Author, Investor, Speaker, Mentor
Each night, I wash the dishes for my family. Some nights, the sink is fairly empty, and it’s easy. Other times, the sink is overflowing with dirty dishes, and it’s tough to work up the motivation to get started. But what allows me to get the job done every night is that I know where … Continue reading The Power of Knowing Where To Start
Forbes has been doing a great job of covering the story behind WhatsApp. If you’re too lazy to read their entire stories, here are a few more lessons that I took away from the saga: http://onforb.es/1fH2ai1 1. Do something that people easily understand. WhatsApp had a simple vision: SMS, but free. Hard to argue with … Continue reading More Lessons from WhatsApp
A while back, I read a popular blog post on “Why I’ll Be a Solo Founder Next Time”: http://bit.ly/16pSfTr The author, Denny Britz, writes about how his previous startup failed because he and his co-founders were “bad” founders, and vows to do things differently his next time out: “If you haven’t found the right team … Continue reading You Never Have The Perfect Tools For The Job
I strongly urge you to read the entirety of Alex Payne’s “Letter to a Young Programmer Considering a Startup.” http://bit.ly/132Lcpc This heartfelt, eloquent essay encapsulates much of the ambivalence I feel about the startup world. I am, of course, a startup enthusiast. Sometime in the next few years, I’ll reach the point where I’ve started, … Continue reading The purpose of a startup is not “success”
I had the good fortune to attend Stanford’s most recent “Engineering Hero” lecture, featuring Andy Bechtolsheim, the legendary entrepreneur and investor. You know that you’re pretty darn amazing when founding and selling Granite Systems to Cisco Systems is only *third* on your career highlight reel, behind founding Sun Microsystems and making $1.7 billion as the … Continue reading The Great Andy Bechtolsheim
I love this HackerNews item on the key questions you’d use when programming a Paul Graham bot to dispense startup advice. Here are the questions/phrases: “Who needs it?”“Who uses it?”“Who *really* needs it?”“What problem does this solve?”“Does that problem *really* need to be solved?”“What is the worst problem in your life?”“In any given day, how … Continue reading Paul Graham’s Office Hours Questions
When it comes to startups, its easy to confuse signifiers and substance. The truth is hard to know, especially with early stage companies. If you don’t have a product or customers, it’s hard to have substance. Yet whether you’re a startup or investor, you’d be wise to focus on substance rather than signifiers. Not because … Continue reading Don’t Confuse Signifiers and Substance
(one of these people won an Oscar. Guess which one.) While we all understand the obvious benefits of speed, we often overlook the subtle power of momentum. Often, doing something fast delivers better results than doing something slowly, simply because we reduce the chances of something going wrong. Lost was one of the most successful … Continue reading Speed Has a Momentum All Its Own
In the startup world, you’re always surrounded by uncertainty. There are always too many factors to consider, and your team members probably disagree. But you don’t have to be paralyzed or choose blindly. Instead, follow this simple principle: Always start with the end goals. Whenever you are stuck, refer back to those goals. Our natural … Continue reading Always Start With The End
One of my pet peeves when it comes to management is when someone tells me, “I’m sorry, but I don’t have time to explain.” When that happens, I think that person has been watching too many action movies. If you’re on the run from a secret government conspiracy, you probably don’t have time to explain … Continue reading If you don’t have time to explain, you’re not decisive, you’re unfocused