Do Things that Don't Scale
19 hours ago
- Startups don't take off on their own; founders must actively push them, often through unscalable efforts.
- Manually recruit users initially, as Stripe did with on-the-spot setup (Collison installation).
- Compound growth makes small numbers significant; a 10% weekly growth leads to 14,000 users in a year.
- Airbnb succeeded by going door-to-door to recruit users and improve listings.
- Early-stage startups are fragile; founders must not dismiss their own potential.
- Delight early users with extraordinary service, like handwritten thank-you notes.
- Focus on a narrow market first to build critical mass, as Facebook did for Harvard.
- Hardware startups should consider assembling products themselves (Meraki approach).
- Treat initial users like consulting clients to refine the product.
- Manual processes can substitute for software initially; automate later.
- Big launches and partnerships rarely work; organic user acquisition is key.
- View startup ideas as vectors: product plus unscalable initial actions.