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Lilian Weng left Thinking Machines citing health reasons, then rejoins OpenAI
2 months ago
- Lilian Weng stepped down as co-founder of Thinking Machines, citing health issues due to startup's pace.
- She will rejoin OpenAI to lead a team focused on recursive self-improvement research.
- The move appears contradictory to her health concerns, but she may face less pressure as a non-founder at OpenAI.
- Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati publicly supported Weng's health-focused decision, unaware of her return to OpenAI.
Beating the Averages
2 months ago
- Viaweb was a pioneering Web-based application, launched in 1995, that allowed users to build online stores via a server-based interface.
- The software was uniquely written in Lisp, a language not typically used for commercial applications at the time, giving Viaweb a competitive edge.
- Using Lisp enabled rapid development and advanced features, allowing Viaweb to outpace competitors, who often relied on languages like C++ or Perl.
- The 'Blub paradox' explains why programmers often stick with familiar languages, blinding them to the superiority of more powerful languages like Lisp.
- Lisp's power stems from features like macros, which allow programs to manipulate code, leading to capabilities hard to replicate in other languages.
- Startups benefit from using technologies like Lisp that competitors underestimate, turning the slow adoption of new languages into a strategic advantage.
Golden tickets
2 months ago
- The author initially believed in 'golden tickets'—rare opportunities like hiring the right person, building a large audience, getting lucky with viral launches, or having the perfect product idea—that would guarantee success.
- Hiring a marketing co-founder was seen as a missing piece, but the author realized it's unrealistic to expect someone else to solve direction problems that the product builder cannot articulate.
- Building a large audience on social media often fails to convert followers into buyers, as they are there to observe, not to purchase.
- Lucky events like top Product Hunt launches or Hacker News posts generate temporary traffic but mostly attract observers looking for tips, not customers.
- The 'product golden ticket' myth—that frequent idea generation and early failure lead to success—ignores the importance of execution, packaging, and persistence.
- Many product failures are actually founder failures due to inexperience and lack of determination, not flawed ideas; founders grow over years, and ideas need that growth.
- Chasing golden tickets increases failure rate by encouraging cycles of starting and abandoning projects, eroding trust and making success less likely.
- Instead of seeking shortcuts, founders should focus on sound business principles and survive long enough to see results.
The outlier paradox
2 months ago
- Success does not follow a repeatable formula; successful founders are outliers who carve their own path.
- Snake oil salesmen profit by selling fake, step-by-step success formulas to dreamers.
- Success requires acting without certainty, making choices in uncertainty, and persisting without guarantees.
- The author's experience with Keygen illustrates that not giving up too early can lead to eventual success, despite early lack of traction.
- Lessons from successful founders should be seen as guidance for pathfinding, not as a magic formula.
The space elevator
2 months ago
- Bootstrapping a business is compared to a slow, steady space elevator, while venture-backed startups are like explosive rocket ships.
- The elevator is cheaper and less risky, but slower; rockets are faster but have a higher risk of failure, including exploding.
- Rocket launches attract crowds and attention, but they quickly move on to the next spectacle, while elevator riders can keep their loved ones close.
- Elevator riders make small bets and accumulate wins over time, whereas rocketeers bet everything on a single outcome.
- Sometimes rockets succeed or fail dramatically, reinforcing the elevator rider's choice to stay on the steady path.
- Progress on the elevator is slow but compounds over years, and the rider must avoid burning all their fuel (resources) to eventually reach their destination.
Steve Blank Your Startup Is Probably Dead On Arrival
2 months ago
- Startups older than two years likely have obsolete business plans due to rapid changes in AI and markets.
- Venture capital has shifted heavily toward AI, making it harder for non-AI startups to raise funds.
- AI development tools enable building MVPs in days, reducing the need for large engineering teams and challenging old assumptions about cost and speed.
- Agile development must evolve from serial to parallel testing, with AI agents allowing simultaneous experimentation of multiple business models.
- AI Agents will transform software from providing information to autonomously delivering outcomes, shifting pricing from seats to results.
- Hardware startups can use AI for simulation and faster failure, but remain constrained by physics and supply chains.
