Medium上Chris Markl的So I watched Sam Altman’s “How to Start a Startup” in a single day。
2015秋季,Y-Combinator 的董事长Sam Altman在Stanford 上了一门叫“如何创业”的课。油管上有所有的课程。
有时间的下面不用看,直接去刷视频吧。
我在佛罗里达州立大学跟别人合伙创业(Entrepreneur in Residence)。 和入了这个坑的其他人一样,我拼了命地在找时间学习东西。(I, like other professionals in the field, struggle with finding time to consume content.) 一狠心在Florida State University给学生开的课程中,我挑了一门“How to Start a Startup”刷了起来,从早上7点一直干到晚上11:50,整整16个小时。
下面请看“本台记者”在前方给大家带来的直播报道。(Below is a live commentary.)
第一节 1—如何创业(7:00AM )
下面我们开始!
帮助创业公司创业是一个得亲力亲为又存在巨大差异化的一项任务。
这堂课上教授的内容只有30%是通用的,其他的并不一定全部适用所有企业。讲的东西都是为了能够快速地把企业做起来。告诉我,有谁不愿意?
成功创业四要素:点子,产品,团队,执行力。
点子,创意
目光长远,长久考虑对于初创企业来说是个巨大优势。最好的公司几乎都是任务驱动型。如果你不喜欢你正做的,后面你可能随时都会放弃。好的创业公司,是要花10年的时间来经营的,不是2,3年。启动一个宏伟的创意,能够激发利益相关的人并激励他们更加努力的做事。
好点子通常在一开始看来是都是很烂。你想要一个能够垄断市场的独家创意。牛逼公司一开始都是在小市场上着手,然后迅速地发展起来。投资人不仅仅是考虑公司的发展,同时也在考虑市场的发展。客户通常是急需一个解决方案。你不能左右市场,所以在开始之前做一个详细的市场调查是非常重要的。好点子一句话就能解释。靠抄袭?通常都是死。(好像天朝是不抄袭?很难活。)
第一个学生走了进来,跟我一起上课。 7:30 了,这栋楼基本没有其他人。
产品
做产品,无非就是衣食住行(交流,吃饭,睡觉:talk to users, eat, sleep)。创办人的目的是打造一款用户喜爱的产品。不要一开始上来就做满足大众的东西,最好是先做让小部分人深爱,满意的产品。他们深爱你的产品,他们会告诉分享给他们的朋友,久而久之,真正优秀的产品会经得住市场的考验。那么,先搞个简单的东西吧!
告知用户,不是像Google广告词那样,是告诉你周围的人。用肉身(手动)去拉用户,要知道你的目的是让这些小部分人深爱你的产品。你自己得做销售售后。学吧。
Dustin Moskovitz--正说着做创始人是相当困难的,备受压力,全天24小时都得集中注意力,并不是魅力四射。当CEO,你又不是老板,相反其他人都是你爹(Boss)。
顺利迎来第二位学生, 可能是八点之前,印象深刻。
我认为Dustin的关于创业的忠告很重要。但是我也认为在一家没有激情和动力的公司的一份普通工作可能是很惨。和其他创业的一样,我喜欢创业的那种环境和氛围,解决问题和承诺。我不赞同Dustin认为的不灵活,我反倒是觉得作为创业的人我能24小时做我自己选择的工作,这很值得。喜欢这个在自己身上下赌注的观点。
那么为什么创业?上苍注定(世界需要),你激切四溢,所以迫不及待。
第二节 团队与执行
Choosing a founder who you aren’t friends with is just a bad idea. The track record for founders who don’t know each other is just not good. Solo founder is better than a random founder. Co-founders should be relentlessly resourceful, like James Bond. 2–3 co-founders is a right amount. Try not to hire, you are judged by the number of employees. It sucks to have employees, high burn rates, tension, slow decision making. The cost of getting an early higher wrong is incredibly high.
不选择朋友作为创始人之一就不是那么明智了,不相互了解也不太好。单干要好过随机搭配。
An organization, any organization, is a group of people, who create products. A startup is such a small team, thus the productivity, commitment and joy that each person brings is incredibly correlated with productivity. This is why Sam Altman is correct about getting the right people to work for one’s company.
It takes forever to find the best people. Founders consistently under-estimate how long it takes find someone as a co-founder or as a hire. Hiring should spend either 0% or 25% hiring. A mediocre hire will kill a startup. The best source to find someone to hire, is your network. When you work for Facebook in the first 2–3 weeks, a HR basically forces you to reveal each smart person you know. Sam Altman’s three determinants of hiring: smart, get things done, do I want to spend time with them. Try to work on a project instead of conducting an interview. You want people who will just get stuff done. Mark Zuckerburg, hires people he will spend time with socially and also who he would feel comfortable reporting to.
Provide early employees with large amounts of equity. The first 10 employees should receive 10% and they have to earn it over the first four years. Be as generous with equity to employees, and be as stingy as possible with investors. Retaining employees is incredibly important and difficult. Three things that provide an employee with pleasure and meaning: autonomy, mastery and purpose. Fire fast, its best for everyone. Fire people who are bad at their job, create office politics, and are persistently negative.
Co-founder split should be near equal. If there is a non-equal split it is likely a reason to step back and think about this relationship. Vesting of four years is the industry norm, with a one year cliff.