Successful founders prioritize being okay with rejection and seek user feedback to avoid isolation. They understand the importance of testing ideas with real users and talking to them to ensure the product meets their needs. User surveys are not highly valuable for choosing a startup idea, and charging for a product or service is more challenging than getting user feedback. Successful founders like Airbnb and Twitch emphasize the value of direct interaction and user research in validating ideas and understanding user needs. Founders must be comfortable with rejection and provide value to users who are willing to pay for or regularly use the product. Approaching work scientifically, testing hypotheses, and gathering data are crucial for success. Rejection is a fundamental human condition, and successful founders overcome defense mechanisms and ego protection. They view rejection as an opportunity to learn and refine their approach. Customer validation is important, and founders must be comfortable with rejection. Being a founder requires handling all feedback and responsibility oneself, but it can be more fulfilling and enjoyable.
Rookie Mistakes
- Importance of being okay with rejection as a founder
- Many teams prioritize ego protection over accepting rejection
- This hinders their progress
- Video aims to share these mistakes and provide guidance on how to avoid them
Note from YC founder
Seeking user feedback and avoiding isolation are crucial when developing ideas or products. The video emphasizes the importance of frequent user calls and highlights the founders' personal failure in this aspect.
- Importance of seeking user feedback and avoiding isolation
- Need for frequent user calls
- Founders' personal failure in this aspect
Ideas vs Reality
- Importance of testing ideas with real users
- Real people may not understand or utilize product features correctly
- Talking to users is crucial to avoid wasting time on irrelevant features
- Ensuring that the product meets the needs of the end users
User surveys
- User surveys are not highly valuable for choosing a startup idea
- They can be useful for micro optimizations or choosing between options
- Harsher and harder approaches are needed for fundamental truths and market validation
Charge for it
- Charging for a product or service is more challenging than getting someone to fill out a survey or use the product daily.
- Targeting a specific subset of users with expertise and experience is crucial for success.
- Treating everyone the same is not effective in generating revenue.
AirBnB
- Airbnb used a creative strategy to attract users by offering free high-resolution digital photos to people who listed their homes on other rental platforms.
- Instead of hiring photographers, the founders personally took the photos and received valuable feedback from one homeowner.
- This approach of direct interaction and user research proved more effective than traditional surveys in validating the idea and understanding user needs.
Twitch
The most profound aspect of Twitch is the founders' realization of the importance of listening to user feedback and building features that are obvious and beneficial to the users.
- Founders interviewed video game streamers and discovered their desire for higher quality streaming.
- Introduction of higher quality streaming greatly appreciated by streamers.
- Importance of seeking feedback and building features that are obvious and beneficial to users.
- Founders initially overlooked the idea of running video ads but after talking to users, realized its effectiveness in making them happy.
- Emphasis on the value of deep conversations leading to valuable insights and ideas.
Note from YC founder
Founders must be comfortable with rejection to succeed in startups. Key points:
- Startups need to provide value to users who are willing to pay for or regularly use the product
- Startups need to generate financial capital, time capital, and social capital
- Users should be willing to share the product with their friends.
Rejection
Rejection is a fundamental human condition, and successful founders are able to handle and accept rejection by overcoming defense mechanisms and ego protection. Key points include:
- The fear of rejection is natural, as people desire to be loved and accepted.
- Overcoming defense mechanisms requires personal introspection and mental work.
- Ego protection is a core issue for many teams.
- Being okay with rejection is crucial for success.
Be scientific
Approaching work scientifically is crucial for founders, as it involves testing hypotheses and gathering actual information to validate ideas. Successful founders, such as those behind Stripe, prioritize data gathering and informed decision-making over personal biases or fears. They are willing to take logical risks and understand the importance of testing assumptions, even if it challenges their ego or conventional wisdom.
Key points:
- Founders should adopt a scientific mindset and conduct experiments.
- Testing hypotheses and gathering data is essential to determine the validity of ideas.
- Fear of being proven wrong or facing negative consequences often hinders founders from approaching their work scientifically.
- Successful founders prioritize data gathering and making informed decisions over personal biases or fears.
- Taking logical risks and challenging conventional wisdom is crucial for success.
Note from YC founder
Successful founders are comfortable with rejection. They recognize and accept rejection rather than holding onto false hope. Key points include:
- Rejection can come in the form of delayed adoption by customers.
- Founders should not be discouraged by rejection but should learn from it.
- It is important to have a realistic understanding of the challenges and setbacks that come with entrepreneurship.
Real customer
- Importance of talking to real customers and identifying genuine interest
- Differentiating between potential users and those who are not
- Being like a scientist, being dispassionate, and moving on if someone is not interested
Sales
Sales is not about convincing customers, but about learning and filtering. Successful salespeople prioritize quick rejections and use them as opportunities to improve. Founders should view customer rejection as a chance to learn and refine their approach.
- Sales is not about convincing customers
- Successful salespeople prioritize learning and filtering
- Quick rejections are seen as successes
- Rejections are opportunities to learn and improve
- Founders should view rejection as a chance to refine their approach
Customer validation
Customer validation is crucial for founders, and they need to be comfortable with rejection. Asking questions that allow customers to disqualify themselves from the product is important. Accepting rejection, testing core hypotheses, and not feeling bad when someone doesn't want the product are key. Some founders avoid talking to users due to fear of feeling bad, but feeling bad is part of the startup journey. Founders must handle rejection and stay productive and logical.
Trade-off - Employee vs Founder
- Trade-off between being an employee and a founder:
- As an employee, there are layers of protection and filters from external feedback and responsibility.
- As a founder, there are no filters and you have to handle all the feedback and responsibility yourself.
- Being an employee:
- Provides protection and filters from external feedback and responsibility.
- Being a founder:
- Requires handling all the feedback and responsibility oneself.
- Can be more fulfilling and enjoyable to experience things firsthand rather than through filters.