Tips For Technical Startup Founders | Startup School
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Күн бұрынYC Group Partner Diana Hu was the CTO of her YC startup Escher Reality, which was acquired by Niantic (makers of Pokemon Go). She shares her advice for being a technical founder at the earliest stages - including topics like how to ship an MVP fast, how to deal with technology choices and technical debt, and how and when to hire an engineering team.
Apply to Y Combinator: yc.link/SUS-apply
Work at a startup: yc.link/SUS-jobs
Chapters (Powered by bit.ly/chapterme-yc) -
00:00 - Intro
00:09 - How to Build and Perpetuate as a Technical Founder
01:56 - What Does a Technical Founder Do?
04:38 - How To Build
08:30 - Build an MVP: The Startup Process
11:29 - Principles for Building Your MVP
15:04 - Choose the Tech Stack That Makes Sense for Your Startup
19:43 - What Happens In The Launch Stage?
22:43 - When You Launch: The Right Way to Build Tech
25:36 - How the role evolved from ideating to hiring
26:51 - Summary
27:59 - Outro
@ramunascepaitis Жыл бұрын
I was in a startup that died because choosing tech took over a month and then we spent a few month learning these new 'cool' technologies. Then I built an MVP if my own idea with PHP and javascript in few evenings.
@EmreSafak Жыл бұрын
You're supposed to hire or have people who know the tech stack.
@LCTesla 11 ай бұрын
nothing wrong with a more elaborate stack, but you've got to have the expertise upfront, otherwise its usually a waste of effort.
@ThePandaGuitar 11 ай бұрын
Good ol' PHP.
@theworldismine7788 10 ай бұрын
What do you guys think of Django and Svelte for a startup?
@ramunascepaitis 10 ай бұрын
@@theworldismine7788 just as discussed above - doesn't really matter the framework - all of them are more or less decent and save time compared to working with vanilla version. Most important is how the technical co-founder(s) are familiar with it and whether they can achieve results with it rapidly.
@GeorgiDimitrovX 8 ай бұрын
Stages 1. Ideating - Build prototype quickly 2. Build an MVP - Do things that don't scale - Create a 90/10 solution - Choose tech for iteration speed 3. Launched - Quickly iterate with hard & soft data - Continuously launch - Balance building vs fixing Takeaway: Startups move quickly.
@chapterme Жыл бұрын
Chapters (Powered by ChapterMe) - 00:00 - Intro 00:09 - How to Build and Perpetuate as a Technical Founder 01:56 - What Does a Technical Founder Do? 04:38 - How To Build 08:30 - Build an MVP: The Startup Process 11:29 - Principles for Building Your MVP 15:04 - Choose the Tech Stack That Makes Sense for Your Startup 19:43 - What Happens In The Launch Stage? 22:43 - When You Launch: The Right Way to Build Tech 25:36 - How the role evolved from ideating to hiring 26:51 - Summary 27:59 - Outro
@lvhise Жыл бұрын
That was amazing inspiration! I've been stuck so long behind the idea of building the perfect product from the beginning, I haven't even started. Here I go!
@elijahcannon2863 Жыл бұрын
I am in the MVP stage. I’ve been taking to all of my 20 something users and I just need to move quickly. This is GOLD, thank you Diana Hu! Exactly the lecture I needed to hear. 🚀
@mahamatadoum9061 Жыл бұрын
same here, building a fintech startup, good luck!
@adekanbioluwaseun219 Жыл бұрын
Oh nice Elijah, I am a product manager and can be of help. What are you building?
@saitaro Ай бұрын
How's your startup going?
@elijahcannon2863 Ай бұрын
@@saitaro I took a 5 month break from this project but I returned to it recently and just this week I made a lot of progress on the development of the product!
@elleszabo8655 9 ай бұрын
Diana held a session with women in tech at USC. She's awesome! Thanks Diana
@lecoleadstefnum Жыл бұрын
Took me hours to finish watching this. I was writing a blog post on it as I was watching. thanks Diana and YC.
@karanprasad1632 Жыл бұрын
Could you please share the link to your post?
@SuperNovaJinckUFO Жыл бұрын
This was very useful and informative! I hope we can see more content from YC pertaining specifically to the process of product development. My friend and I are working together on a project, and we both have technical expertise, so we're very much splitting the product dev work 50-50
@rileyknox5034 10 ай бұрын
Very nice to see someone who actually understands the difference between SW and HW/deeptech and speaks to them differently. So many of these YC videos only talk about SW and the challenges faced there.
@theimproooooooover 2 ай бұрын
Yep, HW and deep tech =/= SW
@jamaineruiters7643 Жыл бұрын
This is such great advise as I think as human beings we tend to want to present the perfect product instead of just a functional product then iterate.
@suryapratap3622 Жыл бұрын
it just changes my mind towards past product mistakes, really good insights.
@astralhealthandwellness 11 ай бұрын
Thank you so much for this information. Start-Up School has given me so much beneficial knowledge for free, truly you guys are an amazing company.
@habibi750 Жыл бұрын
I needed to hear this. I want to launch a prototype but keep thinking it needs to be 80% developed.
