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Showing posts from September, 2017

"Video Lecture _ Lecture 9 How to Raise Money”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFX95HahaUs   This post is about Question & Answer panel 'How to Raise Money' by Marc Andreessen, Ron Conway, and Parker Conrad.  The lecturers Marc Andreessen is a Founder of Netscape and Andreessen Horowitz, Ron Conway is a Founder of SV Angel, and Parker Conrad is a Founder of Zenefits.  In this discussion, the founders give answers for several questions and discuss how to raise money.   The first question was about how they decide to invest in a founder company.  There exist some features that investors notice.  Therefore, when you meet a major investor, you should be able to answer what your product does in one compelling sentence. Be certain as the only way to make progress and develop is to make a decision. Once you have a great product then it’s all about execution and building a great team. Moreover, first, venture capital business is a game of outliers. Second, invest in strength versus lack of weakness. It is needed to try

"Video Lecture _ Lecture 8 How to Get Started, Doing Things that Don't Scale, Press”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQOC-qy-GDY&feature=youtu.be  In this post, I'm going to talk about the main points of the 8th lecture 'Doing Things That Don't Scale, PR, and How to Get Started' by Stanley Tang, Walker Williams, Justin Kan. The first lecturer is the founder of 'DoorDash' which is a restaurant delivery service. The second lecturer is CEO/Founder of ‘Teespring’, an e-commerce platform that allows entrepreneurs to launch products without risk, cost, or compromise. The third lecturer is a founder of ‘Kiko’ and the Justin.tv which became Twitch. They shared how they came up with the idea and get started. They started to implement the use of the idea without having a complete infrastructure but hypothesis.     When Tang and his team had a great idea it was strange for them why others did not do it yet. Firstly, they thought that some people had already tried and failed as there was no consumer demand. However, the team’s passion to build

"Video Lecture _Lecture 7 How to Build Products Users Love, Part I”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz_LgBAGYyo&feature=youtu.be   This post is about 'How to Build Products Users Love' by Kevin Hale. The lecturer shared his ideas supported with lots of great experience which were very interesting. He introduced how he determined users’ problem and created products that customers loved. Lecturer analyzed several points such as growth, his own experiences, and compared the customer support to human interaction such as relationships.   The topic of growth has been discussed several weeks, but what it is it in perspective of K. Hale. In the viewpoint of the lecturer, it is an interaction between concepts or variables: conversion rate and churn. The gap between the two will essentially symbolize how fast you’re going to grow.  Now let's understand these two concepts. The conversion rate is the percentage of customers who are informed of a product or a service and eventually become customers. The churn rate is the yearly percentage o

"Video Lecture _ Lecture 6 Growth"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_yHZ_vKjno   In this post, I'm going to discuss tactics for growth by Alex Schultz. The lecturer has been working in internet marketing/growth now for 10 years. Based on his experience in taking a good product, helping it grow faster and hiring a great team Alex Schultz explains beneficial tips and tools on these topics. Therefore, this post is concerning points such as how to build a great team, what good retention seems to be, and what tactics are needed for growth.  First of all, let's understand why there is or no need for building a great growing team . Previously, we learned the importance of a great team, however, now we should consider the main steps why to make the team grow. In the early stages, it is normal for a startup not to have a growing team. Furthermore, when a team starts to grow some issues may occur. This means that more people will have to do the same work and it would not be easy to regulate them and their work. Mo

"Video Lecture _ Lecture 5 Competition is for Losers"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_0dVHMpJlo   In this blog post, I'm going to discuss main ideas of lecture 5 on topic "Competitions are for Losers" by  Peter Thiel, who was the founder of PayPal, Palantir, and Founders Fund and has invested in most of the tech companies in Silicon Valley.   First of all the lecturer asks several questions about the basic idea: How do you go about creating value? What makes a business valuable? After which he suggested a formula to capture company value , how to capture Y percent of X. Due to the formula you’re going understand how your company creates dollars or how it creates a value for the world. But before it, you should get a good idea of how the entire competition could influence your business. So, let's see some advantages and disadvantages of this: Advantages: Easy to model, efficient in an aesthetic world, politically salable. Disadvantages: Psychologically unhealthy, Irrelevant in a dynamic world, Preempts questio

"Video Lecture _ Lecture 4 Building Product, Talking to Users and Growing"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP176MBG9Tk   In this post, I'm going to discuss "Building Product, Talking to Users, and Growing" by Adora Cheung. In this lecture, Adora Cheung explains us how to go from zero to numerous users. She reveals each step by bringing an example of her startup experience and shares how necessary is to talk with users from the start so you are able to accomplish sustainable growth.   The first thing is which is important for starting a startup is to have time . You should consider, days a week instead of hours every day. There are several things which you should do and also things which you should avoid doing. The following are ‘noob’ approach to a startup: Build product in secret and not tell anyone about this idea; Exclusive PR launch! Wait for users; Buy users; Give up. The question is how not bypass these actions. First of all, you have to manage your time in order to have enough time to work on an idea. Then, consider what the exact p

"Video Lecture _ Lecture 3 Before the Startup"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii1jcLg-eIQ&feature=youtu.be    This post is about "Counterintuitive Parts of Startups, and How to Have Ideas" by Paul Graham. In this lecture, Paul Graham spoke about six major and critical points that one has to remember not to do while working on a startup. The first thing that was mentioned is startups are so weird that if you follow your instincts they will lead you astray. The main idea is if you follow your instincts they will lead you probably in the wrong direction. You can, however, trust your instincts about people. Your life so far hasn't been much like starting a startup, but all the interactions you've had with people are just like the interactions you have with people in the business world.  When it comes to people, however, you should choose only ones you trust and know how you work. The second thing to concentrate on is what you need to succeed in a startup is not expertise in startups . P. Graham is sure tha

"Video Lecture _ Lecture 2 Team and Execution"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVfnkM44Urs&feature=youtu.be  In this post, I'm going to continue to discuss Sam Altman's lecture about 'How to Start a Startup' and focus on the last two important areas: great team and great execution . 3. The third area that is essential is a great team .  First of all  co-founder relationships are among the most influential in the entire company.  Therefore, in order to find the right one, you should consider some features. The characteristics you have to be looking for in a co-founder can be summed up in one: relentlessly resourceful. Being clear the lecturer brought an example of an ideal candidate of the co-founder, she/he needs to behave like James Bond. This means to get someone who is tough, know what to do in every situation, act quickly, decisive, creative, and ready for anything. Simply the team needs an expert with specific skills. There is also the limit of having a co-founder in your team. For example, two or

"Video Lectures_ Lecture 1 How to Start A Startup"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBYhVcO4WgI&feature=youtu.be   Hi everyone, this is my first blog post and we going to discover main tools and tips why, how to start a startup. As Sam Altman said “It is not easy to start a startup; however, if you going to do so remember that you should never start a startup just for the sake of doing so”. The lecturer Sam Altman is the President of Y Combinator. In YC, they've been teaching people how to start startups for nine years. The main idea of the lecture is to give an introduction on how to develop a startup and to get the business where the goal can give a hyper-growth and eventually become a very large company. There are four areas which will maximize success as a startup: great idea, a great product, a great team, and great execution . In this post I’m going to discuss the first two.   1. The first area is all about getting a great idea . There are various ways to find an idea; however, startup idea should be no ordinary on