YC Startup's Essential Pocket Guide

Guide 1

Launch now

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Guide 2

Build something people want

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Guide 3

Do things that don't scale

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Guide 4

Find the 90 / 10 solution

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Guide 5

Find 10-100 customers who love your product

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Guide 6

All startups are badly broken at some point

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Guide 7

Write code - talk to users

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Guide 8

It’s not your money

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Guide 9

Growth is the result of a great product not the precursor

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Guide 10

Don’t scale your team/product until you have built something people want

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Guide 11

Valuation is not equal to success or even probability of success

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Guide 12

Avoid long negotiated deals with big customers if you can

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Guide 13

Avoid big company corporate development queries - they will only waste time

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Guide 14

Avoid conferences unless they are the best way to get customers

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Guide 15

Pre-product market fit - do things that don’t scale: remain small/nimble

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Guide 16

Startups can only solve one problem well at any given time

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Guide 17

Founder relationships matter more than you think

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Guide 18

Sometimes you need to fire your customers (they might be killing you)

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Guide 19

Ignore your competitors, you will more likely die of suicide than murder

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Guide 20

Most companies don't die because they run out of money

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Guide 21

Be nice! Or at least don’t be a jerk

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Guide 22

Get sleep and exercise - take care of yourself

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