Typical Startup Mistakes – A YC-Collection

Hi HN,

I was the technical co-founder of a couple of startups that showed early promise but didn’t ultimately succeed. After my last attempt, I started digging into the reasons why, and found that YC pretty much has all the advice I wish I had from the start.

One thing that really stood out was their list of “What not to do as a startup” (aka “Typical Startup Mistakes”). It’s a goldmine of advice that could have saved me a lot of headaches.

I’ve put these insights together in a presentation and thought this would be the right place to share them.

--- For convenience, I’ve added the presentation content as text below. ---

Y Combinator Advice Authors

    - Michael Seibel (YC Partner and Managing Director)
    - Paul Graham (YC Co-Founder)
    - Jessica Livingston (YC Co-Founder)
    - Dalton Caldwell (YC Partner)
    - Kat Manalac (YC Partner)

Definition of a Startup

    - "A startup is a temporary organization in search of a scalable, repeatable, profitable business model." [The Startup Owner's Manual, 2012].

Definition of Product/Market Fit

    - "The customers are buying the product just as fast as you can make it -- or usage is growing just as fast as you can add more servers. Money from customers is piling up in your company checking account. You're hiring sales and customer support staff as fast as you can." [Marc Andreessen]

Working on the wrong thing

    - You don't personally know 10 people with the problem
    - You solve a problem you don't care about
    - You solve a problem for people you don't care about
    - You innovate outside your core area

Not getting the product into people's hands

    - You don't talk to customers
    - You don't launch
    - You stopped talking to customers
    - You sell instead of listen

Validation

    - You don't ask customers for money
    - You think you are on to something because investors say so or even invest in you
    - You let investors tell you what to do/build

Sales

    - You don't go to the simplest and most desperate customers
    - You don't run away from hard/bad customers
    - You don't build for a niche customer type
    - You are chasing after customers (Making promises to get a sale)
    - You think partnership can solve your sales problems 
    - You scale the sales team before you have PMF

Fake Work

    - You attend conferences (without selling/talking to customers) 
    - You talk to the press (wait for them to come to you)
    - You apply for awards (Awards are awarded automatically)
    - You have coffee with investors to build a relationship
    - You build a board of advisors

Links

    - The Biggest Mistakes First-Time Founders Make - Michael Seibel - https://youtu.be/D56QeyyQMLI?si=tM-ZBACl2ycuvOs7
    - The 5 things that kill startups after their seed rounds with Michael Seibel, CEO of Y Combinator - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dgmmje5WHWA
    - The Real Product Market Fit by Michael Seibel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBOLk9s9Ci4&t=3s&ab_channel=YCombinator
    - A Decade of Learnings from Y Combinator's CEO Michael Seibel - https://youtu.be/0MGNf1BIuxA?si=JwY-FP9IK9NZ9uJR&t=131
    - The Best Way To Launch Your Startup | Startup School - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u36A-YTxiOw&ab_channel=YCombinator
    - Jessica Livingston at Y Combinator Female Founders Conference 2016 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2B4cVFIVpg&t=332s&ab_channel=YCombinator
    - Lecture 3 - Before the Startup (Paul Graham) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii1jcLg-eIQ