Startup School: Incomplete
by Henning FischerRecently I attended Startup School, a one day event put on by venture firm Y Combinator at Stanford University. Speakers included Jeff Bezos, Marc Andreessen, and a bevy of other Valley heavies. Videos of their presentations here. If you only want to watch one, make sure you check out David Heinemeier Hansson’s (funny!) presentation on how to make money. Easily the best and most entertaining of the group.
Generally, they day went much as expected; which is to say “how do we cash out as quickly as possible?!” What startled me more than anything else was the lazy lip service given to listening to users given in almost every presentation. Apparently mentioning listening to users is all you have to do. Term sheets? Check. Sustainable unfair advantage? Check. Iterate rapidly? Check. Listen to users? Check. I can haz fundz now?
Perhaps the only person who really got it was Paul Graham of Y Combinator, who told the audience “make something people want.” And in that company, that’s pretty sad.
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on Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 10:57 am and is filed under Conference commentary, Perspective, Silliness, What were they thinking?.
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April 28th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Noting that listing to customers was sadly missing, was it still time-well-spent for someone coming from the UX field?
April 29th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Yes. There’s tremendous opportunity in the startup space, and a basic understanding of the structure of that environment can go a long way to determining your success in advocating and (more importantly) designing for experience. Absolutely, go. UX should be much better represented than it is. But be prepared to be the odd one out if you attend.
April 29th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
I gained a new and profound respect for 37Signals’ David Heinemeir Hansson after watching his talk. Savvy, straightforward, and passionately engaged with his subject and the audience - the presentation is definitely required viewing for anyone looking for an alternative to the “make it free!” school of product development.