Lecture 1

不要为了创业而创业，要致富有许多更简单的办法。当创业是解决特定问题的唯一方法的时候你才应该去创业。 首先要有创业的激情，其次再付诸行动。

  • Idea
    • 伟大的公司必须有好的创意
    • 如果创意可行，你可能要为创意花上十年的时间。所以在创业之前就想好公司的防御策略是非常必要的。
    • 必须有创元计划
    • 必须先有创意，再来创业。
    • 最好的公司总是使命驱动的。The company should feel like an important mission
    • 创业一般要花费10年时间
    • 开始难的公司要比开始简单的公司更容易成功。
    • 任何好创意在刚开始的时候都看上去很糟。
    • 你的创意只需要针对特定市场，再从这个小市场拓展。
    • 大家一定要潜心研究市场法则的规律，选定的目标市场必须能在之后十年内快速发展。
    • 小市场的一种优点是顾客群的消费意识强烈，迫切需要产品，就算产品现阶段不完善，但只要在不断改进，消费者是可以接受的。
    • 学生的优点在于，能比老年人更准确把握未来的市场。缺点是，不知道没有“市场”的市场是不值得投入精力的。
  • Product
    • 要找到初期用户，主动出击去找。
    • 项目开始时候，销售，售后最好都自己做。
  • Team

  • Execution

  • Why you should start a startup
    • Common Reasons to Become a Tech Entrepreneur
      • It’s Glamorous
        • basically just sitting at your desk heads down, focused answering customers, customers support, emails, doing sales, figuring out hard engineering problems.
        • Stressful
          • responsibility
          • always on call
          • fundrasing
          • health: Ben Horowitz: the number one rule of a CEO is managing your own psychology
        • can leave, but not cool
      • You’ll be the Boss
        • every one else is your BOSS.
        • The life of most CEOs is reporting to everyone else… if you want to exercise power and authority over people, join the military or go into politics. Don’t be an entrepreneur.
      • Flexibility - 在利基市场中还有可能
        • You’re always on call
        • You’re a role model
        • You’re always working anyway
      • You’ll Make More $$$ & Have More Impact
        • Adding a late-stage feature to an established company
          • Massive user base
          • Exisiting infrastructure
          • Working with an established team
    • The Best Reason: You Can’t Not Do It
      • Passion: You need to do it.
        • You’ll need passion to endure The Struggle
        • You’ll need passion to effectively recruit
      • Aptitude: The world needs you to do it.
        • The world needs it
          • Otherwise do something that the world needs
        • The world needs you
          • It’s bad for the world if you just outcompete a team with more aptitude
          • The world needs you somewhere - find where
    • Recommended Reading

Lecture 2 如何做好四要素

  1. 如何发现快速增长的市场？
    1. 相信学生的直觉，观察同龄人在用什么在做什么。
  2. 如何身心疲劳并且保持高效率？
    1. 只能熬过去

如何招聘？

  • 合伙关系
    • 好方法，就是在大学里找。或者在好公司里找。
    • 好合伙人 优于 没有合伙人 优于 差合伙人
    • 镇定坚强
    • 2-3个合伙人最佳
  • Try not to hire
  • Get the best people
    • 招聘时间占0%或25%
    • Mediocre engineers do not build great companies
    • 招聘最好的资源是，你已经认识的人。
    • 经验对独当一面的工作很重要，但是很多工作经验并不重要。
    • 三个问题
      • Are they smart?
      • Do they get things done?
      • Do I want to spend a lot of time around them?
    • Also
      • Good communication skills
      • Manically determined
      • Pass the animal test
      • Would feel comfortable reporting to them
    • 员工股份
      • 把公司10%的股份给前10位员工。他们必须在四年的时间内让这些股份变得有意义。
      • 要和投资者竞争，减少他们得到的股份；对员工慷慨。
    • 合伙人什么时候决定股份比例？
      • 开始共事的时候，尽早分配股份
      • 合伙人股份尽量相等
    • 合伙人关系破裂怎么办？
      • 每个合伙人都想兑现股份。
      • 先说好离开怎么办。提前制定好股份分成
  • You’ve hired the best - Now keep them around!
    • 你必须然给你的团队因每件好事得到称赞，而你要为每件坏事负责。
    • 你不能管得太细，你要不断让人们承担新的责任。
  • Fire fast
    • 开除工作做得不好的员工。每件事都做错了
    • 开除建立办公室政治的员工
    • 开除持续消极的员工

如何执行？

  • 创业者以身作则，说到做到。
  • CEO的工作
    • Set the vision
    • Raise money
    • Evangelize
    • Hire and manage
    • Make sure the entire company executes
  • 执行两个问题？
    • 知道做什么？
    • 如何完成？
  • Focus
    • What are you spending time and money on?
    • What are the two or three most important things?
  • Focus
    • Say no A lot
    • Set overarching goals. Repeat them
    • Communicate.
  • Focus
    • Maintain growth and momentum.
    • Work together in person.
  • Intensity
    • 保持高强度
    • 比竞争对手努力一点，让他们成功
    • Relentless operating rhythm
    • Obsession with Execution Quality
    • Bias towards action
      • Every time you talk to them, they’ve gotten new things done.
  • Intensity
    • Quick
    • Do whatever it takes
    • Show up
    • Don’t give up
    • Be courageous
  • Always keep momentum.保持驱动力 Always keep growing
  • 当你没有胜利的时候，你就要以小胜重获驱动力 Sales fix everything
  • Set an operating rhythm
    • Shipping product
    • Lauching new features
    • Reviewing/reporting metrics and milestones

