What i wish someone had told me about entrepreneurship, silicon valley, and successful careers

Author ofHello, Startup hello-startup.net... Building a successful startup takes more than just code... Join someone else’s company.. Invest in someone else’s company.. Join someone else

THE TRUTH ABOUT STARTUPS

What I wish someone had told me about entrepreneurship, Silicon Valley, and successful careers

In the past, most people would tell

you to:

Get a job at a big,

established company

Achieve job security Climb the corporate ladder

Achieve job security

Sounds great, but…

Mmm, yeah, I’m going to have to go ahead and ask you to come in on Sunday…

Nowadays, it’s all about startups:

Sounds great, but…

So what do you do?

I’m

Yevgeniy

Brikman

ybrikman.com

Co-founder of

Gruntwork

gruntwork.io

PAST LIVES

Author of

Hello, Startup

hello-startup.net

This is the book I wish

I had in

collegehello-startup.net

I hope this talk & book help you in

hello-startup.net

Myth #1: I’ll be an overnight

success!

Reality:

“Acquired companies were an average of seven years old…

…while IPO companies went public around 8.25 years, on average.”

Note: “exits” for the investors

Founders stay on longer.

So if you remember nothing else from this talk, remember this:

Building a successful startup takes

about a decade.

Are you willing to give 10 years of

your life to this idea?

Myth #2: I’m going to get rich!

Reality:

Most startups pay lower salaries

and offer few benefits

The stock is often worthless

And most startups fail

Myth #3: I’ll get to party all day!

Reality:

This is startup life.

It’s not sexy or glamorous.

It’s mostly a lot of hard work.

Myth #4: I’ll get to write code

all day!

Some programmers might be thinking, “this looks great!”

Reality:

Building a successful startup takes more than just code

Sure, you’ll write plenty of code

But you’ll also have to do

everything else , including:

operating agreements, articles of incorporation, employment

contracts, licenses, permits, insurance, NDAs, term sheets, financial modeling, P&L, balance sheet, fundraising, budgeting, cap table,

stock certificates, taxes, 81b, 1040, 1099, 1120, W2, pitch decks,

customer acquisition, sales calls, CRM, LTV, churn recurring

revenue, billing, invoicing, refunds, receipts, interviewing, hiring,

firing, promoting, training, motivating, organizing, leading, payroll,

HR, mission, vision, culture, renting office space, building a website, setting up email/phone/fax, buying furniture, ordering toilet paper, …

Myth #5: All I need is a

brilliant idea!

Reality:

“What surprised me

most was how unsure the founders seemed to

be that they were

actually onto something

big Some of these

companies got started almost by accident.”

It’s not about coming up with a

single brilliant idea

It’s about navigating an

idea maze

Most paths lead to failure A small

few lead to success.

And even the best ideas don’t matter without great execution

You’ve now seen some common

startup myths

It’s not that they never happen, but

they are bad reasons to join or

start a startup.

So what are the good reasons to

join or start a startup?

1 Mastery

2 Autonomy

3 Purpose

Mastery: The urge to get better at

something.

“I've come to believe that learning is the essential unit of

progress for

startups.”

– Eric Ries

Learning how to build a

product users want

Learning how to market

and sell a product

Learning how to build and motivate a team

Learning how to…

operating agreements, articles of incorporation, employment

contracts, licenses, permits, insurance, NDAs, term sheets, financial modeling, P&L, balance sheet, fundraising, budgeting, cap table,

stock certificates, taxes, 81b, 1040, 1099, 1120, W2, pitch decks,

customer acquisition, sales calls, CRM, LTV, churn recurring

revenue, billing, invoicing, refunds, receipts, interviewing, hiring,

firing, promoting, training, motivating, organizing, leading, payroll,

HR, mission, vision, culture, renting office space, building a website, setting up email/phone/fax, buying furniture, ordering toilet paper, …

Join a startup if you want to grow

as a person

“A startup is a company

designed to grow fast Being newly founded does not in itself make a company a startup Nor

is it necessary for a startup to work on technology, or take

venture funding, or have some sort of "exit." The only essential thing is growth ”

– Paul Graham

Working for a growing company is

an amazing experience

Autonomy: The urge to control

your life.

At a startup, you choose

what to work on

At a startup, you choose

who to work with

At a startup, you choose

how to work

At a startup, you choose

where to work

Purpose: The urge to do something

meaningful.

Gruntwork’s why:

We believe software is one of humanity’s greatest inventions.

We also believe that

creating software is too hard.

We believe making software more

accessible will transform humanity.

This is what gets

me up in the morning.

As a startup, we are searching for

the right what and how.

“[Established] Companies

execute business models

where customers, their

problems, and necessary

product features are all

“knowns.” In sharp contrast,

startups operate in “search”

mode, seeking a repeatable

and profitable business model.” – Steve Blank

It turns out that search mode

is more fun

It’s hard to feel passionate about increasing profit margin by 0.3%

It’s hard not to feel passionate

about fighting for survival

When you’re one of 5,000

employees, you rarely feel like

you’re making a difference

When the company is 5 people,

everything you do matters

You’ve now seen reasons you should or shouldn’t join a startup

So where do startups

fit in your career?

1 Join an established company

2 Join a small startup

3 Start your own company

1 Join an established company

2 Join a small startup

3 Start your own company

At least once in your career, join a

big, established company

Try to join one of the leaders in your industry

A “Google” on your resume will benefit you your entire career

You will work with amazing people

You will make a good salary

(pay off your loans!)

