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Comment by ghiculescu | Hacker News Reader

Congratulations to the Canny team. It's a great product, apparently we've been happy customers since they were 20x smaller :)

I found the note about luck in the Zero to One section interesting. I don't know anyone who runs a bootstrapped SaaS that's made it past 1M, who doesn't feel like they got super lucky with their first customer. We did exactly the same thing - a random connection that just happened to work out. And yet, most people starting new companies don't seem to focus much on making this luck happen.

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Thanks so much for being a customer!

And yeah, it always feels bad to write that "we got lucky", as it isn't really that repeatable/helpful. But it's true.

I don't think it's something to feel bad about; on the contrary, with your level of transparency here and in the context of everything else you did that wasn't centered around luck, I think it's an honest aspect about this kind of growth.

Congrats on the milestone!

Fun story: The lead artist/dancer of https://www.skyfirearts.com/ had had that dream for years, and that "first lucky break" came when (8-9 years ago) he was getting coffee and the guy behind him in line was the guy for Tesla Coils in the US, who then helped Skyfire get up and running.

AFAICT, what's repeatable / helpful is a bit more nuance about "how to make luck": 1) Know what you want so you can recognize it when you encounter it 2) Give yourself lots of opportunities to encounter it 3) Have the self-direction and resources to jump on it when you encounter it

Of course, there's also just pure blind luck.

Edit: I know there's another step in here, but TBH I'd love advice for it: Making sure the other party recognizes you as something they've been looking for (aka, all the above but from their perspective). Advice?

Not advice exactly, but I have a few friends who've had lucky breaks like that, and I'm pretty sure it came down to: be interesting, confident, and friendly. Plus the things you mentioned.

When they randomly met people who could open doors for them, they just seemed like interesting people to open doors for, and who wouldn't waste the opportunity nor abuse it.

Anyway that's my take, but I'm still struggling with #1 at 50, so I might be over-thinking it.

Good advice! To continue the unmentioned chemistry metaphor: Ensure that you have reaction sites, as well.

For #1... AFAIK it's the art of holding an abstract wish. Imagine it'll be granted by a lazy genie; neither malevolent nor benevolent; just as easily / simply / directly as possible.

Those three things are so huge when it comes to making connections like the ones we are talking about.

Related to that, having the courage/gumption to notice that someone may be holding a door open for you and walking through! I have looked back at some interactions with people who I probably could have used (not abused) to further my career but I was locked in a mindset that I didn't think I was worthy of their attention/guidance even though they were offering it.

This. I like to think of luck as a function of:

- exposure (your own putting yourself out there); - ability to recognise the opportunity (should it arise); and - ability to convey your worth/utility/function to others so that they might reciprocate (e.g. communication skills et al)

I'm kind of parroting what you have said but I resonate with it. In some sense what we call "luck" is in-fact earned at least in part.

I'd say timing plays a huge role and can also be seen as luck.

The market is sometimes just not ready for something and knowing if your timing is right isn't obvious, nor even possible to determine in most cases imo

This.

I was pitching Roam-like software in 2005. No interest at all.

Now there's dozens of them talking as if graphs and relationships in (personal) knowledge management is new.

It's hard not to feel bitter.

What do you think you did that helped make that happen? I guess you guys worked hard but did you try a lot of things that didn't work before this hit?

The reason the React.js team started using Canny was because before Canny I worked on the React team at Facebook.

I didn't plan it this way. My ex-colleague, @vjeux, messaged me and asked about my new startup. I told him it was a user feedback tool, for tracking feature requests. He said React Native had that problem, and they just started using it.

So I think working at FB on React is what exposed me to getting lucky here. I think a lot of luck in startups is about increasing your exposure to getting lucky.

This is my favourite article on “Creating Luck”: https://www.swyx.io/create_luck/

The argument is that luck isn’t binary, it’s a lot of doing and telling to create opportunities for yourself. I think this is true for your story at Canny - you had built something and you probably told a lot of people about it. You created the circumstances for this lucky event to occur.

Did you require work visas in every country while you were a digital nomad and working on Canny ?

Couldn't agree more about luck, start-ups take a lot of luck, but their is a huge amount you can do to improve your luck.

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