Paul Graham on “How Not to Die” as a startup
February 9, 2015I really enjoyed reading this post by Paul Graham about “How Not to Die” as a startup. It’s the transcript of a talk he gave to a group of founders at a Y Combinators dinner in 2007 and he talked about all kinds of things startups are going through. And even though he described it as a “grim” talk himself, i found it to be more of a motivational piece than anything else.
I’m pretty sure he’s right when he says that a big portion of success is basically just “don’t give up”. Paired maybe with a bit of luck and a whole lot of flexibility and iteration. An idea alone almost never directly became a big hit without any form of transformation and the startups that made it are almost never the one’s that had the best and most original idea to begin with, but the one’s that tried harder and kept iterating instead of giving up.
Let me mention some things not to do. The number one thing not to do is other things. If you find yourself saying a sentence that ends with “but we’re going to keep working on the startup,” you are in big trouble. Bob’s going to grad school, but we’re going to keep working on the startup. We’re moving back to Minnesota, but we’re going to keep working on the startup. We’re taking on some consulting projects, but we’re going to keep working on the startup. You may as well just translate these to “we’re giving up on the startup, but we’re not willing to admit that to ourselves,” because that’s what it means most of the time. A startup is so hard that working on it can’t be preceded by “but.”
And also this next quote resonated with me and resembled some of the things i meant when i wrote about our goal to solving almost no one’s problem.
I like Paul Buchheit’s suggestion of trying to make something that at least someone really loves. As long as you’ve made something that a few users are ecstatic about, you’re on the right track. […]
So when you release something and it seems like no one cares, look more closely. Are there zero users who really love you, or is there at least some little group that does? It’s quite possible there will be zero. In that case, tweak your product and try again. Every one of you is working on a space that contains at least one winning permutation somewhere in it. If you just keep trying, you’ll find it.
In that sense: Let’s keep on trying, and have a good week!