YC CEO Michael Seibel outlines how successful startups think about building something people want. Startup School is YC's free online program for founders. Sign up to access the full curriculum and over $100k in deals! https://www.startupschool.org/
Chapters (Powered by videosummary.co) -
00:00:00 Introduction
00:00:53 JustinTV (Twitch now) make a lot of mistakes but the things that allowed them to survive
00:03:50 What problem are you solving?
00:05:31 Can you state the problem clearly?
00:05:45 Have you experienced it yourself?
00:06:12 Can you define your problem narrowly?
00:07:02 Is the problem solvable?
00:10:11 Who is your customer?
00:10:23 Everyone? (no!)
00:11:30 How often do they have the problem?
00:13:50 How intense is the problem?
00:15:07 Are they willing to pay?
00:17:05 How easy are they to find?
00:18:39 Does your MVP actually solve the problem?
00:21:10 Which customers should you go after first? (the easy ones!)
00:24:25 Which customers should you run away from? (the hard ones!)
00:25:46 Should you discount or start with a super low price? (no!)
00:27:58 How to setup metrics
00:28:15 Google Analytics + Something else
00:29:36 Pick 5-10 important stats
00:31:13 Make measurements a part of product spec
00:32:02 Product Development Cycle (v1)
00:36:11 KPI Goal
00:37:52 Brainstorm
00:39:01 Easy/Medium/Hard
00:40:50 Decide
00:41:35 Written Spec
00:43:44 Pivot vs Iterate
00:44:43 Pivot = Changing the customer and/or changing the problem (rare)
00:44:59 Iterate = changing the solution (common)
00:46:09 Fake Steve Jobs vs Real Steve Jobs (how not to be a product dictator)
00:48:04 Summary - Find the right customers, ask specific what they want, and make it.
00:51:06 Question 1 - Should you be going free if the final idea for the product is to be free?
00:52:27 Question 2 - KPI is revenue and the number is zero, should you still be tracking that as your top line KPI?
00:53:50 Question 3 - Hardware company pre-launch pre-sales tips?
00:54:29 Question 4 - Hardest part of having a slow burn?
00:55:26 Question 5 - Beta to early MVP?
00:56:51 Question 6 - How do one figure out what feature to build next?
