There are actually plenty of references in there to publicly available numbers such as revenues, profit etc. and links to plenty of original data points, but for ease of reading I've mostly added them as links rather than lots of data.
That being said, I take your point there isn't data available to back everything up (as you'll know, companies are pretty selective about releasing some data points), and so I've leant more on press sentiment in those cases.
My favourite history book that I've recently read:
Simon Sebag Montefiore's Jerusalem: The Biography - amazing work of scope, depth and human understanding.
I also studied philosophy as a degree and agree there are no really great introductions. I finished my degree somewhat disengaged with the subject and haven't pursued it seriously since. My favourite book though was John Rawls' A Theory of Justice.
Hey - great idea: simple, original, useful - I like it a lot. FYI though, I tried signing up through twitter and keep getting a failed timed out message back. Might be a twitter issue but worth looking into. Hope it takes off for you.
As usual, an excellent and well articulated essay from pg.
Just a couple of thoughts on the paragraph about finding non-organic ideas.
If you're a developer and in need of an idea, I couldn't recommend highly enough to attend industry conferences (in any industry). Over the day or two you are there, you will hear speakers tell you the problems they face, hear which are the repeat questions asked from the audience, and have a chance to talk with delegates about their biggest problems and why they are attending (what are they trying to find out). I rarely leave a conference without several obvious pain points facing the industry jotted down. If one of them inspires you, sounds interesting, feels familiar etc. then that could be your start-up idea. Most of these could be 'eaten by software' I'm sure, so they would be ripe for a developer to tackle. You could even find your domain-specific co-founder there too - 2 birds, 1 stone!
Another place to look (and possibly cheaper and involving no travel) would be sites like twitter, quora, linkedin etc. where large numbers of users can ask each other questions or complain about some pain they have. You could look for trends and see if that sparks any interest.
When your listening to them, take on board what interests them or where they are facing challenges, then:
- Send them links to articles they may find useful/interesting
- Just drop them a friendly/polite note in a week or two's time, giving them a super quick update on what you've been up to and seeing how they're getting along (try to reference something specific they previously mentioned e.g. how did that important meeting with investor A go?
- If you're starting to move in the same circles, you may bump into them at events, or you can specifically tell them you're going to one if you think it would be of interest
- Hopefully they'll also be in the social media circle too, so they will see content you produce on LinkedIn, Twitter, FB, HN, Quora, your blog etc.
- Finally, ask them if they want another meeting 4-6 weeks later...you'll have to gauge this on your first meeting. If you got on like a house on fire, then you can casually invite them for a drink and not worry too much about; if it was a little more formal, but you still think the relationship could be worthwhile for you both, be sure you have some interesting progress to talk about and have thought about value you can bring to them in the f/u meeting.
Networking and meetings a very much art over science I find, and you have to use a lot of personal judgement (and you won't always get it right) but if you can be yourself, add value and like the other person then these 3 ingredients should be just right for development some meaningful and lasting relationships.
Good luck with your meetings, let me know how they go!
Thanks, I've been looking a good, economical, way of creating an intro video, this looks like a really solid option.
Can I ask, do you think it has advantages over, say, recording your screen while you record yourself taking someone through a demo? Then maybe replacing your voice with a voicebunny voiceover?
I imagine cartoon v screen demo is dependent on your audience and objectives, but intrigued as to why you went this route. Cheers!
Hi -
I would advise that you be genuine, show enthusiasm when listening to their story and be enthusiastic when telling yours.
Look for ways you can add value or help them.
Don't be afraid to ask them for specific help - though be mindful this is your first meeting, so anything you ask should be relative to the small amount of trust and respect you can build in one meeting.
Make sure you follow up, relationships aren't built in a single meeting.
Finally, try to relax and don't put too much pressure on it. A meeting like this should not be a binary one, where you could 'win' or 'lose' something, it is an exploration to see if you have common interests and may like working together in the future, either as co-founders or simply friends and acquaintances.
If it's not to be, don't worry or compromise yourself to try and be liked, as this won't help you in the long-term and the business relationship won't last anyway. Better to find out quickly and move onto the next meeting, where you might genuinely click with that person and have a great business relationship.
Hope that helps at all!
My startup is Xavy (xavy.com), it's a video discovery & distribution platform for connecting professionals and conference organisers.
Idea is to provide free/very cheap access to world-class conference content (of which millions of hours exist!) and help generate leads for upcoming events through utilising that content - all in one place, organiser-neutral, searchable/filterable by type of content.
(I have a conferences background, so I know the space).
