How to Start a Startup is a series of video lectures, initially given at Stanford in Fall 2014. Lecture Transcript: http://www.tech.genius.com/Kevin-hale-lecture-7-how-to-build-products-users-love-part-i-annotated Kevin Hale, Founder of Wufoo and Partner at Y Combinator, explains how to build products that create a passionate user base invested in your startup's success. See the slides and readings at http://www.startupclass.samaltman.com/courses/lec07 Discuss this lecture: http://www.startupclass.co/courses/how-to-start-a-startup/lectures/64036
YC Partner Kevin Hale walks us through the process of evaluating ideas and how founders should think about their startups. Startup School is YC's free online program for founders. Sign up to access the full curriculum and over $100k in deals! https://www.startupschool.org/ Transcript and lecture slides here: https://www.ycombinator.com/library/6e-how-to-evaluate-startup-ideas This lecture is part of YC's Startup School, a free online program and global community of founders. Register and join the community at https://www.startupschool.org/ *** Topics 0.00 - Why we're starting with evaluating ideas 1:25 - YC doesn't just fund companies with traction 2:50 - How can I predict if an investor will like my idea? 5:15 - A startup idea is a hypothesis 6:55 - The problem 10:55 - The solution 12:35 - The insight 14:00 - Founder's unfair advantage 15:00 - Market growing 20% a year 15:40 - Product 10x better 16:30 - Acquisition model 17:55 - Monopoly 18:50 - Threshold belief 19:10 - Miracle belief 20:10 - Example: YC 23:20 - Example: Wufoo
YC Partner Kevin Hale covers the first principles of conversion, one of the main drivers of growth for your startup, and how you can improve it starting with your landing page. Transcript and lecture slides here: https://www.ycombinator.com/library/6l-how-to-improve-conversion-rates This lecture is part of YC's Startup School, a free online program and global community of founders. Register and join the community at https://www.startupschool.org/ Timestamps 0:00 Introduction 1:04 Benchmarks 3:28 The knowledge gap 5:05 How do I get users to push the button? 11:00 Real-world examples
YC Partner Kevin Hale talks about the importance of building a successful working relationship with your cofounders, and setting up processes to optimize for the strengths of your team. Transcript and lecture slides here: https://www.ycombinator.com/library/6n-how-to-work-together This lecture is part of YC's Startup School, a free online program and global community of founders. Register and join the community at https://www.startupschool.org/ Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc) - 00:00 Introduction 00:30 Marriage advice 2:33 Four things to avoid when fighting 4:22 Planning for disagreements 13:05 Non-violent communication 22:48 Pay down emotional debt 26:30 Conclusion Looking for a co-founder? Try YC's new co-founder matching platform: https://www.ycombinator.com/cofounder-matching
YC Partner Kevin Hale goes over the fundamentals of pricing and monetization, how it affects your customer acquisition strategy, and how to optimize it through a few rules of thumb. Transcript and lecture slides here: https://www.ycombinator.com/library/6h-startup-pricing-101 This lecture is part of YC's Startup School, a free online program and global community of founders. Register and join the community at https://www.startupschool.org/ Timestamps 0:00 Introduction 1:35 ROI of monetization 2:50 The pricing thermometer 5:00 Pricing mistakes 6:34 Stages of a company 7:47 Why is pricing innovation hard? 9:55 How to optimize prices 10:58 Pricing danger zone 15:24 10 - 5 - 20 rule 16:50 Conclusion
https://StartupSchool.org. Kevin Hale is a Partner at YC. Before working at YC he cofounded Wufoo. https://twitter.com/ilikevests Kevin’s on the podcast today to do some Office Hours and talk about this year’s edition of Startup School. If you’d like to sign up or learn more, check out https://StartupSchool.org. The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon. https://twitter.com/craigcannon Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year. Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/ *** Topics 00:25 - Stats from Startup School 2018 1:45 - Updates for Startup School 2019 8:15 - Sign up at StartupSchool.org 8:50 - Sean Maina asks - In the early days of Wufoo, how did you give a great customer experience? 11:30 - Design affordances 13:45 - Sunil Tej asks - How was Wufoo 10x better than the market when they just got started? 17:45 - Building an audience before a product 20:15 - Wufoo's growth 23:30 - Coming up with the idea for Wufoo 27:30 - Companies pivoting during YC 29:00 - Building a product in an unsexy space 32:30 - Sivaraj Ghanesh asks - How do you know if you've achieved product market fit? Or if your product just isn't noticed yet? 43:30 - Sivaraj Ghanesh asks - How do you gauge the size of a market? 46:00 - Tips for Startup School success 50:15 - Advice on vetting cofounders 53:45 - Sign up at StartupSchool.org