Best startup lessons from Y CombinatorㅣMichael Seibel
At least be willing to spend 2 years on the startup
Founders make mistakes becomes of two reasons:
- Out of fear
- Out of being too smart
YC three key pieces of advice
- Make something people want
- Do things that don’t scale
- Talk to your users
You need to fight asymmetrically to combat big companies as an underdog yourself. Do things that don’t scale is part of your philosophy. Do things that big companies can’t do. Like because you have less customers that you can deliver insanely good customer experience which big companies can’t do, part of doing things that don’t scale philoshpy.
YC three main benefits:
- Social network for founders
- Deals
- Investor database
We went through a bubble where investors put in too much money into companies
They want to make YC better every year
Investing as a full-time Student is Stupid | Rishabh Jain | TEDxNitteDU
Get active income before passive income
Invest time in gaining skills to get a 12-20LPA package job rather than investing time to get a 10K return on a 90K capital and get a 4-8LPA package job
Approach from a learner’s mindset not a earner’s mindset. With such less capital you won’t make much money. Your time is better invested in learning skills for your career and personal growth.
Don’t be a miser to save money on experiences. Go invest that money for that concert, course, and trip so that you know yourself and your interests better.
Investing time and money in relationships during college is 10x more valuable than doing that after college.
Ignorance is bliss, or is it? | Rishabh Jain & Mandeep Gill | TEDxIITGuwahati
Covered a couple of stories of how people financially ruin themselves because they either:
- Fall into too good to be seeming jobs: Guy got into a 30K per month data entry work from home job 12 month contract and finished his work early and submitted it. Company said his work had a ton of mistakes and demanded 30K in damages. He paid that but after a while they demanded damages for rest 11 months otherwise legal action.
- Know nothing about investing: Example they invest in really long policies and don’t have any liquidity
- Trust others completely to make invest decisions: Someone can sell you a policy or a low quality bond and you get screwed up
Why Your Less-Experienced Colleagues Are Promoted Instead of You!
Better communication skills get you more visibility and you get promoted faster
Some folks take on more debt by going to get courses or more degrees but that entirely is not the best approach
First role as an employee is a DOER. You are an implementor. Implementors get thing done.
Implementation is the lowest level of value in the marketplace
Operating at the level of doer has the least influence, least impact, least visibility, least acknowledgement, and least recognition.
Next level of value is Unification
You manage people, processes, and projects to do a thing. Higher level of value in the marketplace. You are usually given a title of Manager. You also sometimes you manage policies.
You have more impact and you have higher income.
Problem with this level is this at this level is that there is “Churn and Burn”
Managers at this sometimes feel undervalued and under-appreciated. They feel
We are told two lies:
- They think “I need more education”. They get diplomas, degrees, PMPs, etc. Their mentality is still in implementation even they are in the level of unification. They come back with more debt and still feel under-appreciated.
- They think “Maybe I need to work harder”. Take on more projects and work longer hours and don’t say No. But they still feel under-appreciated and feeling stuck.
Highest level of value if COMMUNICATION
Effective, confident communication
Communication as it pertains to leadership
Irrespective of the size of company, individuals maybe who have lesser number of years of experience and lesser skills than you, get promoted and given more opportunities
The marketplace values communication the most