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- Dropped out of high school to work at Yahoo! at 17.
- Dropped out of college (UC Berkeley) to work at Aol at 19.
- Co-founded Trigger.io (YC-backed)
- Co-founder of AdStage
At the ripe age of 23, Sahil’s maturity is quite impressive. Learn what he does to stay on top of his game and how he got world class investors for his companies.
Key Takeaways
- We’re in a new era where it’s okay to drop out to start businesses. Sahil dropped out of high school and college to go work at big companies like AOL and Yahoo.
- Don’t just drop out because it’s the cool thing to do. Everybody is different. Drop out if you have the support structure and if you’re motivated.
- If you’re venture backed, you can operate at a loss for a little bit to collect data. Pricing can be determined later as well.
- AngeList is great for getting started for finding good investors and piquing interest.
- The stuff you see in TechCrunch is after numerous ‘No’ answers. It’s not easy to do.
- It may be cliche but it really is all about the hustle. Work hard and you’ll get there.
- How they got their first 100 customers – look
- Being a cultural fit is extremely important when it comes to hiring. There’s also an online coding test they run to try to weed people out.
- Sahil asks a lot of questions to understand things better for a long term gain. That way, he can manage better. People made fun of him for taking Philosophy but the big benefit is asking the right questions.
- Recommended book: On Bullshit
- Startup reads/articles can be dangerous because every single situation/second is different. For example, Action A might be very bad for one company but might be very good for yours.
- Productivity hack: theme your days. e.g. use one day to do meetings, one day for product, one day for marketing, etc.