You will learn how a successful company operates

You’ll also learn how not to do things

1 Join an established company

2 Join a small startup

3 Start your own company

At least once in your career,

join a small startup

Now is the golden age

of the startup.

Average tenure for a firm

in the S&P 500:

1958: 61 years

1980: 25 years

2012: 18 years

“On average, an S&P 500 company is now being

replaced about once every two weeks […] At current churn rate, 75% of the S&P

500 will be replaced by

2027.”

Open source 19+ million repositories on GitHub.

Services AWS, Twilio, Stripe, MailChimp, Slack,

DesignCrowd, RocketLawyer, …

Distribution Mobile, email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn,

Reddit, Meetup.com, YouTube, AdWords, …

Information Books, classes, blogs, accelerators, incubators,

conferences, …

Money Venture capital, angels, crowdfunding,

government grants, self-funding, …

So why join a startup instead of

starting your own?

If you start a startup, you are stuck

with it for up to a decade.

In that same time period, you can

join 3-4 startups.

Earning experience, connections,

and stock at each one.

“The 100 th engineer at Facebook made far

more money than 99%

of Silicon Valley

entrepreneurs.”

– Dustin Moskovitz

Some people chase ambulances

Some people chase IPOs

How do you find a good

startup to join?

1 Look to your network.

2 Look at the products you use.

3 Look at elite VC portfolios.

1 Join an established company

2 Join a small startup

3 Start your own company

You’ll probably have more fun and

make more money joining someone else’s company.

As a founder,

you will make

roughly 10x the sacrifice.

10x more stress 10x more risk

10x more time

So is it ever a good idea

to start a company?

Yes:

When you can’t not do it.

You have an idea or passion that

you simply must do.

You’ve worked on it for years, even while at other jobs.

You just have to bring your dream into the world.

Just remember: a startup is one way to accomplish your dream.

1 Do a side project.

2 Go into politics.

3 Do volunteer activities.

4 Build a community.

5 Join someone else’s company.

6 Invest in someone else’s company.

13 Create an open source project.

14 Become an advisor or mentor.

15 Become a teacher.

1 Do a side project.

2 Go into politics.

3 Do volunteer activities.

4 Build a community.

5 Join someone else’s company.

6 Invest in someone else’s company.

13 Create an open source project.

14 Become an advisor or mentor.

15 Become a teacher.

A startup is merely one means to

an end.

So how do you start? How do you

build a good career?

“You need to be good at something before you can expect a good job.”

– Cal Newport

“The way to get

startup ideas is not

– Paul Graham

The way to have a great career is not to search for a great career but

to make yourself great.

How to become great:

1 Study

2 Build

3 Share

How to become great:

1 Study

2 Build

3 Share

Read books

Read papers, articles, blogs

Take classes

Go to meetups, conferences, and

talks (like this one!)

Aim to be a “T-Shaped Person”

How to become great:

1 Study

2 Build

3 Share

When I was a kid,

I didn’t like reading.

When I was in college,

I didn’t like reading.

When I was starting my career,

I didn’t like reading.

You know what finally got

me to love reading?

Becoming a person who

needs reading.

What kind of person is that?

A maker.

As I tried to build software, teams,

& products, I realized:

I have no idea what I’m doing.

It turns out that the knowledge I

needed was in books.

The more I built, the more I had to

learn, the more I read.

Go make things.

Work projects, side projects, learning

projects, open source, hackathons, prototypes, inventions, art, music, teams, communities, …

How to become great:

1 Study

2 Build

3 Share

Share everything you’ve learned

Write

Speak

Open source

Why?

Quality: you do better work when others are looking.

Branding: you become an expert

by sharing your expertise.

Mastery: the best way to learn

is to teach.

That’s why I’m here today.

To share what I’ve learned

with all of you.

To learn more, see

Hello, Startup

hello-startup.net

Questions?

Office buildings: Floriane Vita

Man in suit: energiepic.com

Ladder: Miguel Virkkunen Carvalho

Cubicles: Tim Patterson

Office Space: 20th Century Fox

The Social Network: Columbia Pictures

Silicon Valley: HBO

The 4-hour Work Week: Tim Ferriss

Ping pong: SageChimera

Biz Stone: Joi Ito

Coding: Hitesh Choudhary

Steve Jobs: Matthew Yohe

Mark Zuckerberg: Brian Solis

Reid Hoffman: Joi Ito

Idea maze: Chris Dixon

Robert Heinlein: Wikimedia

Primitive Wheel: John O’Neill

Camp Fire: Eric Dufresne

Code: Ilya Pavlov

Software frustration: Tim Gouw

Coffee: David Mao

Steve Blank: Eric Millette

Paul Graham: Dave Thomas

Dustin Moskovitz: Dustin Moskovitz

Ambulance: Paul Sableman

Stressed woman: Aledander Dummer

Woman writing: Startup Stock Photos

Man and whiteboard: Startup Stock Photos

Classroom: Wokandapix

Journals: Lum3n

Meetup: Sebastiaan ter Burg

T-Shaped Person: Valve

Writing: Alvaro Serrano

Teaching: Pop Tech

Pair coding: Startup Stock Photos

Expert: Graham Lavender

References & image credits