"Startup Playbook" which startup professional summarizes advice on entrepreneurial start

ByPaul Miller

Sam Altman, who is representative of Y Combinator, a venture capital investing in start-up, extracts only generalizable items from the numerous advice that I have been going to start up as "Startup Playbook" .

Startup Playbook
http://playbook.samaltman.com/

◆ 1: Ideas
What Y Combinator absolutely listens to people thinking about startup is "What are you making?" And "Why are you making it?" These two questions have a very important role to identify people and ideas that are about to start. The easier the answer to the question is, the higher the evaluation is. On the other hand, if the answer does not come out smoothly, and the idea is too complicated to understand, it is highly likely that problems will arise even after starting up the business .


Next question to ask is "Who wants the product from the bottom of the heart?" The best answer to this question is that the entrepreneur himself is wanting the product, the second best answer is that you understand the target user in a great way. And lastly I hear about the market. I heard about market size, growth rate, reasons for market expansion after 10 years and understand whether the market is suitable for launching a new company.

Questions asked to those who are considering entrepreneurship by Y Combinator are all about startup ideas. In other words, if you are considering start-up, you need to thoroughly understand why you created products / products, target and market, considering some idea first. Mr Altman seems to have worked on a startup who was trying to start a business without having any idea, but since everything has failed, he says, "If you do not have an idea you may not start a business." .

◆ 2: Excellent team power
It is not easy for startups by unlikely teams to lead to great success. To build great teamwork with co-founder and employee, the entrepreneur's own ability plays a big role. First of all, entrepreneurs are asked to preferentially be motivated, determined, strengthened, witty, and then intelligent and enthusiastic. Also, successful entrepreneurs can also see the feeling that they do not feel stressed even when employees work together.


There seems to be many excellent entrepreneurs that stubbornness and flexibility coexist in a well-balanced manner. While believing in the company's philosophy, acting, sometimes you need flexibility to incorporate new things. On the contrary, a bad entrepreneur is a person that is frustrating for employees to speak. Communication skills are a very important skill for entrepreneurs, Mr. Altman himself says, "Communication skills may be the most necessary capability for entrepreneurs."

◆ 3: Excellent product
What is common to all successful startups is to have "excellent products". Developing superior products is the only way for a company to succeed from a long-term perspective. In order to further grow a company that has grown to the limit, it is absolutely necessary that a user who wants to actually use excellent products is absolutely necessary. For example, in the case of software, it is important to employ a user to receive software, hire feedback, improve not only the problem, but also repeatedly repeat the cycle of "improvement from feedback" many times over I will come.


To properly perform this cycle, the distance to the user is important, and it is good to communicate with the user to observe where software is actually used. If it is difficult to find a user, you may go to a coffee shop and have another person use red. Pinterest's CEO Ben Silverman actually said that the coffee shop used red service by the other person to brush up the product.

In most cases of problematic startups it is not good quality of the product, it is not a level that can satisfy the user. Y Combinator advises such startup as "Please ask the user's opinion more".

◆ 4: Growth
After preparing an excellent product and starting a business, it is important whether the company keeps growing. When the company is growing, the CEO tastes victory and the employee feels happy, but when the company is not growing, there is a possibility that the sense of defeat will drift inside the company and employees will leave.


What is necessary to keep growing is the company's momentum and driving force. So, how to avoid driving thrust is that we need to set up proper goals and concentrate our employees on achieving our goals. For example, the founder of Airbnb seems to have devised so that employees can concentrate on achieving the goal, sticking graphs describing future growth forecasts everywhere employees see desks, refrigerators, toilet mirrors and others .

Think firmly about what is hindering the growth of the company, what is necessary to achieve rapid growth, and show employees actions based on that. The goal to be set may be high, but it seems good to set goals to a point where it can be achieved. Also it is important to repeatedly test a lot of growth strategies based on excellent products and feedback.

"Transactions with other companies" and "Great recital for press" are cited as mistakes that entrepreneurs tend to commit to consider growth strategies. These two seem to believe that entrepreneurs are factors that lead to the growth of the company in many cases, but in the case of a newly-established company it should not be stopped because it will not work in most cases.

◆ 5: Concentration
Excellent entrepreneurs Mr. Altman knows will not concentrate on "product" and "growth" as closely as possible to work on work and not do other things. Instead of starting another business immediately after starting a business, it is the first time to brush up some products and achieve the goal. Choose what you need to do right now from a variety of jobs, concentrate so much and pour full effort. When things to do now are over, moving quickly to the next job is an indispensable element for excellent entrepreneurs.


◆ 6: CEO's work
The CEO who is at the top of the company is lonely, it is difficult to keep psychological condition always normal, but this is very important thing. For that, one thing is to make friends with CEOs of other companies that can consult when something goes wrong. Also, when problems occur in the project team of the company, we will always respond with a smile and try to reassure team members. It is my responsibility to make excuses and excuse for problems. Absurd events are attached to the job of CEO. Even if irrational things happen, it is not recommended to mention themselves and the project team "If you have a little more budget ......" "If another engineer is ... ..." etc .. Startup led by CEO with many excuses seems to have a high probability of failure.


It is not good to give up the first product as soon as possible and start developing the next product. If the first product was not good, it is important to investigate the cause thoroughly. Because the time it takes for the startup to succeed is longer than many people think, the CEO should keep consistency consistent with the first stance.

◆ 7: Employment and management
Mr. Altman's advice on employment is "Do not hire employees". The most successful startup that Altman worked was a company that took a very long time to hire a first employee. The cost of hiring is never cheap. Hiring an employee complicates the human relationship within the company, and there is always a situation that "it can be said to a partner, but it can not be said to employees". If the company succeeds, talented people come naturally, so there is no big problem even waiting until then.


If you are hiring an employee, do not compromise the quality of your employees, and choose a person with positive humanity as much as possible. If you hire a person you do not know at all, it is okay to put employment in a project team before hiring and then decide to hire after working together.

◆ 8: Competitors
Many entrepreneurs seem to believe that competitors are killing startups, but the biggest reason for the failure of startup is due to the problem of the company itself. It is better to ignore it even if a competitor releases it or gets a large investment. It really means that competitors only care about the trends of their competitors only when their competitors are attacking their company. Writing a press release is easier than writing code, and do not forget to write code is easier than creating an idea.


Startup Playbook has a lot of advice unique to Mr. Altman who has worked on many startups, so many things useful not only for those who aim for startup but also for society, so it seems to be good to go through the first time.