fun / cool; now everyone seems to be optimizing for salary / career stability.
ALL
Justin Kan
Justin Kan
@justinkan
With @ycombinator #demoday kicking off, @atrium gathered advice from past YC founders.

.@jaltma from @latticeHQ says “Don’t confuse investor interest with product-market fit. You’re about to be on the receiving end of a lot of hype and FOMO - use it to your advantage by taking the money and then keep your burn and ego low.”

.@typesfast from @flexport says “I like to remind myself that even Bruce Springsteen still gets nervous before his concerts. Remember that, and then try to focus on what investors want: First, not to be bored. Second, to get rich(er).”

.@collinmathilde from @frontapp says “Leverage your data to tell a story about what the business has achieved and where it is going. Metrics are necessary, but they are too often shared without a narrative arc.”

.@drusenko from @weebly says “Make it relevant. Investors can live in their own world, so try to find an angle that they can relate to.”
STARTUPS

More from Startup

I too am a Black-passing Latina
I too am a Black-passi...
@InADash
Every single time I set foot in every store/restaurant/place of business in Latin America. Only if they are not completely ignoring me from jump. Or following me bc obviously I came to carry out my plans to rob a store that is approximately 2 sq ft. big.


The part that’s also relevant is I’m oftentimes viewed as respectable-negro adjacent in the dominant culture imaginary. So what of those who are never identified as such? I always think about that. I get surveyed & harassed bad...yet and still there’s levels to the profiling.

When I have to do errands in Panama City, I make sure to apply makeup, perfume, an outfit with cleavage, or booty emphasis, heels and an “expensive” purse. There are STARK differences in the service and treatment I get when I do this vs. when I don’t. STARK. Pero, *STARK.*

LatinAmerica is psychotic in identifying who has money and who doesn’t based on how they are dressed, and how they imagine, carrying themselves. An “elegantly dressed” Black person will face less violence on an errand-run versus one who isn’t. This isn’t absolute so sit down plis

And then the times when I am dressed super-revealing. All of the help and care in the world from male workers. The same white mestizo men who would ordinarily follow me to “prevent theft” are happily helping me find things. Again, race, color, gender, class and more.
STARTUP
Alex Good
Alex Good
@goodalexander
I really like @sweatystartup’s tone - and I think it applies to trading

Most fintwits try to sound smart and do complex formulas to convince you you’re too dumb to manage your own $. It’s marketing

For traders focused on cash flow:
A thread on what I call “the pnl grind”.

1/ the grind is a grind because it’s work ethic. 12 hours a day, min. And weekends.

The grind is a grind because it’s hitting singles. 5-10 trade concepts a day. Hypothesize. Swing. Measure. Repeat.

The grind is a term that comes from gangster rap. And it’s focused on 💵

2/ what does a “grind trade” look like? Signal hit the top of the App Store. What’s a basket of trades that will work in a privacy focused world?

Long Eqix short Twtr - private cloud vs regulation
Long Z cash short bitcoin - private crypto vs censored crypto

Just examples

3/ grind trading is all about 1 off events that diverge from history. Quant traders don’t model them well bc lack of history. Fancy long / short guys are slow moving their books. Day traders aren’t focused on fundamentals.

And let’s be honest - grinding works bc it’s brutal

4/ when Biden said he was going all in on cyber security, due to Russian hacking - it meant Russia was the new media scapegoat, so Blinken could deal w 🇨🇳. Blinken is a communist boot licker. So what. Don’t get emotional. Monetize. You went long $Feye/ $JD. Got paid. Moved on.
STARTUP
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TY FRANKEL
TY FRANKEL
@THETYFRANKEL
How to go from $0 to $10K/mo and quit your 9-5.

A thread.

Let's say you have a 9-5

You make anywhere from $40-100K

Not bad

but you hate your Boss

You hate the job

and you KNOW your dream life doesn't include a 9-5 Job

Your goal is to QUIT

I will show you Exactly how

Keep reading

First thing - STAY at your 9-5

for now, at least

You'll quit once you hit $5K/month

If possible, systemize your 9-5 role

Create systems, hire a Phillipino VA

Buy back your time

If you have 3-4 hrs/day at your 9-5

to build your own Business

it's VERY powerful

OK, Step 1 - REFLECT

Assess yourself

Ask

"what am I good at?"

"what am I passionate about?"

"what kind of life do I want?"

"where do I have leverage?"

"where do I have connections?"

answer these Q's

Step 2 - PICK NICHE

Marketing is the industry I rec getting into

Pick one of these 👇

NICHES
- Paid Ads
- Content Marketing
- Outbound Marketing
- Retention Marketing
- SMS Marketing
- Web Design
- Meme Marketing
- Personal Branding
- Twitter Marketing
- Influencer Marketing
STARTUP
GREG ISENBERG
GREG ISENBERG
@gregisenberg
THREAD: Most advice is garbage

Here's some advice you shouldn’t listen to on startups, careers and life:

“90% of startups fail”

If you’re building a startup for the money, please quit

You’re probably better off working for FB or AMZN and rising the ranks

A successful startup isn't just about the valuation. It's about impact on your team, the world and yourself

The journey is 🔥

“You'll sleep when you’re dead”

If you don't sleep, you'll BE dead

Sleep is crucial to a happy mind and body

Without sleep, you become "foggy drunk", unable to take control of your life, startup or career

Beware of hustle culture and sleepless nights

“Become a doctor, lawyer etc”

This is probably some of the most undercover toxic advice parents can give to their children

The internet has opened the doors for anyone to become anything

Discover WHO you want to become before you decide on WHAT you want to become

“Don’t talk to strangers”

- You can't make lifelong friends if you don't talk to strangers
- You can't really discover who you are if you don't talk to strangers
- You can't get the benefits of the internet without talking to strangers

BE CAREFUL, but please talk to strangers
STARTUP
Zeda.io
Zeda.io
@Zedaio
In order to expand their business, startups need to identify and use efficient products (tools). We have listed down Top 5 Products for Startups, and what makes them the top products.😎👇🏻
#prodmgmt #productsforstartups


https://t.co/0IPd51VibU


https://t.co/hICowg9VvP


https://t.co/T3epyQXEoX


https://t.co/Sm8G1JNxx0
STARTUP

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Julien \U0001f332
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1/ there is this sense when you are young that your accomplishments need to be a list of things that seem impressive to others. A list of several items you did.

