Preliminary notes jotted down on the fly. If something seems odd or silly, I probably didn't hear well or mixed things up.<p><i>YC:
- 11 years.<p>- 1200 startups.<p>- Recently started to fund "hard tech" (few are funding them).<p></i>How to start a hard tech company:<p>- What do you need to do differently than a software startup:<p><pre><code> - The least amount possible. You're not that different.
- Same principles apply.
- They were first segregated at YC. Turned out to be bad.
- Most important change:
- YC & the market don't care: Create value or fail.
- Don't think you're that different:
- "But my idea takes 10 years!":
- What can be done in 3 months?
- Consistent incremental wins compound.
- 10% every week for years.
- Find something small and get it done.
</code></pre>
- Advantage:<p><pre><code> - 11,000th photosharing app is hard.
- Competitive advantage (4 nuclear fusion companies in North America).
- Tesla, SpaceX, etc. cf. Michael E. Porter.
</code></pre>
- Pay attention to what software companies did well/right:<p><pre><code> - If in doubt about a field, 2 important things (good indicators):
- Cost down.
- Cycle time is getting shorter.
</code></pre>
- Difference:<p><pre><code> - SW companies are usually "clearer" than HW.
</code></pre>
- It's a great time to start a HW company. Make sure:<p><pre><code> - Weekly wins.
- Keep costs down.
</code></pre>
- Make peace with the "world":<p><pre><code> - "Big companies don't play by the rules":
- Make peace with that.
- No excuses.
- Your duty as a founder to get that 10%/small wins consistently.
- Keeping cycle times down is important because:
- Maintains *momentum*.
- Avoids mistakes (typically made by bigger companies).
- Establish a culture of winning from the beginning, no matter how small.
- Momentum attracts good people:
- People want to join a winning team.
- How?:
- SW startups drive cycle time down by getting closer to the customer.
</code></pre>
- Detours:<p><pre><code> - Sometimes you can't reach "final" goal directly.
- ex: Tesla - Roadster (revenue) --> Model S --> Model X --> Model 3.
- Not from 0 to mass produced car. SpaceX: Not from 0 to colony on Mars.
- Even if you're not in YC, you can adopt this model.
- More people fail because of "grandeur" than because they did small things.
</code></pre>
- Raising capital:<p><pre><code> - Too much money can kill you. (ruins your focus, for example).
- Statistically (YC):
- Companies that raised $40MM tended to fail.
</code></pre>
- Business side:<p><pre><code> - Don't be all hardcore science and bad at everything else.
- Someone should take care of the business side.
- Not hard: you can do science, you can do business.
- It can be boring for some, but it needs to be tended to.
</code></pre>
- Many will do the thing everyone is doing. Think of a worthy problem. (?)<p>- U.S. Context:<p><pre><code> - Centuries of abundance and massive growth.
- Not so much recently (2%) --> Democracy works badly in this context.
- The only hope is innovation (and a more important growth).</code></pre>