Tom Preston Werner at Startup School 2012

TL;DR

Tom Preston Werner argues that three things are each the only thing that matters—people, product, and philosophy—but they are actually inseparable, like quarks in an atom. Using GitHub’s early story, he shows that founders should assemble complementary people, solve a small real problem first, evolve the mission, and build a culture that attracts the right hires.

Key insights

• Money is irrelevant; it is only a number enabling office slides.
• A company is nothing except the decisions it makes; decisions come from people, so people are all that matters.
• Complementary skills between cofounders (front-end, back-end, Rails middle) allow covering the whole product.