A year ago, I talked to the UMd students who are a part of the on-campus student-run startup incubator, Startup Shell. It was nice to be invited. I had to check with the organizers that what I had to say would be useful because, um… my solo startup wasn’t “lucratively successful”… okay, so no revenue at all. (The first feedback that I got from someone was really positive, but it was a month after I completely stopped…) The organizers said the topic was good, and the reception I got from the students was pretty positive.
The gist is that startups are not the only way to innovate in technology, or to generally bring positive change in the world. Careers are not necessarily linear things. They don’t fit a shape or a timeframe that you can plan. Such is life. But you can decide on what mission/purpose/values will drive you, and by extension, the things you choose to do. A lot of Silicon Valley companies define their purpose as some sort of making the world better through their money-making efforts, and if you really believe in innovating to make the world better, then you will still find ways to do it even if your startup company goes bust. Perhaps not so obviously, even when employed inside established companies, the skills needed to sell an idea to the world are no less relevant or necessary to gain purchase from decision makes inside the large company.
On a related note, a few months before that, I hosted a friend and his niece for lunch at work so that his niece could get some “real talk” from someone who went 10 toes in on a startup and can speak on what it takes to be serious about it, and how it’s not easy even when you do. Here’s the advice I sent her afterwards to learn tips on what to do & not do:
…here are a few of the Paul Graham essays that stood out to me back when doing a startup:
I followed that advice a lot. I moved to Berkeley in one of the 2 neighborhoods of Berkeley he mentioned. I lived extremely frugally like a grad student. Also notice that I did the very first of the 18 things that kill startups, which is being a single founder. I knew it was frowned upon and did it anyways, and so I knew what I was getting into. But there was a whole essay on why you should “not not do” a startup. And I had a backup plan in mind, based on his line “failure is not failure”. So I didn’t care, and went for it.
If you like that, there’s a book by his wife that I can recommend. Ironically, it shows you how much random luck and perseverance are key factors, not necessarily “good plans” or “brilliance”. Humbling and encouraging at the same time.
A guy named Steve Blank is the most well known educator about how to start a startup. His book, now renamed The Startup Owner’s Manual, is kind of like the bible for anyone trying to do a startup. It’s more substantive about how to actually systematically think about the process in terms of phases, and how to think about each phase. Going to the library and getting the gist of what its core overall message is seems very important, moreso than Paul Graham essays if you’re actually doing a startup. A couple of students of Steve Blank coined the phrase Lean Startup, which is just a subset of his teachings, actually. You can get a taste of that from this short clip:
The friends I had in Berkeley when I first moved out there were also excited about entrepreneurship and Silicon Valley, too. We would talk about it a lot. Early on, one of them mentioned this MJ Nike commercial to me, and in a supportive way. Inspiration comes in lots of forms:
Also during that first year, I tagged along with my friends who signed up for a free 1-day workshop that the Stanford Design School was giving on teaching the Design Thinking Process. It was really cool and eye opening. I mention it because Design Thinking has a lot of overlaps with a startup because it’s about solving problems that people have. Although not every design problem is big enough to sustain a full on business (ex: my recent Tamil keyboard redesign in Gboard), even if they bring tremendous value to the world. This video does an okay job explaining what Design Thinking is, but there’s a really fun longer video — “the shopping cart video” — if you’re curious for more.
Don’t worry, I made sure to say that while Paul Graham’s old essays are good and still hold up, he’s a blowhard in his political views. Just look up whom he handpicked to succeed him as the leader of Y Combinator.
Sequenced Thoughts from C/S 