I've never started a startup, but I'd be surprised if these nuggets of wisdom are news to anyone.
The tennis analogy was quite clever, but it lead me to expect more incisive advice.
In my personal experience, the most valuable/powerful things are deceptively simple, but very hard to do well, or do consistently.
A few examples that many people struggle with:
- Spend less than you earn
- Exercise regularly
- Prioritize doing things, or spending time with people you love
In my experience, startups are very similar. There are not that many rules you need to follow, but they are often difficult to “execute on”. A couple of examples:
- Find great people you trust and can perform
- Find your market/path to profitability as quickly as possible
I am sure if we spent time, we would find lots of other “simple rules”. But the key point I am making is that simple rules are usually the right things to do, but they are often the hardest to really accomplish.
It's like jumping into a Indy Car, and you think "Just go straight and then turn left". Turns out when you are going 200mph at a concrete wall the simple things become a lot more complex.
- "Make something nobody wants, then keep adding features until something magical happens."
- "Copy another app that people already use, but add 'better' or 'faster' or 'easier' or 'prettier' in my marketing copy."
- "Survey my users and build whatever they tell me, no questions asked."
- "Build features that align with my own personal vision of what the product should look like, then hope that other people want it."
- "Create 1/5th of an ambitious product that people want."
- "Do an excellent job solving a trivial pain point that nobody cares about solving."
- "Make something completely new and unique that the world has never seen before, regardless of whether or not anybody wants it."
To be fair this is by far the most common startup advice. Make a product for yourself, because if you've having a problem others likely are too. The only place you fall into a trap here is if you're both unwilling to change the design in the future and you're wrong about the design.
I'd change the "and" to an "or": is if you're unwilling to change the design in the future or you're wrong about the design.
This is because:
1. Even if you're right about the design, and can make people want it, the market (which drives what people want/can be made to want) may change. You will have to change, usually sooner than you think; a great vision doesn't prevent the need for that.
2. If you're wrong about the design or don't have a good sense for "what is needed/works", no number of pivots will save you, because each pivot will likely be to something that people either don't need or doesn't work.
A failure in either is a kiss of death.
Your comment shows its not black and white, there are many shades of grey in between.
Totally agree that the short quippy phrases that people repeat are actually dangerous if that’s all you go by. There’s layers of meaning and they can be interpreted in so many ways as you show.
“If you ain’t first, you’re last.”
I wonder if this (more granular) decision making is so unique to circumstances like team, idea, and market... that folks can only give the more generic advice without steering someone down a wrong path.
Stranger in a Strange Land (where "grok" comes from) is a great book btw for those who haven't read it.