Ask HN: Is there a step-by-step guide on how to create a successful startup?

Overall I agree but you also kinda proved my point. In the example you laid out, they didn't execute well enough on the business to make it a success. Execution isn't in the absence of marketing, product or idea, it is the key reason why startups fail though. A weakly put together but strongly executed marketing plan beats a superb plan that is executed poorly. Execution is what matters here, the plan can be revised over and over, but if you fail to execute it doesn't matter if the most brilliant person in that field put together the plan, you will fail.

Definitely plenty of room for varied opinions here, just my 2 cents as well.

Sorry, I didn't answer the first question you asked. I don't have a guide to link to, but my general guidelines for myself:

Curiosity always, Validation, Market, Team, Mockup, Validation, Market, Sales Commitments, Build Team, MVP, Actual Sales, Iteration.

In the early stage this is what a fledgling startup looks like to me. Curiosity around ideas, always asking questions and this should never stop ever. Validation of ideas once you feel you have found one or more. Validation is done by talking to real human beings who would be the potential target clients, Market is the market opportunity research and the targeting. Team may come right after market or may wait, but either way who are the people you will need to make it happen. Mockup is a simple PDF or wireframe mockup, not even code likely at this point. Validation again on the Mockup and market. Redefine the market and or product. Start getting sales commitments at this point, build out the team and the MVP and move into sales. Then you start iterating on Product and sales.

Of course, this is a gross overview, a ton of little steps go into all this, but for me this is how you start any basic business, regardless if you want to raise money or just be successful. It starts with Idea/Clients, then you start figuring out product. When I used to help startups a lot as my consulting clients this was almost always universally failed. They'd come with a product idea but almost 0 market validation or testing, so who knows what would work. Now, there are some greenfield projects where there just isn't a market because you are defining it, but that is the rarity and generally is started and funded differently IME.

I kinda answered it in another comment too. I don't disagree that having a solid team is critical or a good product, but my point is that you can have a mediocre technical team that just keeps executing that will outperform rock stars who can get stuff done but can't execute completely. So it always boils down to execution.

A great product idea is nothing without being executed on, every day, every hour so that it is moving forward. I agree there are lots of factors that can be hard in a startup, but the single biggest issue is execution.

Even in raising money, you can have an amazing team and solid product idea, but if you execute poorly on the fundraise you will not get money or not get enough to make the idea come to reality.

I also 100% agree with you, all startups involve some lucky breaks, however, I have lots of friends who have had one or more lucky breaks and they failed to execute on them. So even luck isn't great unless you execute on it.

I'd argue a great team that is executing will see that the idea/product/concept is failing and start looking for a pivot to get it back on track because they are executing. Executing means you are setting goals, hitting goals, measuring progress, evaluating status and adjusting, if you aren't doing all of those then you aren't executing very well. And that happens at a macro and micro level at all stages, that is execution IMO.

I'll also agree that I don't know everything and plenty of people have valid concepts that have succeeded that may disagree with me. Totally fair, but IMO execution is the #1 reason startups fail and is the key to making them succeed in some form.

> You can obviously screw up a great market -- and that has been done, and not infrequently -- but assuming the team is baseline competent and the product is fundamentally acceptable, a great market will tend to equal success and a poor market will tend to equal failure. Market matters most.

http://web.archive.org/web/20070701074943/http://blog.pmarca...

If someone offered the advice "just follow these steps and you'll be successful" I would classify that as "snake oil". Or being a crook.

Most books in this category that I've read ("zero to one", "Lean Startup", etc. etc.) never literrally say that. They offer advice extrapolated from "this worked for us". Or common patterns that have lead to succes at some stage at some company.

Notice, they are not "step-by-step" guides to a successful startup. They are datapoints.

Most of it is crap.

Rule of thumb for anything, the harder books to read are often the best. So not simple blogs. Good ideas are difficult to explain.

I'd say Lean Startup and Zero to One actually lie on the "easy to understand" categories. The YC related stuff is a little harder but worth the effort.