- Sunk cost trap—clinging to outdated code, team structure, or business model—can kill a startup; founders must reassess and pivot if needed.
- Defensible moats now come from proprietary data, deep customer insight, or regulatory approvals, not just code.
History of PowerDNS: 1999-2003 - Bert Hubert's writings
2 months ago
- PowerDNS was launched during the dot com boom, initially to create geographical load balancing DNS software for V3's redirection service.
- The early PowerDNS version, called AhuDNS, was a closed-source C++ project with modular database backends, replacing a djbdns prototype.
- PowerDNS shared offices with ZEP Holding in The Hague, moving to a former embassy building that was slated for demolition.
- The main business opportunity was fulfilling the need for database-driven DNS, as BIND scaled poorly and relied on text-based zone files.
- PowerDNS struggled with sales because its pitch threatened sysadmins' jobs, and it failed to connect with senior management.
- After downsizing due to lack of revenue, PowerDNS open-sourced its software under GPLv2, which kept it alive despite company struggles.
- Key employees included Stefan Arentz (logo designer), Floor Plikaar, Hartger Ruijs, and Michel Stol (Windows port), but not all hires were successful.
- PowerDNS 1.0 failed due to lack of strategic vision and inability to attract talent for telecom market, while competitors like Infoblox and Nominum succeeded.
How to Start a Startup
2 months ago
- A successful startup requires three things: good people, a product customers actually want, and minimal spending.
- A brilliant initial idea is not necessary; the key is to make something better than what exists, as Google did with search.
- Most startups fail because customers don't want the product, not due to lack of funding—funding issues are a symptom.
- Get a prototype out quickly and refine it based on user feedback; rapid prototyping is essential.
- Founders should include technical people who understand users; business skills can be learned on the job.
- Target niche markets first, as they offer better odds and allow you to grow slowly and learn.
- Raise seed money from angels, avoid IP problems by checking founders' history, and negotiate with VCs carefully.
- Spend money slowly, hire minimally, and cultivate a culture of cheapness to extend runway and focus on product.
- Ideal startup founders are good hackers aged 23–38, willing to compress their working life into a few intense years.
Why Smart People Have Bad Ideas
2 months ago
- The Summer Founders Program experiments with funding younger founders, including college students.
- Many applicants have promising people but unpromising ideas, similar to the 'Artix phase' where founders start with a bad idea before finding a viable one.
- The 'still life effect' causes founders to plunge into the first idea and then stick with it due to sunk time.
- Common mistakes include choosing the first idea, prioritizing coolness over profitability, and avoiding competition by targeting impoverished markets.
- The key lesson is to 'make something people want' and to focus on solving real problems that customers will pay for.
- Hackers can learn to understand customer needs without business people, as shown by successful startups like Google and Viaweb.
The Hardest Lessons for Startups to Learn
2 months ago
- Release a minimal version 1 quickly to get user feedback, then improve it based on reactions.
- Continuously add features and improvements to keep users engaged and attract new ones.
- Prioritize user happiness by making a great product and explaining its value clearly.
- Focus on real threats like other startups and internal issues, not big companies or minor disasters.
- Determination is the most important quality for startup founders; be flexible but committed.
- There's always room for innovation; don't assume any field is tapped out.
- Manage optimism by being realistic about deals and external factors, but stay focused on building for users.
A Student's Guide to Startups
2 months ago
- Graduates now have a third option beyond jobs and grad school: starting a startup, which may become as popular as grad school.
- Starting a startup in college has a built-in 'escape hatch' that reduces motivation; graduation removes this excuse, making failure more significant.
- Peer opinion is a powerful motivator for startup founders, often stronger than the goal of getting rich.
- Graduation changes the 'prevailing winds' of peer pressure, making it harder to start a startup later due to increased stakes.
- Young founders have advantages: stamina, poverty, rootlessness, colleagues from school, and ignorance that can lead to innovation.
- Poverty allows founders to live cheaply and think cheaply, which is critical for startup survival and evolution.
- Rootlessness enables mobility, which is important as many startups require moving to startup hubs like the Bay Area.
- Undergrads have an edge in finding co-founders because they are surrounded by ambitious, technically minded peers in school.
