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Ask PG: Is there a "startup success recipe"?

16 points by scheff ↗ HN
I'm sure that everyone here is reading mountains of material stating "startups should be doing this!" and it's easy to get drowned in all of those TODOs and fail because we haven't placed our focus on the correct TODOs.

Are you able to summarize, into perhaps a (very) short paragraph for each of "If startups focus constantly on perfecting these things, they are almost ensured success" based upon your experience of startups?

13 comments

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nostrademons
http://www.paulgraham.com/die.html
Uhhrrr
I was going to post this, so instead I'll post what I think is the paragraph OP was hoping for:

And however tough things get for the Octoparts, I predict they'll succeed. They may have to morph themselves into something totally different, but they won't just crawl off and die. They're smart; they're working in a promising field; and they just cannot give up.

EDIT: I am not reading "mountains of material". I am mostly trying to shorten the list of things we need to do before shipping.

benologist
There is a very precise recipe necessary for success. These are the exact steps you need to take, pay special attention to the order because it's very important you follow it exactly.

1. Succeed

Unfortunately most funded, incubated, accelerated, bootstrapped, unfunded, unincubated, unaccelerated and other startups fail to follow these very simple instructions.

hbbio
1. Have luck.

2. Or: Pivot. Have luck.

3. Or: Pivot. Have luck.

(This assumes you know how to build a startup)

pg
Start with two or three founders who are determined, sufficiently smart, and work well together. Work on an idea that grows organically out of your own experience. Launch fast and iterate, using growth rate as a guide. Don't be dismayed when it turns out to be hard.
scheff
Thankyou. That's perfect.
freshbreakfast
The first adjective that pg used was "determined". It's also essentially saying the same thing as his last sentence. I'm guessing that's not an accident.
scheff
Agreed. However I managed to spend 5 years being determined on a startup that ultimately failed, so I need to focus more on the other aspects he mentions.
moonsoonmenu
I think the simplest recipe for success is set deadlines and meet them asap, the faster the start up meets deadlines the faster they grow and the faster they grow the faster they can succeed, booya
cmccabe
Up Up, Down Down, Left Right Left Right.

Works every time.