YC CEO Michael Seibel outlines how successful startups think about building something people want.
Chapters (Powered by videosummary.co) –
00:00:00 Introduction
00:00:53 JustinTV (Twitch now) make a lot of mistakes but the things that allowed them to survive
00:03:50 What problem are you solving?
00:05:31 Can you state the problem clearly?
00:05:45 Have you experienced it yourself?
00:06:12 Can you define your problem narrowly?
00:07:02 Is the problem solvable?
00:10:11 Who is your customer?
00:10:23 Everyone? (no!)
00:11:30 How often do they have the problem?
00:13:50 How intense is the problem?
00:15:07 Are they willing to pay?
00:17:05 How easy are they to find?
00:18:39 Does your MVP actually solve the problem?
00:21:10 Which customers should you go after first? (the easy ones!)
00:24:25 Which customers should you run away from? (the hard ones!)
00:25:46 Should you discount or start with a super low price? (no!)
00:27:58 How to setup metrics
00:28:15 Google Analytics + Something else
00:29:36 Pick 5-10 important stats
00:31:13 Make measurements a part of product spec
00:32:02 Product Development Cycle (v1)
00:36:11 KPI Goal
00:37:52 Brainstorm
00:39:01 Easy/Medium/Hard
00:40:50 Decide
00:41:35 Written Spec
00:43:44 Pivot vs Iterate
00:44:43 Pivot = Changing the customer and/or changing the problem (rare)
00:44:59 Iterate = changing the solution (common)
00:46:09 Fake Steve Jobs vs Real Steve Jobs (how not to be a product dictator)
00:48:04 Summary – Find the right customers, ask specific what they want, and make it.
00:51:06 Question 1 – Should you be going free if the final idea for the product is to be free?
00:52:27 Question 2 – KPI is revenue and the number is zero, should you still be tracking that as your top line KPI?
00:53:50 Question 3 – Hardware company pre-launch pre-sales tips?
00:54:29 Question 4 – Hardest part of having a slow burn?
00:55:26 Question 5 – Beta to early MVP?
00:56:51 Question 6 – How do one figure out what feature to build next?
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