This isn't actually right, so here is another suggestion.

2/ I remember being 26 and writing about reading 52 books a year. I wrote blog posts about it. They got copied. It became "a thing." Now it's in Twitter bios. It looks impressive but it's insanely useless and I shouldn't have done it.

3/ what I should have known at that time is that only young idiots like myself, with no accomplishments, find list of tiny achievements impressive. Anyone who has actually done anything of substance doesn't gaf

4/ what is actually difficult, and worthwhile, instead is to do ONE single thing for a very, very long time. It's much harder and much rarer and results in outlier outcomes much more often.

Of course you can find this out too late if you are chasing the dragon of Ted talks etc

5/ if I had only worked on a startup for a year, I would've gotten nowhere, the same way that if you lift for 3 months, it achieves nothing. Everything good in life comes from perseverance, but at the beginning, you're just like "I need to be somebody!!!"
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I present to you all, my (possibly) superthread On how and why the Unknown God from Genshin Impact, and The Herrscher of Void/God Kiana/Sirin from Honkai Impact!

First off! We’ll start with the obvious things that constitute a possible connection.

They share the same Japanese Voice actress! Rie Kugimiya.
Usually this is a stretch reason, but considering everything else, it’s not unlikely that it’s the same character.

Secondly, their Appearances.
The both have very long white hair with identical bang style, and a very noticeable small piece of hair on top that curls upwards. That’s a defining part Of all of Kiana’s hairstyles, and for it to be shared with this god says something.


Another notable thing is their eyes. They both have Glowing golden eyes with very similar appearances. They contain a ring, and a 4-point star pupil. Resemblant of a scope if you will. That’s The Herrscher of Void’s defining characteristic


If you’d even like to take a look at their outfits, there’s resemblances including the black fur collar, the designs on the torso and chest, and the use of something similar to coat tails/skirt. The Herrscher can change their outfit and they aren’t stuck with one. Sirin does this
CULTURE
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Ryan Caldbeck
Ryan Caldbeck
@ryan_caldbeck
1/ I am seeing more and more founder secondary in venture rounds (Secondary = founders selling some of their shares before some other shareholders are able). Series B-D. I see both as an investor and through entrepreneur circles.

2/ I like secondary for entrepreneurs. Moderation is key but in a lot of situations I think it helps accelerate the co. Lots of very smart investors disagree. Here are my thoughts.

3/ Magnitude: My basic rule of thumb from what I see is market is 4+ yrs and up to 10% of founder’s equity stake with some $ cap that makes sense given stage etc. (typically <$10m)

4/ The entrepreneurial journey is brutally hard. Giving some financial relief helps remove one piece of pressure. I don’t think that secondary in the magnitude mentioned impacts the drive/persistence of great entrepreneurs.

5/ That secondary means they will be able to just sleep knowing they can pay their kids’ tuition. Secondary will make most founders better at their jobs, thus accelerating the co.
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Robin Berjon
Robin Berjon
@robinberjon
Recently, the @CNIL issued a decision regarding the GDPR compliance of an unknown French adtech company named "Vectaury". It may seem like small fry, but the decision has potential wide-ranging impacts for Google, the IAB framework, and today's adtech. It's thread time! 👇

It's all in French, but if you're up for it you can read:
• Their blog post (lacks the most interesting details): https://t.co/PHkDcOT1hy
• Their high-level legal decision: https://t.co/hwpiEvjodt
• The full notification: https://t.co/QQB7rfynha

I've read it so you needn't!

Vectaury was collecting geolocation data in order to create profiles (eg. people who often go to this or that type of shop) so as to power ad targeting. They operate through embedded SDKs and ad bidding, making them invisible to users.

The @CNIL notes that profiling based off of geolocation presents particular risks since it reveals people's movements and habits. As risky, the processing requires consent — this will be the heart of their assessment.

Interesting point: they justify the decision in part because of how many people COULD be targeted in this way (rather than how many have — though they note that too). Because it's on a phone, and many have phones, it is considered large-scale processing no matter what.
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Patrick Chovanec
Patrick Chovanec
@prchovanec
1. Let's talk about Albanians. No, not THOSE Albanians, in the Balkans. The Caucasian Albanians, the pre-Turkish inhabitants of the land now known as Azerbaijan. 🇦🇿


2. Yeah, I know, there's also an "Iberia" there, which should cause even more confusion (with Spain), but let's focus on "Albania".

3. This ancient church in the village of Nij (or Nic), just south of the Caucasus Mountains, belongs to the Udi people, a Christian minority in Azerbaijan descended from the area’s pre-Turkic Caucasian Albanians. 🇦🇿


4. Nearby are the ruins of the Caucasian Albanian capital of “old” Gabala (Qebele), where I was given a personal tour by one of the resident archeologists (just for showing up). 🇦🇿


5. Only a very tiny portion of the extensive site has been excavated. “Every place you dig,” the archeologist told me, “you will find artifacts.” This whole field is a city waiting to be uncovered.
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