Startup Lessons Learned/Learning

Tips from the early days of Olark.
(presented with Zach Steindler)

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
12. have good hacker friends get by with a little help from your friends
15. connect with your users why didn't you call last night?
19. charge your users man cannot survive on users alone
24. stop worrying about perfection "perfect" is the enemy of the good
26. investors are good at (some) things you don't get something for nothing
28. be willing to give up on ideas focus on what works
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
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!
46. startups aren't scary. we promise.