You have to find a small market in which you can get a monopoly and then quickly expand.
The thirteenth search engine- and without all the features of a web portal, most people thought that was pointless.
Growth and momentum are what a startup lives on and you always have to focus on maintaining these.
Long term thinking is so rare anywhere, but especially in startups. This is a huge advantage if you do it.
Before product/market fit, your only job that matters is to build a great product.
In the early days of a startup, people's compensation is whatever you negotiate with a founder and it's all over the place.
The idea should come first, the startup should come second.
... but actually it sucks to have a lot of employees, and you should be proud of how few employees you have.
Most startups are not nearly focussed enough. They work hard...maybe, but they don't work hard on the right things.
... if you talk to say any of the first 40 or 50 employees, they all feel like they were a part of the founding of the company.
You can't be focussed without really great communication
Facebook has this famous poster that says move fast and break things. But at the same time they manage to be obsessed with quality.
Share results (financial and key metrics) with the company every month.
I myself used to believe ideas didn't matter that much, but I'm very sure that's wrong now.
If you compromise and hire someone mediocre you will always regret it.
If it works out, you're going to be working on this for 10 years.
Developing a personal connection with anyone you're trying to do a big deal with is really important.
AirBnB happened because Brian Chesky couldn't pay his rent, but did have some space.
We talk to a team they've gotten new things done, that's the best predictor we have that a company will be successful.
You have to let your team get all the credit for all the good stuff that happens, and you take responsibility for the bad stuff.
You want an idea about what you can say. I know it sounds like a bad idea but here's specifically why its actually a great one. You want to sound crazy but you want to ask to be right.
... and you can only have 2 or 3 things everyday, because everything else will just come at you; you know fires in a day.
If you want something in a deal, just ask for it.
You can basically change everything in a startup but the market.
You should think about for the next 10 years, you're going to be giving out 3-5% of the company every year.