Lecture 3 创业前的准备工

  • 商业中选人和选朋友是共通的。
  • 创业不是要了解创业知识，而是要了解客户。
  • 形式主义：找诀窍在创业中不可行
  • 创业很耗人。
  • 在大学应该做什么
    • 创意
      • 学习重要知识
      • 解决感兴趣的问题。不断提出问题，解决问题
      • 与喜欢和尊重的人共事
    • 合伙人
      • 理想情况下，一段时间内你都会孤身奋战，连两三个员工都没有

Lecture 4 聆听客户改错误

TechCrunch

  • pre-requisites
    • have a lot of time
  • the n00b approach
    • build product in secret
    • exclusive press launch
    • wait for users
    • buy users
    • give up
  • problem
    • what is it?
    • how does it relate to you?
    • verify others have it
  • Where to start?
    • learn a lot. become an expert.
    • identify customer segments.
    • storyboard ideal user experience.
  • What is v1?
    • minimum viable product
    • simple product positioning
    • this is not the hard part …
  • first few users
    • you!
    • your mom, friends+co-workers
    • online communities, e.g. HN, reddit
    • local communities, e.g. mailing lists
    • niche influencers, e.g. mommy bloggers
    • cold calls + emails
    • press
  • customer feedback
    • support@ very important. phone number; email
    • surveys: ok // interviews: better
    • quantitative: retention, ratings, NPS
    • qualitative: ask why, why, why
    • beware of honesty curve
  • v1 feature creep
    • build fast, but optimise for now
    • manual before automation
    • temporary brokenness > permanent paralysis
    • beware of frankenstein
  • s is for stealth, and stupid
    • someone will steal your idea
    • there is a first-mover advantage
    • .. just launch it already
  • ready for a lot users?
    • learn one channel at a time
    • iterate working channels
    • revisit failed channels
    • key = creativity
  • types of growth
    • sticky growth
      • good experience wins
      • clv + retention cohort analysis important
      • repeat users buy more and more
    • viral growth
      • WOW experience + good referral programs
      • customer touch points
      • program mechanics
      • referral conversion flow
    • paid growth
      • simple: clv > cac
      • advanced clv_ijk > cac_ijk
      • payback time + sustainability
    • key = sustainability
  • the art of pivoting
    • bad growth
    • bad retention
    • bad economics
    • 最乐观的发展情况

Lecture 5 垄断野心不可无

  • Capturing value
    • A business creates X dollars of value an dcaptures Y% of X. X and Y are independent variables.
    • perfect competition
    • monopoly
  • lies people tell
  • how to build a monopoly
    • start small and monopolize
      • it’s easier to dominate a small market than a large one
      • if you think your initial market might be too big. it almost certainly is.
  • last mover advantage
    • characteristics of monopoly
      • proprietary technology
      • network effects
      • economies of scale
      • branding
  • history of innovation
  • psychology of competition

Lecture 6 宣传观察做增长

  • What matters most for growth?
    • Retention
    • Marginal user/Magic moment
    • What is the north star of your company?
  • Tactics
    • Virality
    • SEO
    • ESPN
    • SEM
    • Affiliates/ referral programs
    • …

Lecture 7 注意细节为日常

Lecture 8 莫要轻视小市场

  • Test your hypothesis
  • Launch fast
  • Do things that don’t scale
  • Teespring
    • Finding your first users
      • Do whatever it takes to bring in your first customers.
      • Don’t focus on ROI, focus on growth.
      • Don’t giving your product away for free.
      • Talk to your users!
      • Ways to talk to your customers:
        • Run customer service as long as possible
        • Proactively reach out to current & churned customers
        • Social media/communities
      • Problems are inevitable, do whatever it takes to make them right
      • The product you launch with will not be the product that finds market fit.
      • Optimize for speed over scalability/clean code
      • Rule of thumb: Only worry about the next order of magnitude
      • Necessity is the mother of invention: You’ll find a way to make it work
      • Do things that don’t scale as long as you possibly can
    • Turning those users into champions
    • Finding product/market fit
  • TV
    • Think about your story objectively
    • You don’t have to be original, just original enough

Lecture 10 企业文化乃灵魂

  • What is culture?
    • Everyday
  • Why does it matter?
    • Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits. Your habits become your values. Your values become your destiny. – Mahatma Ghandi
    • First PRINCIPLES
    • Alignment
    • Stability
    • Trust
    • Exclusion
    • Retention
  • Core Value Work Sheet
    • As the leader, what personal values are most important to you?
    • What are the most important values for business success?
    • What values will you look for in employees?
    • What could never be tolerated?(consider the opposite as values)
    • Remember to incorporate your mission into your core value.
      • credible
  • Elements of high performing teams
  • Some best practices for culture
    • Incorporate your mission to your values
    • Performance = think harder, deeper, longer about values
    • Interview for culture fit
    • Evaluate performance on culture as well
    • Make it a daily habit

Lecture 11 团队组建多提问

Lecture 12 信息时代“软”为先

Lecture 13

  • Perception
    • Team
      • Where should I locate my startup?
      • Should I be contrarian? What is that I know but orther people didn’t know?
      • When should I DO THE WORK versus DELEGATE?
      • Should I be FLEXIBLE or PERSISTENT?
      • Should I be CONFIDENT or CAUTIOUS?
      • Should I focus INTERNALLY or EXTERNALLY?
      • Should I work by VISION or DATA?
      • Should I TAKE RISKS or MINIMIZE RISKS?
      • Should I focus on the SHORT TERM or LONG TERM?

Lecture 14

  • 辨别
    • 编辑 还是 创作？
    • 编辑
      • 简化
      • Clarify
      • Allocate Resources
      • Ensure Consistent Voice
      • Delegate