Startup Lessons Learned/Learning

Transcript

1. Startup Lessons Learned Matt Pizzimenti Zach Steindler ing 10 December

   2009

2. Top 10 Things You Should Do and you will succeed

   or fail based solely upon these

3. Sampling of 9 Things We Do / Did every startup

   is unique, but this might help ½

4. who are we?

5. what is Olark? ➡ easy live chat for sales and

   support ➡ YCombinator Summer 2009

6. ½ 9

7. be scrappy the scrappy shall inherit the earth

8. None
9. None
10. None
11. None

12. have good hacker friends get by with a little help

    from your friends
13. None
14. None

15. connect with your users why didn't you call last night?

16. None
17. None
18. None

19. charge your users man cannot survive on users alone

20. None
21. None
22. None
23. None

24. stop worrying about perfection "perfect" is the enemy of the

    good
25. None

26. investors are good at (some) things you don't get something

    for nothing
27. None

28. be willing to give up on ideas focus on what

    works
29. None
30. None

31. stop worrying about your competitors be aware of them, save

    your worrying for customers

32. competitor came out of beta

33. pick a measure of success for yourself you can't be

    all things to all people

34. millions of users go huge, or go home

35. steady revenue growth (mostly) bootstrapped

36. None

37. obligatory summary 1. be scrappy 2. have good hacker friends

    3. connect with your users 4. charge your users 5. stop worrying about perfection 6. investors are good for (some) things 7. be willing to give up on ideas 8. stop wasting time worrying about competitors 9. pick a measure of success for yourself

38. lesson 9½: have fun!

39. None
40. None
41. None
42. None
43. None
44. None
45. None

46. startups aren't scary. we promise.