Tag archives: founders
Tag archives: founders
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6 Things You Need to Learn To Build Your Own Prototype
Fantastic post for anyone learning how to code. Via Vinicius Vacanti of Yipit as part of his Becoming Your Own Technical Co-Founder series. Definitely worth checking out the whole series.
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The Technical Lead
Good read for both technical leads and those who may be looking for one.
Via Doug Petkanic, co-founder of Hyperpublic, which acquired by Groupon.
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CoFoundersLab now bringing online “founder dating” to 10,000 founders-to-be
FYI if you’re looking for a co-founder. Sounds like a good resource.
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Avoiding The Comfortable Curse Of Just Being Ordinary.
This will get you fired up to be an entrepreneur.
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Entrepreneur DNA (Mark Suster’s series on what makes an entrepreneur)
I’ve read most if not all of these posts over the years, but I need to re-read them again sometime soon. All of Mark Suster‘s writing is pretty fantastic – super useful for both aspiring and established entrepreneurs.
Here’s the list of attributes to give you a little taste:
- Tenacity
- Street Smarts
- Ability to Pivot
- Resiliency
- Inspiration
- Perspiration
- Willingness to Accept Risk
- Attention To Detail
- Competitiveness
- Decisiveness / Getting Things Done
- Domain Experience
- Integrity
How many of these can you honestly say that you possess?
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Stop Fetishizing Failure
Another post about how this whole celebration of failure thing is a bit overblown (from Bruce Nussbaum over at Creative Intelligence). Couple of good points:
- We’re being too severe when talking about failure in the context of developing products – we’re not failing with each iteration, we’re learning.
- You can only fail so many times as an entrepreneur before you’re labeled as a permanent failure – 2, or 3, or maybe 4 times tops according to Bruce. Make your swings count.
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Idea Guy Looking for Developer
Great post about why it’s so hard to find a developer if you’re just a guy with an idea – from the perspective of developer who gets these requests all the time. If you’re an idea person who’s in this position, this is a must read.
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There Was Nothing ‘Magical’ About Jobs And Woz
A helpful insight about picking co-founders – hard to know for sure if it’s going to work out, and the ones that do look brilliant in hindsight merely because the company was successful.
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Why I Always Tell Co-Founders To Sign A ‘Prenup’
This is some really fantastic advice for anyone starting a company with one or more co-founders.
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How to Pick a Great Co-Founder
Awesome post on picking a co-founder by Vin Vicanti, one of the two founders of Yipit.
Not having a true co-founder was my biggest mistake with TenthRow. I really should have found two – a technical co-founder and a music industry person who was more familiar with working with bands, labels, etc. Never again will I start a company without at least one co-founder (mark my words…).
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How to hire a programmer to make your ideas happen
Fantastic post by Derek Sivers, the founder of CD Baby. Anyone who has an idea for a website but doesn’t know how to get it off the ground should read this and do exactly as he says. Wish I would have read this like 4 years ago…
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Entrepreneurs, Listen Up: You Don’t Need A Co-Founder Anymore
Entrepreneurs, Listen Up: You Don’t Need A Co-Founder Anymore
Interesting perspective. I need to think more about this. With TenthRow, I really, really wish I had a co-founder from day one…I chalk up not having one as probably my biggest mistake. The “emotional support and camaraderie that come with having a co-founder” are extremely important in my view. It’s really tough to deal with the constant adversity you face as a startup on your own for months and months on end, no matter how strong of a person you are.
That being said, perhaps it depends on the scope of the company. If you bite off more than you can chew as a single founder, then perhaps you’re doomed to fail – it’s just not possible for one person to deal with all the adversity that comes along with fighting battles on multiple fronts at all times. But if you’re focused on solving just one problem instead of many, then maybe it can be done. (Note: make sure you’re really focused on just one problem…sometimes you think you’re fixing just one thing, but that fix depends on solving multiple problems at once…pick one of those, solve it, and then figure out where you go next.)
That’s where we are right now with TenthRow. I started out trying to solve multiple problems for a few different types of customers (even though the ultimate goal was to solve just one problem for live music fans), but now we’re focused on just one problem for one type of customer (making it easier for live music fans to find the best / highest quality live music videos on the web). And I have a co-founder, at least that’s the way I feel about our technical lead (hopefully he feels the same way).
So anyway, I think I would agree that you don’t have to wait for a true co-founder if you have a consumer Internet idea that’s focused enough. Just make sure that you’re really truly focused on a single, narrowly-defined problem.
One of the best startup posts I’ve ever read. So spot on. Learn from this.