No matter what you choose, build stuff and be around smart people.
It's better to have no cofounder than to have a bad cofounder, but it's still bad to be a solo founder.
In general, it's best if you're building something that you yourself need.
Aim to be the best in the world at whatever you do professionally. Even if you miss, you'll probably end up in a pretty good place.
The best source by far for hiring is people that you already know and people that other employees in the company already know.
You should be giving out a lot of equity to your employees.
More important than starting any startup, is getting to know a lot of potential co-founders.
It really is true that you become an average of the people you spend the most time with.
What being a founder means, is signing up for this years long grind on execution - and you can't outsource this.
I think as a rough estimate, you should aim to give about 10% of the company to the first 10 employees.
You only get points when you make something the market wants. So if you work really hard on the wrong things, no one will care.
If you can just learn to think about the market first, you will have a big leg up on most people starting startups.
Obsess about the quality of the product.
Someday, you need to build a business that's difficult to replicate. This is an important part of a good idea.
Every first time founder waits too long, everyone hopes that an employee will turn around. But the right answer is to fire fast.
A small communication breakdown is enough for everyone to be working on slightly different things. And then you loose focus.
Execution gets divided into two key questions: 1) can you figure out what to do and 2) can you get it done.
Most things are not as risky as they seem.
In general don't start a startup you're not willing to work on for ten years.
I believe in fighting with investors to reduce the amount of equity they get and then being as generous as you possibly can with employees.
If someone is difficult to talk to, if someone cannot communicate clearly, it's a real problem in terms of their likelihood to work out.
Later, you should learn to hire fast and scale up the company, but in the early days the goal should be not to hire. Not to hire.
Two other things that we hear again and again from our founders, they wish they had done earlier, and that is... simply writing down how you do things and why you do things.
Study the unusually successful people you know, and you will find them imbued with enthusiasm for their work which is contagious. Not only are they themselves excited about what they are doing, but they also get you excited
No growth hack, brilliant marketing idea, or sales team can save you long term if you don't have a sufficiently good product.
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