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In this interview, you’ll learn the processes he used to maneuver himself into position to eventually leave his already cool day job and go all in with entrepreneurship.
Key Takeaways
- Build something people want. Doesn’t matter how good your marketing is if you have a crappy product.
- Routine while working 9-5
- Wake up early and do work
- Work before bed
- How to set specific goals
- Listen to instincts
- Be realistic
- On getting funded:
- Raise money only if you know what you’re going to do with the money.
- They didn’t raise money only because he wouldn’t know how to make it scale significantly.
- It depends on what kind of company you’re trying to build. If it’s not labor/capital intensive, you don’t need massive funding. If it’s a huge/new idea, you probably do.
- What motivates you?
- Proving people wrong and doing things in unconventional ways.
- On remote teams
- On hiring the right people: Understanding whether or not someone is a good communicator or not. People who communicate well end up being contributors in general because they can communicate much more effectively.
- Tools for communicating: Campfire, Skype, E-mail
- User acquisition
- For the first 100 customers, you knock on their door and you do the unscalable stuff.
- Spend the first 100 days within your control to over exceed their expectations. These people will be your champions. Go beyond their expectations.
- Must Read Book
- On coding as a founder
- His team tries to keep him away from committing code but he thinks they should always be getting their hands dirty with the product. You gotta Marissa Mayer it.