HN Explorer

Ask HN: What are your favorite videos relevant to entrepreneurs or startups?

156 points by compass-seeker ↗ HN
Here are a couple of mine:

- Vinod Khosla talks about the importance of team building, the startup life, and what it takes to be an entrepreneur. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5J7bd7nzmw

- Marc Andreesen talks about venture capitalist and the future of startups. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLNQZegq7KA

- Eric Ries gives a talk on his Lean Startup theory at Google. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEvKo90qBns

- Harley Finkelstein CPO of Spotify gives a talk on unique marketing tactics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBDOq5B4nTo

60 comments

[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 129 ms ] thread
return0
Peter Thiel's talks are usually more philosophical but interesting.
josso
For those still in college, I think Zach Holman's talk ”If Only I Knew This Shit in College” is pretty good. He describes why he thinks startups are great, what they allowed him to do, what made him join GitHub, and how to keep improving.

http://zachholman.com/talk/if-only-i-knew-this-shit-in-colle... http://vimeo.com/92087878

bennyg
I think most of this stuff applies if you're in industry as well. Basically the gist is don't be a dick, keep improving, and here's how to tell if you should jump ship or if the company you work for is worth sailing with.
compass-seeker
This looks awesome. Added to my plan to watch list! Keeping a playlist going for all these videos.
davidw
If you like that kind of thing, both the Business of Software conference and MicroConf put a lot of their videos on line.

http://businessofsoftware.org/

http://www.microconf.com/

Personally, I can't stand videos. Way too slow, impossible to scan, and generally an inconvenient way of absorbing information.

alain94040
Agreed, which is why I prefer http://mixergy.com, it's audio only, easy to listen in the background, and it has a full transcript for quick scanning.
davidw
Transcripts are great, but audio suffers from the same problems as video. If you're listening to it in the background, you aren't really listening to it. Try, for instance, listening to your "significant other" in the background while you stare at the screen and then attempt to gauge their opinion of your listening!
Spearchucker
Purpose - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0257019/

While entertaining in its own right, it's interesting because (some people say) the movie somewhat chronicles the history of the Internet Solution (http://www.is.co.za), the South African internet service provider co-founded by Ronnie Apteker and eventually bought by Dimension Data. Ronnie wrote the script for Purpose. He's up there with Elon Musk and Mark Shuttleworth in terms of his impact on the South African tech scene.

dirtyaura
Eric Wahlfors of Soundcloud telling 4 stories about early phases of Soundcloud and bootstrapping. Especially how they reached their core user base of electronic musicians by (accidentally) organizing the coolest parties in Berlin.

http://vimeo.com/11420397

cjbarber
This is a fantastic thread.

However, as someone else mentioned below, videos are terrible - too hard to scan, and far slower rates of information transfer than text.

So, I had an idea. I'm going to pay for transcription of some videos, and will share the transcripts (free, of course).

I'm choosing a transcription service now and will try and have the first one within the next 7 days.

If this is interesting to you, give me your email to help me validate it and I'll send out the transcripts over email.

Videos I'm planning on getting transcribed first:

- All of the videos in the OP

- A few more Naval videos

- A few more Andreessen videos

Link to Google Form: http://goo.gl/Hy5ob1

nate
Clayton Christensen's Job to Be Done Analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f84LymEs67Y

It's the famous, what do people hire a milkshake for anecdote from his book Innovator's Solution.

That thinking has been instrumental in guiding me to make stuff (Draft) that people have really connected to and helped spread like crazy - all because I've spend considerable time studying the jobs people have and then tried to make those jobs simpler. It's such a simple way of thinking about it, and I think people ignore it because it sounds so simple, but then they routinely create products that are small aesthetic variations of someone elses product.

livestyle
Agreed 100% Nate.

The aha moment really makes customer development make sense.

mvleming
Thank you for posing this question! I'm going to love digging through these videos.

Here are mine:

From PandoDaily, Fireside Chat With Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yPfxcqEXhE

From CoinSumm.it, Bitcoin Fireside Chat with Marc Andreessen and Balaji Srinivasan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iir5J6Z3Z1Q

From The Lean Startup Conference, Marc Andreessen, Chris Dixon, and Eric Ries: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpwSzyqTG0E

And by far the one that made the biggest impression on me, from PandoDaily, Fireside Chat With Nasty Gal CEO Sophia Amoruso: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y04gnM57Sow

From that interview alone Sophia Amoruso became a huge role model for me.

compass-seeker
Thanks for the suggestions. I'm looking forward to watching all of them, especially the Lean Startup Conference talk.