Things we did wrong as a startup | Hacker News Reader

Things we did wrong as a startup

neiljoglekar.com

90 pointsnjoglekar15 comments

I was hoping for more meat here. These tips seem so vague and generic, its hard to see how they affected you at all.

For the hiring tip, you say "don't hire friends" and then immediately after "in some cases it worked out great". Perhaps could use an example of how this was #1 on your list of 3 worst mistakes.

#2, don't raise money too early. And then you say you actually backed out of the deal and didn't raise money after all. So this #2 greatest mistake didn't happen to you but almost did?

I guess things are going so great you are having trouble finding some things that went wrong?

Same here. Seemed to be a little light. It was a well intentioned article but one that could've used more info. A startup is a very complicated animal and I'm sure there is a much bigger list of things not to do than this. However, still enjoyed the light reading. :)

People say you should hire the smartest people you know

One observation of small teams with smart people: It's easy to get sucked into lengthy analysis/strategy sessions, which can lead the team down false paths and inaction on product.

I remember a quote from Tom Preston-Werner that went something like this: 'there are plenty of brilliant people that I would never hire'.

I think the author is basically saying the same thing.

Splendid post Neil. In essence a lot depends on where in the world and how in life one is.

Paul's essay [1] on 18 mistakes (be known that these may be challenges for some, not really mistakes) that can kill a start-up discussed these issues very nicely.

[1] http://paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html

Be careful about A/B tests, from what I understand Amazon relies on the extensively and they have helped it produce its Amazon website.

Enough said.

If you have two choices one bad and another less bad you will chose the less bad, when instead you may just want to step back and ask is either choice the correct one.

Are you suggesting Amazon's practices have led it astray somehow?

It's just a pointed way of saying that an important part of testing is knowing what to test.

This is the strangest warning against A/B tests I've heard. "Be careful because you might end up producing something that is #1 internet retailer". The Amazon home page might not be as sexy as the latest whizz-bang startup, but success doesn't lie.

Thank you. I can't count the times I've tried to explain this to people. The purpose of amazon's site is not that visitors think it's pretty, or even easy to use. It's to get you to buy as much as possible. And there's convincing evidence that it's quite successful in fulfilling that purpose.

Why do supermarkets put the most frequently sold items at the back, when it would be so much easier for customers if they were right by the entrance?

Indeed, not stepping back can lead you (via A/B testing) to just find a local maxima in usability/uptake/etc.

The problem is though that this observation is often used as an excuse to ignore data or avoid doing small iterative experiments. In most cases, this is a mistake. In other words, you could do a lot worse than reproducing Amazon.com.

I don't particularly like Amazon's site either, I think it's cluttered, but it has improved a bit. It's still not the prettiest thing, but what it does right, though, is it makes it very, very easy to buy things. And that's all it needs to do.

But you're right about not always choosing the "less bad" when there are other options you may not be considering.

In case anyone's interest on more stories, I've been writing some if mine here: http://hervalicio.us/post/33446435432/a-post-mortem-of-post-...

Three so far, a few more to go...

I love how this post, in addition to having great content, subtly demonstrates a use case for ReelSurfer.

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