Success in Startups: Lessons from Instacart Founder at Startup School NY 2014
This article is a summary of a YouTube video "Apoorva Mehta at Startup School NY 2014" by Y Combinator
TLDR Persistence and solving a problem you truly care about are crucial for success in the startup industry, as demonstrated by the stories of failed product ideas and the success of Instacart.
Timestamped Summary
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00:00
Instacart receives $44M funding and expands to NYC, while a speaker learns about the startup industry through meetups, conversations, and books.
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03:18
👉🌉: Amazon employee quits job to pursue entrepreneurship in San Francisco, faces challenges with failed product ideas.
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05:43
💼 Building a social network for lawyers without understanding their needs led to failure, highlighting the importance of solving a problem you truly care about when starting a company.
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07:47
Instacart was created to solve grocery shopping inefficiency, quickly became profitable, and received a response from YC alumni for a late application.
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10:36
After multiple rejections, a founder got into Y Combinator by sending a six pack of beer, and learned to be resilient and take advantage of YC dinners for progress updates.
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14:18
Instacart's early success was due to YC founders as main customers, a banana mishap, unscalable beginnings, and securing investors despite past failures.
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18:42
Instacart 📈 rapidly expanded to 10 US cities by adding Trader Joe's and other stores to their catalog, solving a difficult problem of providing same-day delivery without infrastructure.
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22:00
Persistence is key to success on the exciting but challenging journey of a founder.