#103 - Michael Seibel

Über diese Folge

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/mwseibel">Michael Seibel</a> is a partner and the CEO of YC. He cofounded Justin.tv, which was in the winter 2007 batch and Socialcam, which was in the winter 2012 batch.<br><br>In this episode Michael comments on five of his essays. The essays are: <a href="https://blog.ycombinator.com/why-should-i-start-a-startup/">Why Should I Start a Startup?</a>, <a href="https://blog.ycombinator.com/one-order-of-operations-for-starting-a-startup/">One Order of Operations for Starting a Startup</a>, <a href="https://blog.ycombinator.com/the-real-product-market-fit/">The Real Product Market Fit</a>, <a href="https://blog.ycombinator.com/users-you-dont-want/">Users You Don’t Want</a>, and <a href="https://blog.ycombinator.com/why-does-your-company-deserve-more-money/">Why Does Your Company Deserve More Money?</a><br><br>Michael’s on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/mwseibel">@mwseibel</a>.<br><br>The YC podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/craigcannon">Craig Cannon</a>.<br><br>***<br><br><b>Topics<br><br></b>0:00 - Intro<br><br>0:42 - <a href="https://blog.ycombinator.com/why-should-i-start-a-startup/">Why Should I Start a Startup?</a><br><br>2:00 - Three types of people: people highly motivated when working for themselves, people that could succeed starting a startup or within a big company, and people that could succeed within a big company.<br><br>6:00 - How do you decide what type of person you are?<br><br>7:30 - Identify bias in advice givers<br><br>10:30 - Peer advice becomes less valuable during college<br><br>14:40 - <a href="https://blog.ycombinator.com/one-order-of-operations-for-starting-a-startup/">One Order of Operations for Starting a Startup</a><br><br>15:40 - People aren’t taught how to find ideas<br><br>17:20 - Find a particular problem that you’re passionate about<br><br>20:55 - Find some friends and brainstorm a solution<br><br>23:20 - Build an MVP<br><br>25:55 - Two failed orders of operations for starting a startup<br><br>29:57 - <a href="https://blog.ycombinator.com/the-real-product-market-fit/">The Real Product Market Fit</a> <br><br>30:57 - Why do many founders think they have product market fit when they don’t?<br><br>35:42 - Building a successful company is not a single variable problem<br><br>37:27 - Socialcam didn’t hit product market fit<br><br>38:37 - Justin.tv had $1M in profit before reaching product market fit<br><br>42:27 - Some companies take a long time<br><br>42:55 - <a href="https://blog.ycombinator.com/users-you-dont-want/">Users You Don’t Want</a><br><br>44:25 - The spectrum of how users are using your product<br><br>45:55 - Users that take a lot of customer support time<br><br>48:50 - Don’t let the hijack users control the product roadmap<br><br>49:31 - <a href="https://blog.ycombinator.com/why-does-your-company-deserve-more-money/">Why Does Your Company Deserve More Money?</a><br><br>50:31 - A team, a product, and an office are all just a means to an end<br><br>51:31 - If you don’t really deserve money, what is an alternate path to create leverage?<br><br>53:16 - Breaking even at Justin.tv was a moment of infinite clarity<br><br>55:31 - Series A program and leverage<br></p>