Recruiting the right people and making sure your product is right are key to success for a startup.

• 🤔
  00:00

  Consider carefully when choosing a co-founder, look for someone who is resourceful and tough, and don't forget to rely on people for support.

  • If you have questions about the last lecture, I'm welcome to answer them now.
  • Trust your instincts and watch what young people are using to identify fast-growing markets.
  • Founder burnout is difficult to understand, but the way through it is to address the things that are going wrong and rely on people for support.
  • Choosing a co-founder is one of the most important decisions in a startup's life, so don't treat it lightly.
  • Choosing a random co-founder or someone you don't have a long history with usually ends in disaster, so a good way to meet a co-founder is in college.
  • Look for co-founders who are relentlessly resourceful and unflappably tough.
• 🤔
  05:35

  Prioritize resourcefulness, toughness, and calmness when looking for co-founders, and be selective when hiring employees to reduce burn rate and complexity.

  • Be ready for anything and act like James Bond for decisive, creative problem-solving.
  • When looking for co-founders, prioritize resourcefulness, toughness, and calmness, and make sure to have a technical co-founder if you are not technical.
  • Having a small number of employees is beneficial for startups, as it reduces burn rate, complexity, tension, and decision-making.
  • Airbnb spent five months interviewing their first employee and only hired two people before hiring one, emphasizing the importance of getting the right hire.
• 💪
  09:18

  Recruiting the right people and making sure your product is right are key to success for a startup.

  • Airbnb has a culture of extremely dedicated people who come together in times of crisis and are willing to commit to the company for at least 10 years.
  • Recruiting the best people can take a long time and convincing them to join your mission is key, so pick a successful company to join and make sure your product is right before anything else.
  • Hiring the right people is essential for a startup, as a single mediocre hire can poison the culture and even kill the company.
  • Compromising on a higher price when bigger can lead to regret, but it's the difference between theory and practice.
• 🔑
  13:21

  Recruiting great employees through personal referrals, attitude, belief, smarts, and communication skills is key to success in tech.

  • Recruiting great employees through personal referrals is the key to success in tech.
  • Hire based on attitude, belief in what you're doing, and smarts, not necessarily experience.
  • Try to work together on a project before hiring someone, rather than just doing an interview.
  • Good communication skills correlate well with successful hires, and it's important to dig into references and press on reference calls.
  • Look for people who are risk-tolerant and maniacally determined to pass the "animal test".
  • Hire people you would enjoy working with and respect, and consider employee equity when making hiring decisions.
• 💰
  18:42

  Founders should be generous with equity to employees and stingy with equity to investors, while providing autonomy, mastery and purpose, giving clear feedback, and taking action when needed.

  • Founders should be generous with equity to employees and stingy with equity to investors.
  • Founders should be generous with equity to early employees to retain them and build a successful startup.
  • Founders should learn to praise their team and take responsibility for the bad stuff to prevent massive team churn.
  • Give people autonomy, mastery and purpose, provide clear feedback, and don't be afraid to fire people when it's not working.
  • Firing people quickly when they are not performing is better for the company and the employee, but it is difficult to do and can be toxic to the company if done wrong.
  • If someone is consistently making mistakes or causing problems, it is painfully obvious and you should take action.
• 🤝
  24:32

  Co-founders should agree on an equal equity split and address vesting issues early to ensure successful execution of their startup.

  • Co-founders should decide on an equal equity split soon after starting to work together.
  • Good people can usually find a place in the company, and we'll discuss what to do when co-founder relationships break down in the last session.
  • Co-founder vesting is essential to prevent dead weight equity and should be addressed as soon as problems arise between co-founders.
  • It's better to lose some customers than kill the company.
  • Founders must model the culture of hard work, attention to detail, customer focus, and frugality to ensure successful execution of their startup.
• 💪
  30:00

  Set and repeat key goals often to ensure success and focus on the right things to get it done!

  • Executing well is what adds value and we will have three classes to learn how to do it.
  • The fifth CEO job is studying the execution bar and focusing on two key questions to get it done.
  • Founders need to identify the two or three most important things to focus on each day and ignore or delegate the rest.
  • Great execution requires saying no often and focusing on the right goals to ensure success.
  • Founders should set and repeat key goals often to keep the company focused and prevent communication breakdowns.
• 🚀
  34:26

  Keep momentum going by establishing an operating rhythm, shipping product, launching new features, and not worrying about competitors until they beat you with a real product.

  • Focus on growth and momentum, have weekly review meetings, and be wary of getting distracted by PR and other projects.
  • Startups require extreme focus and dedication, and even a small amount of extra work on the right thing can make a huge difference.
  • Startups must have a culture of high quality standards and fast execution speed to be successful.
  • The best founders act quickly, make decisions quickly, and break down big projects into smaller pieces to get things done.
  • Showing up in person and being persistent can be key to success, as demonstrated by getting on a plane and closing a deal with a customer.
  • Always keep momentum going by establishing an operating rhythm, shipping product and launching new features regularly, and not worrying about competitors until they beat you with a real product.