I'm at the event, a lot of good talks from an abundance of YCombinator founders. It's good to see MIT participating in the startup scene. Some of the best parts of Startup Bootcamp so far:
Kyle Vogt (Justin.tv) emphasized being flexible and remaining committed during the hard times. Iterate and morph and never quit until you have a product/service that fits the market. Make something people love, even if that means completely changing your ideas.
Dan Theobald (Vecna) gave us some warnings about the dangers of "other people's money", which he jokingly referred to as opium (OPM). He advocated bootstrapping it, mentioning that he would show up at companies with nothing but his laptop and say, "I'm from MIT. How can I help you with your tech needs?" He advised against ever hiring anyone, but said that if you have to hire then get the smartest people possible: 1 great engineer = 10 good engineers = 100 average engineers.
Dan recommended reading a paper called "On the folly of rewarding A, while hoping for B" (title self-explanatory). At Vecna, employees are given points to distribute to coworkers they find deserving, and these points control bonuses. People work harder when they know their employees are evaluating them, and coworkers do a better job than managers. He also spoke a lot about helping the community, and being non-self. I came away from the the talk thinking that Dan's a really great guy.
Adam Smith (Xobni), who was the first to speak, talked about raising the barrier to entry by doing something hard. He estimated it would take tens of millions of dollars for someone to come into Outlook and do what Xobni has done. Like Vogt, he emphasized being nimble. That is, being able to effectively change your idea and your product to fit the market. He pointed out that external deadlines (ex. demoing at a tech conference), can really work in your favor. He recommended reading Jessica Livingston's Founders at Work, and also High St@kes, No Prisoners. According to him the latter book's out of print, but Adam brought along six copies and set them on the stage for anyone to grab near the end of his talk. Luckily, I sat on the front row, and I move pretty quick if I say so myself :)
Angus Davis (Tellme) had a really cool speech. One, he's a great charistmatic speaker. Two, he had volumes of knowledge. Three, he made use of this service: http://www.polleverywhere.com/. He prepared a wealth of topics and had us text the service which topics we wanted to hear about. You could see the poll behing him being updated in real-time, and he simply talked aobut whatever was getting the most votes.
"... He estimated it would take tens of millions of dollars for someone to come into Outlook and do what Xobni has done. ..."
Anything on the MS platform could be replicated by Microsoft and I've seen them do this for strategic reasons. Cost is not the issue, understanding the problem & mindset is.
Thanks for the fun writeup. Come back and describe the rest of them later. :)
I'm in the middle of reading High St@kes, No Prisoners (though it's been sitting idle for a couple months as I haven't had time for non-technical reading). Actually, I realized a quarter of the way through that I was re-reading it. I must have read it when it came out, because a lot of his stories and even particular phrases are coming back to me. It's certainly a good book for anyone interested in startups, and is refreshingly witty and candid.
I noticed an interesting difference in my response to this book from the first time around, though. In the author's descriptions of his frequent battles with VCs, the VCs don't come off nearly as bad as he wants them to. For example, Andrew Marcuvitz, whom Ferguson depicts as basically a reptile, doesn't actually do anything bad. Mostly he just patiently explains things to a screaming Ferguson. Perhaps he turns evil in the second half of the book? I can't remember.
To anyone else at the event: I'm in the sixth row against the right wall, probably furiously taking notes on my Macbook. Feel free to say hi before the evening is over.
Kyle Vogt (Justin.tv) emphasized being flexible and remaining committed during the hard times. Iterate and morph and never quit until you have a product/service that fits the market. Make something people love, even if that means completely changing your ideas.
Dan Theobald (Vecna) gave us some warnings about the dangers of "other people's money", which he jokingly referred to as opium (OPM). He advocated bootstrapping it, mentioning that he would show up at companies with nothing but his laptop and say, "I'm from MIT. How can I help you with your tech needs?" He advised against ever hiring anyone, but said that if you have to hire then get the smartest people possible: 1 great engineer = 10 good engineers = 100 average engineers.
Dan recommended reading a paper called "On the folly of rewarding A, while hoping for B" (title self-explanatory). At Vecna, employees are given points to distribute to coworkers they find deserving, and these points control bonuses. People work harder when they know their employees are evaluating them, and coworkers do a better job than managers. He also spoke a lot about helping the community, and being non-self. I came away from the the talk thinking that Dan's a really great guy.
Adam Smith (Xobni), who was the first to speak, talked about raising the barrier to entry by doing something hard. He estimated it would take tens of millions of dollars for someone to come into Outlook and do what Xobni has done. Like Vogt, he emphasized being nimble. That is, being able to effectively change your idea and your product to fit the market. He pointed out that external deadlines (ex. demoing at a tech conference), can really work in your favor. He recommended reading Jessica Livingston's Founders at Work, and also High St@kes, No Prisoners. According to him the latter book's out of print, but Adam brought along six copies and set them on the stage for anyone to grab near the end of his talk. Luckily, I sat on the front row, and I move pretty quick if I say so myself :)
Angus Davis (Tellme) had a really cool speech. One, he's a great charistmatic speaker. Two, he had volumes of knowledge. Three, he made use of this service: http://www.polleverywhere.com/. He prepared a wealth of topics and had us text the service which topics we wanted to hear about. You could see the poll behing him being updated in real-time, and he simply talked aobut whatever was getting the most votes.
Sorry for the book!