- Ignorance can be useful as it prevents intimidation and can lead to innovative reinventions, as seen with Steve Wozniak.
- Young founders often build 'class projects' that lack iterative problem definition and intensity, which are key in real startups.
- Work experience teaches the elimination of the 'flake reflex' and the harsh reality of the work-money relationship.
- To prepare for a startup in college, learn from startups by observing or working at one, build skills like user understanding, and leverage the co-founder-rich environment.
The 18 Mistakes That Kill Startups
2 months ago
- The fundamental mistake that kills startups is not making something users want.
- Single Founder: Startups are too hard for one person; co-founders provide support, brainstorming, and morale.
- Bad Location: Startups thrive in hubs like Silicon Valley; location affects access to experts and talent.
- Marginal Niche: Avoid small, obscure niches; face competition by pursuing good ideas.
- Derivative Idea: Don't copy existing companies; solve a personal problem or unsolved need.
- Obstinacy: Be flexible and pivot when needed; most successful startups change their original plan.
- Hiring Bad Programmers: Non-technical founders must find good programmers; bad hires kill startups.
- Choosing the Wrong Platform: Technical decisions matter; let good programmers choose platforms.
- Slowness in Launching: Launch quickly to force completion and get user feedback.
- Launching Too Early: Don't ruin reputation; launch a minimal useful core that can be expanded.
- Having No Specific User in Mind: Build for yourself or find real users; understand the problem.
- Raising Too Little Money: Need enough runway to reach the next milestone (prototype, launch, growth).
- Spending Too Much: Avoid excessive hiring; pay with equity, keep costs low.
- Raising Too Much Money: Large investments can lead to loss of focus, pressure, and difficulty pivoting.
- Poor Investor Management: Manage investors but don't let them run the company; focus on product.
- Sacrificing Users to Profit: Prioritize making something users want over business model initially.
- Not Wanting to Get Your Hands Dirty: Founders must do business tasks, like user acquisition and deals.
- Fights Between Founders: Choose co-founders carefully; vesting helps handle departures.
- Half-Hearted Effort: Most failures are due to not trying hard enough; consider quitting day job.
Why There Aren't More Googles
2 months ago
- Startups that reject acquisition offers often achieve greater success, with larger offers or IPOs later.
- Google and Facebook stayed independent because acquirers underestimated their value, not just idealism.
- Venture capitalists are overly conservative, driven by consensus, and miss truly bold innovative ideas.
- There is a funding gap between early seed rounds (e.g., $20k) and large VC rounds (e.g., $2M), leaving promising startups needing ~$200k underserved.
- The declining cost of startups creates an opportunity for new investors to fill this gap by making smaller, bolder investments.
- VC firms resist adapting to smaller investments, but evolving models could produce more breakthrough companies like Google.
Be Good
2 months ago
- Combining 'make something people want' with downplaying business models initially describes a charity, yet many successful startups start this way.
- Benevolence helps startups in three ways: improves morale, attracts help, and serves as a decision-making compass.
- The 'tamagotchi effect' shows that user dependence motivates founders to persist through difficult times.
- Being good attracts idealistic top talent and investors, as people rally around benevolent missions.
- Adopting 'Don't be evil' as a corporate policy can prevent laziness and ensure long-term success.
The Pooled-Risk Company Management Company
2 months ago
- David Heinemeier Hansson suggested startup founders should live off revenues rather than sell stock in a liquidity event.
- Running a business requires constant attention, offering neither freedom nor security.
- The ideal scenario is to hire a professional manager or a management company to run the business for you.
- A management company could pool risks from multiple companies, providing insurance against market failures.
- Such pooled-risk management companies exist in the form of acquisitions by public companies.
- Public acquirers are fickle, but over a long enough period (e.g., five years), average behavior is like a pooled-risk manager.
- Startups must be profitable to wait for favorable acquisition cycles.
- Selling a company is actually the optimal version of living off its revenues.
Startups in 13 Sentences
2 months ago
- Pick good cofounders: they are the most critical factor for startup success, similar to location in real estate.
- Launch fast: launching early teaches you what to build and engages users, even if the initial product is imperfect.
- Let your idea evolve: treat a startup as iterative, like an essay, where most ideas emerge during implementation.
- Understand your users: the key to creating wealth is improving users' lives, and the hardest part is knowing what they need.
