Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator, on How to Start a Startup.

1. How to Start a
Startup

2. What makes Silicon Valley special?
• Relentless belief in the future
• There are people who take wild ideas
seriously, instead of mocking you
• No ‘Tall Poppy’ syndrome
• High density of talented people working on
startups
• A culture of paying it forward

3. What makes founders special?
• “I always figure it out” and “I never give up”
• Focus, self-belief, personal connections
• Clear vision, thought, and communication
• Ability to attract people to work on the
company
• Ability to get a huge amount of work done
themselves

4. Idea
• Idea first; startup second
• Original thought
• Notice problems in your own life
• Great Wave
• Easier to start a hard company than an easy
company

5. Co-founders
• Co-founders are really good, but a bad
cofounder is worse than no co-founder
• Shared history
• Select for determination
• Values first, aptitude second, specific skills
third
• Humble, not entitled

6. Product
• Small number of users that love you
• Retention; frequency of use
• Nothing but a great product will save you;
you can get everything else right and it still
won’t work

7. Getting your first 100 users
• What does “talk to users” actually mean?
• Expect to do this manually. Some ways:
- You email people you already know and ask
them to be customers. Call in your favors and
actually charge for your product.
- You research to find people you think might be
customers and contact them via email, phone
or in person. Conversion rates are low.

8. Getting your first 100 users
• Some more ways:
- Social media outreach, posting to HN, forums,
PR, etc. Look for sustainability.
- Buy ads and point them at your website. This is
the “laziest” technique and usually a bad idea.
- Get over your fear of asking people to buy your
product—sales!

9. Company
• Get to know your users really well
• Short cycle time
• Make a long-term commitment
• Stay lean until everything is working really
well
• The team you build is the company you
build

10. Company
• Relentless execution
• Startups are about not giving up; one of
the companies from the last YC batch got
in on their 7th time applying
• Fiduciary duty to take care of yourself
• Clear mission