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Kathryn Minshew at Startup School NY 2014
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Kathryn Minshew speaks at Startup School NY 2014
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Introducing Kathryn Minshew
Kathryn Minshew, CEO and founder of The Muse, is introduced at Startup School NY 2014. The introduction highlights her background, including her work with the Clinton Health Initiative and McKinsey & Company, setting the stage for her insights on career development and entrepreneurship.
"- Next you're gonna hear from Kathryn Minshew. Kathryn is the CEO and founder of The Muse. So, The Muse is a job discovery tool that's helping one million people a month find the career, find careers ..."
The Muse's Mission
Kathryn Minshew discusses The Muse's mission to help individuals discover their career paths. She emphasizes the importance of understanding workplace culture and the realities of job opportunities, addressing a common perception issue in the startup world.
"[applause] - Hi, everyone. I'm very, very excited to be here with you a little bit today. Um, as she said I'm Kathryn Minshew. I'm the founder and CEO of a company called The Muse. Um, and we help peo..."
From Failure to Evolution
Minshew shares her journey through failure in her first startup, illustrating the challenges of early growth. She introduces the concept of 'evolution from suck to suck-less,' emphasizing that most startups are works in progress and the importance of learning from mistakes.
"you all about today is a perception issue that I think exists in this startup world. And that's very easy to look at companies two or three down, years down the line, sometimes companies that are quit..."
The Early Days of The Muse
Kathryn recounts the origin story of The Muse, detailing her childhood aspirations and the transition from management consulting to entrepreneurship. She reflects on the challenges of finding meaningful career paths and the initial struggles of launching The Muse.
"So, I wanna take you through the early kind of suck of The Muse, and walk you through some of the lessons we learned, a couple of "Oh God! Why did we do that mistake", and a few things that hopefully ..."
Building the Foundation
Minshew discusses the early strategies for building The Muse, including the importance of career content and partnerships. She highlights the initial success with Uber and the significance of understanding user needs in creating a marketplace.
"jobs. And at the same time I met my co-founders, one of them, Alex, is here today, and we started talking about some of these issues around the fact that the way people think about their career has ch..."
Word of Mouth and Content Strategy
Kathryn explains how word of mouth and content creation were pivotal in The Muse's early growth. She shares her experience of reaching out to her network and leveraging content to attract users, emphasizing the power of effective communication.
"there was a lot, a lot to be desired. We started out with career content, because when you create a marketplace, where you have buyers and sellers, in this case, candidates and companies who want to h..."
Navigating Fundraising Challenges
Minshew recounts her experiences with fundraising, detailing the rejection from numerous investors and the stereotypes faced while targeting professional women. She emphasizes the importance of persistence and understanding market perceptions.
"we found to be super effective, one was just asking for word of mouth. Um, so when we launched The Muse, I scraped my Gmail for everyone that I emailed with over the past three years. I took out thing..."
The Y Combinator Experience
Kathryn shares the pivotal moment of being accepted into Y Combinator, describing the excitement and pressure that came with it. She reflects on the lessons learned during the application process and the importance of resilience in entrepreneurship.
"and San Francisco, that'd be a relatively small percentage of people in this room or in the general population. But if I say, I have a really great article on how to be more effective at answering ema..."
Simplifying Ideas for Success
Minshew discusses the importance of simplicity in startup ideas, recounting advice from Y Combinator to focus on launching a single feature. She highlights the iterative process of refining The Muse's offerings and the significance of user feedback.
"interesting is the first people who gave us a 100% definitive yes was Y Combinator. Um, so this is us on the day we interviewed... We were absolute fucking terrified. Um, we were also a little bit tho..."
Key Lessons Learned
Kathryn shares critical lessons learned from her entrepreneurial journey, including the importance of honoring commitments, the value of 'done is better than perfect,' and the necessity of real-world testing for ideas.
"fact as soon as we get accepted to YC, we started thinking really big. And in fact, too big, because our first ideas were insanely complicated. Um, this is a mock that we made of what we wanted The Mu..."
Building Trust and Reputation
Minshew emphasizes the importance of building trust and maintaining a good reputation in the startup community. She shares a personal story about her first hire and the challenges of honoring commitments during tough times.
"luckily less so that I wanna run through in my last couple minutes. So the first is, is honoring your word and not just contracts, and I was actually thinking about this in the context of, you know......"
The Power of Persistence
Kathryn discusses the necessity of persistence in entrepreneurship, sharing her experiences with partnerships and the importance of understanding what motivates others. She highlights the value of polite persistence in achieving success.
"sometimes doesn't go according to plan. The second Zack also covered, but it's this idea that done is better than perfect and that you have to start somewhere, and if you cannot win if you don't pass ..."
Finding the Right Team
Minshew talks about the significance of building a strong team and understanding individual motivations beyond financial compensation. She shares strategies for recruiting talent and fostering a collaborative work environment.
"you know, this is The Muse now, that's The Muse then. Nobody looks at the site and thinks "Wow! That's gonna be a world changing billion dollar company." That's okay because we got it out there and we..."
Staying Grounded in Reality
Kathryn concludes with a reminder to stay grounded and not believe the hype in the startup world. She emphasizes the importance of understanding user needs and the satisfaction that comes from overcoming challenges and proving doubters wrong.
"otherwise it will ruin your life. Um, my first company was not only a failure because we had flat growth and a relatively uninspired product, but it was also a failure because we had essentially a bus..."