- Better to make a few users love you than a lot ambivalent: focus on deep satisfaction of a subset before expanding.
- Offer surprisingly good customer service: go beyond expectations to make users happy, which also helps you learn.
- You make what you measure: tracking metrics like user numbers naturally improves them, but be careful what you measure.
- Spend little: being cheap prevents running out of money and enables rapid iteration, keeping the startup agile.
- Get ramen profitable: achieve just enough revenue to cover living expenses, changing your relationship with investors.
- Avoid distractions: day jobs, consulting, and fundraising can derail focus; minimize them to stay on track.
- Don't get demoralized: startup pressure is heavy; consciously manage morale to avoid failure.
- Don't give up: persistence often overcomes challenges, especially with continuous idea evolution.
- Deals fall through: treat deals as background processes to avoid morale damage and improve chances of closing.
Relentlessly Resourceful
2 months ago
- Being a good startup founder can be summarized as 'relentlessly resourceful', which combines persistence with adaptability.
- The opposite of a good founder is 'hapless', which implies passivity and being overwhelmed by circumstances.
- Resourcefulness is key because startup obstacles are often novel and external, requiring continuous trial of new approaches.
- This quality differs from success in fields like writing or painting, where internal obstacles require active curiosity.
- Relentless resourcefulness can be taught to many people, especially those free from authoritarian environments.
- The number of potential startups is limited by the pool of people who are naturally or latently relentlessly resourceful.
- Founders should self-assess or evaluate cofounders based on their relentless resourcefulness.
- The phrase 'Be relentlessly resourceful' serves as tactical guidance, complementing the goal of 'Make something people want'.
What We Look for in Founders
2 months ago
- Determination is the most important quality in startup founders, as they must persist through many obstacles despite intelligence being a common myth for success.
- Flexibility is essential; founders need to adapt their dreams and pivot like a running back, combining determination with the ability to change direction.
- Imagination matters more than quick problem-solving; good startup ideas often seem initially bad, requiring the ability to generate surprising new ideas.
- Naughtiness: successful founders often have a piratical gleam, breaking unimportant rules, which may be linked to imagination and creativity.
- Friendship: strong relationships between co-founders are crucial, as startups strain relationships; most successful startups have two or three founders who genuinely like each other.
Schlep Blindness
2 months ago
- Schlep blindness is the unconscious avoidance of startup ideas that involve tedious, difficult tasks.
- Hackers especially dislike schleps but they are an inevitable part of building a company.
- This blindness causes founders to overlook valuable opportunities like fixing online payments (Stripe).
- Ambitious ideas have less competition because they intimidate other founders.
- Overcome schlep blindness through ignorance or by asking what problem you wish someone else would solve.
The Fatal Pinch
2 months ago
- Startups often face a 'fatal pinch' with significant cash but high monthly losses, stagnant revenue, and about six months of runway, hoping to raise more funds.
- Founders overestimate investor interest for additional funding due to higher spending, stricter investor standards, and the company being perceived as a failure.
- The fatal pinch is self-reinforcing: founders slack on profitability, which further reduces fundraising chances.
- To avoid it, act as if current funding is the last; needing less investment makes it easier to obtain.
- If already in the fatal pinch, treat the probability of raising more money as zero. Options include shutting down, increasing revenue, or decreasing expenses.
- Shut down if certain failure; otherwise, fire underperformers, cut salaries, or focus on revenue generation.
- For revenue, pivot to selling, do consulting-like work tailored to high-paying customers, and be ruthless about cash while avoiding pure consulting pitfalls.
- Many successful startups have survived near-death experiences; awareness of the fatal pinch is key.

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startup

Lilian Weng left Thinking Machines citing health reasons, then rejoins OpenAI

Beating the Averages

Golden tickets

The outlier paradox

The space elevator

Steve Blank Your Startup Is Probably Dead On Arrival

History of PowerDNS: 1999-2003 - Bert Hubert's writings

How to Start a Startup

Why Smart People Have Bad Ideas

The Hardest Lessons for Startups to Learn

A Student's Guide to Startups

The 18 Mistakes That Kill Startups

Why There Aren't More Googles

Be Good

The Pooled-Risk Company Management Company

Startups in 13 Sentences

Relentlessly Resourceful

What We Look for in Founders

Schlep Blindness

The Fatal Pinch