21:04Dan Siroker at Startup School 2013
From Y Combinator · Published Jul 23, 2014 · Watch on YouTube
TL;DR
Dan Siroker describes his entrepreneurial journey from a failed sentiment-analysis stock predictor (no paying customers) through Carrotsticks (six months to first customer), Spreadly (one month), to Optimizely (first customer before writing code).
Key insights
- Having no paying customers (infinity months to first customer) is a critical failure; getting a paying customer quickly validates the product.
- Building a product you would want yourself (like Optimizely for AB testing) makes prioritization and feedback much easier than building for a demographic you don't belong to.
- Distribution is a major challenge; word-of-mouth from happy customers (e.g., 5,000 evangelists at Optimizely) is more valuable than any salesperson.
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