Thread by @sriramk

⏰just kicked off "myths of early stage startups" with @aarthir @pmarca @avichal @garrytan

Live thread below 👇

The winning product becomes the best product
Companies that take a big market share are able to double down on R&D which gives a significant advantage in the long term

Marketing is instrumental in making a winning product - case-in-point, the relatively weaker Intel 8086 processor was branded as a more comprehensive solution, making it the IBM PC’s brain & knocking out its competition

Figuring out distribution is huge- product with the most distribution wins.
Google signed two distribution channel AOL and Yahoo where they bought distribution

"Catching lightning in a bottle is the first step, but sustaining it is key to winning the war" - @garrytan

.@aarthir
The role of Sales in going from 0-1: Hire supplementary roles when you require them - don't get into the mindset that hiring someone will lead to things getting resolved on their own

"Think about aspects like stock, vesting, and control from day 1, to avoid future founder conflict"
@pmarca

"Vesting agreements are crucial as most of the work lies ahead for a growing company". Think of extended "pre-nups" vesting schedules
@garrytan

. @pmarca
on culture fit in engineering-heavy teams:
- Engineers are usually obsessed with their work & are introverted
- Salespeople don't do sales for fun after work-hours & are extroverts
- Expand the company's definition of culture or risk being dysfunctional

On lean startups: lean startup philosophy was a net positive, but has 3 big flaws:
1/ glorifies fail fast mentality, can become an excuse for people to give up where they could have figured it out a bit later (Paul+Rohan at CH)

2/ fails to generalize for domains outside SaaS - like biotech or hardware products
3/ over-constraints ambition for simpler, realistic goals

Thanks all - will try to get rest later.

We need to do a second part to this episode soon!