Sign up on the landing page and I'll ping you once the MVP is up and running, which I'm aiming to be Monday morning.
Otherwise it's just a case of being efficient with time and prioritising tasks, because everything works in lock-step i.e. have idea, get feedback, refine; create mockups, get feedback, refine; build mvp, get feedback, refine etc. so I take each step at a time.
Having said that, I will be looking for a more accomplished developer to join me as a co-founder imminently because the range of tasks and the timeframe do make it impossible to do everything myself.
Best of luck with Kera by the way, it looks like a great idea.
I am starting a company and was in the same situation as all non-technical founders: hire an agency, give away half the company to a tech co-founder, or learn how to build it myself.
I went with the third option. Not only is it extremely gratifying to build it with your own hands, but it means I can make quick decisions and changes on the fly, the only cost is my time, and the vision and execution are 100% aligned!
I think the first thing to note is that: there is no 'right way' to start a start-up, though there are probably some wrong ways and things to avoid. To that end, you probably only need to do a minimal amount of reading, and then it is very much all about doing. Only once you start the process will you begin to see specific gaps in your knowledge or a bump in the road you need to get over. This where specific reading and resources will be 10x more valuable than general roadmaps.
1. The difference between user expectations and delivery
2. Not enough of a narrative and different levels of motivations
1. This is where you expect something to be really easy, or really amazing, or really beautiful but instead get something simply easy, amazing, or beautiful. The fact it doesn’t have the superlative means a slight let-down or disappointment.
When I tackled Hartl’s RoR tutorial, he made it clear that even just getting starting by installing and configuring the tools and environment can be a bit of bitch, particularly for new comers. Sure enough, when I encountered problem after problem, I was mentally prepared that this could happen. I wasn’t discouraged.
I think Codeacademy would be well served to provide some kind of contextual introduction for how difficult – but ultimately rewarding – programming can be. Rather, it makes it sounds like a stroll in the park with some friends that can be picked up at the drop of a hat. This is inevitably going to lead to frustration when the user finds this isn’t the case. Their expectations are not matched by the reality.
A second aspect to this is that programming is different than other pursuits you may do in your spare time, like sports, writing or drawing. For example if you’re a bad pool player, writer or drawer you can still play, write and draw ‘till your heart’s content and reach the end of the game/book/picture. It doesn’t matter whether you’re good or not.
But with coding, you can’t just offer up any old attempt at the code and have a program run for you. It has to be correct code. So it becomes the equivalent of saying why not come play an awesome game of pool with your friends, but when you turn up there’s a cranky coach who won’t let you take a shot unless you have perfect form and execution. Or a writing class where the teacher crosses out your work in red pen and won’t let anyone read it until it is grammatically perfect and conveys your meaning in perfect clarity and beautiful prose! I can imagine these activities would quickly get frustrating too in such a context, and wind up losing your interest unless you were prepared for such rigor.
2. The second issue with Codecademy is a lack of narrative. Other comments point out that there are multiple entry points and it doesn’t always get you to follow a linear path. This is something that services like Treehouse try to improve upon (I started learning HTML and CSS with them) by bringing elements of gamification to the tasks. You win badges, unlock new lessons, get treated to funny videos, take quizzes and it generally feels like you’re progressing as part of a narrative.
The problem with learning to code is that most exercises are pretty dull and repetitive. They’re like Mr Miyagi’s “wax on wax off” lessons – it’s hard to see the point to them without knowing the end goal. The reason why Daniel LaRusso continues to do this annoying tasks if because he has a really powerful motivation to do so. He knows he wants to master karate to stand up to bullies and prove himself in the sport.
I think for anyone who casually just thinks ‘learning to code sounds fun’ then they’re doomed to failure, because it is hard work and has a lot of obstacles to overcome. Whereas someone who has a business idea or a problem they really want to be able to solve will happily stick with it, because they have a vision for what it will help them achieve. I’m not sure how Codecademy could possibly cater to these different types of individual. One amazingly cool way though, would be ask at the beginning “describe what you want to build” and create an algorithm that could match the types of functionality required with the video content that would help you build it. Then you’d have a really, really compelling, tailored narrative that helps you to your end goal. Then, for the more casual user, they could try and think of more fun, practical applications they can work towards building to give them a sense of purpose.
As everyone has referenced though, Codecademy – and others like it – is an amazing step in the right direction, and will only get better with time. The fact that people care about it is a major indicator that it is on the right track and will ultimately succeed.
So hence they ended up in the 'losers' column.
Of course that doesn't mean they had quite as terrible year as some in the list...but for ease of reference it's a binary list rather than a gradient.