TLDR: Pre-product-market fit (childhood) is not equal to post-product-market fit (adulthood) — and trying to clone an adult company without true product-market fit yourself significantly increases odds of never reaching product-market fit.<p>__<p>While there likely endless list of advice on reaching product-market fit, to me, advise given by Richard Wiseman in his book titled “The Luck Factor” feels like the most generalized. TLDR is lucky people: (0) are social and intentionally seek out new connections; (1) maximize chance opportunities, they’re not fixated on a grand plan; (2) nurture and listen to their intuition; (3) expect good fortune; (4) find the good in bad situations.<p>Here are links to:<p>- <a href="http://richardwiseman.com/resources/The_Luck_Factor.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://richardwiseman.com/resources/The_Luck_Factor.pdf</a><p>- <a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=WizT_VdtOYM">https://youtube.com/watch?v=WizT_VdtOYM</a><p>On a side note, never been able to live in Bay Area, but really enjoy startups. If anyone has any suggestions beyond HN for startup related online communities that are friendly to anonymous users, please comment below.
Also worth noting that the leadership needed for a startup isn't necessarily the leadership needed at a larger size. Founding a company, and leading an established business, are two very distinct skillsets.
I think what people fail to mention is if this charade can be kept long enough, it is enough to make huge amounts of money for the founder and the initial VCs. Just look at Uber, doordash, WeWork etc. SBF would have also made it if he wasn't an absolute muppet.
A few exceptions come to mind after reading this:<p>Large robotics organizations such as self-driving car startups. They currently operate relatively independently under large multi-national corporations.<p>They have all the trappings of a post-PMF startup like org charts, titles, performance reviews, comp packages but have not proven their business models.
I think this metaphor is excellent.<p>The key point is the examples of things that seem silly early stage but obviously necessary later, like org charts.<p>Unfortunately, not everyone will immediately agree that it’s silly to have an org chart when you’re a small team or pre-PMF. And some people might never be convinced! But this metaphor sounds like a good way of trying to explain the fundamental differences between “where we are today” and “where we might end up”.
I would also add that sometimes this is even not intentional. Some founders, employees, VCs dont even know how PMF looks like. Sometimes it can also be tricky - take B2B Co. - “we reached 1M$ ARR in 1yr post launch - we hit PMF” - then you dig dipper and everyone who bought the product are the founder/vc friend.
Interesting metaphor, and I agree with the underlying point that all companies have to be treated differently as they mature. Not as a mini-giant corporation.<p>As to childhood, I think that's more like speed running evolution as their faculties develop. Still worth protecting from plenty of adult stuff until they're ready.
A 10 person company is different from a 100 person company is different from a 10,000 person company.<p>Some patterns scale while others break down. Information and understanding and alignment takes longer to propagate the more people are in the org.