@icarusachilles6777 Жыл бұрын
I loved this video because I'm not even into Tech. I'm a writer, but your insight gave me a new perspective on formatting a project. Thank you!
@JackMthembu 21 күн бұрын
This is insane… I love every bit of the video… So practical… Thanks 🙏🏾
@arshak8036 Жыл бұрын
Great vid, I built my first webapp in PHP when I was 13 and remember it was just so easy everything made sense & I could build & deploy stuff with like pretty much no money and so fast, now I’m getting back into coding for a new app and that meme made so much sense having gone through the messy middle stage learning modern web dev frameworks and now considering just continuing my MVP in PHP before I’ve gone too deep into the new frameworks that scale but are new for me.
@mosesnandi Жыл бұрын
Vanilla technologies - HTML, CSS, JS, PHP and MySQL just work. No need for over-engineering…
@mouldibziou998 Жыл бұрын
Great content as always! Can we have a video for non technical founders ?
@buzz1ebee Жыл бұрын
Great video. Very true that by the time you need to really scale in a big way you can afford to spend the time to do it. Spending a year mucking about making an expensive scalable product that no one wants to use is a complete waste of time.
@devinetradable9669 2 ай бұрын
This is exactly what is needed right now as an aspiring startup founder
@jonyfrany1319 11 күн бұрын
This video just changed my life forever ♾️
@mahamatadoum9061 Жыл бұрын
Thanks for sharing Diana. I am building a fintech startup, I'm a solo technical founder, it's hard to build just an MVP, because of the regulation and laws in fintech industry.
@BhaveshKakwani Жыл бұрын
She did give the example of Stripe’s Mvp, how they were basically doing transactions manually on the backend
@exmachina767 6 ай бұрын
If I were in your position I would try to find a cofounder, either 1) someone who’s technical, if you’re savvy in the fintech industry and can take charge of the business side, or 2) someone who’s business savvy and can navigate the fintech world, while you take care of the tech side. I’m from Mexico and I’ve seen a few fintech startups that are doing well here, and in pretty much all of them there was someone who was savvy about the fintech industry (or at least knew the financial sector well enough to know what mattered and how to navigate the waters)
@mahamatadoum9061 6 ай бұрын
@@exmachina767 thanks a lot for the advices. After interviewing 7 technical founders, I selected a senior engineer at Amazon that working on the payment system. I am technical too by the way.
@JoeGaz Жыл бұрын
Loving this new series! Can we have a non-tech founder video?
@lagcisco Жыл бұрын
fantastic video and insights. choose for iteration speed in the startup context is great advice.
@mmaaaxxxxx Жыл бұрын
There's something I just cannot understand. Everybody says don't overbuild, yet when we show MVPs to customers, they reject them as being underbuilt. Even the customers who are more early-adopterish, they refuse to pay for underbuilt software. And we can't get thorough user study as the customers won't commit resources.
@tomasobuscema8428 Жыл бұрын
In fact, MVP is just bullshit (but do not tell YC....)
@kipsangaaraplimo1442 Жыл бұрын
Mvp to them us always a complete product that hasn't morphed to accommodate customer feedback
@SheetanshuShekhar Жыл бұрын
Loved this talk. Especially the bit on choosing the tech stack. I think this was really something other talks were missing.
@3obby Жыл бұрын
I love this content and am really thankful for it.
@Videos-ml1ny Жыл бұрын
Great presentation Diana! Cheers
@sugebzzy2038 Жыл бұрын
This was great. THANK YOU
@hus1991 Жыл бұрын
I really needed this. Husain from Oman.
@jajajajam Жыл бұрын
Great vid! I often bash Rails and MVP frameworks over k8s and microservices but maybe I should consider the situation first 🤔
@je9625 Жыл бұрын
You should. Rails rules.
@exmachina767 6 ай бұрын
I guess the takeaway is that the best engineering in the world won’t matter if you build the wrong product and you only have so much time to discover what that product is before you run out of money
@JetSoftProHQ 10 ай бұрын
Hiring at the MVP stage can indeed pose challenges and slow down progress, and we appreciate you shedding light on this aspect. However, it's important to acknowledge that there are situations where tech founders require additional support and expertise to handle tasks efficiently. In such cases, outsourcing or outstaffing can be a fantastic solution. By engaging a skilled team for a specific period, you gain flexibility without the commitment of full-time employees. It allows you to focus on your core tasks while ensuring essential work is completed by experts.
@amey7064 10 ай бұрын
What is the font used in headers of the presentation that the speaker is using in the video?
@microto Жыл бұрын
what a great video! thank you to much for sharing. I think that people scale team too fast and overbuild all the time.
@adekanbioluwaseun219 Жыл бұрын
Absolutely agree! Do you have any idea of startup communities I can be a part of, where things like this are taught?
@jtse9473 10 ай бұрын
this is beautiful, thanks!
@sidharthsahni Жыл бұрын
i'm done with the prototype and partner is showing to potential customers to get feedback. Was really stuck what to do rn. was planning mvp and thought would start after this and that. then saw this gold :chef_kiss: starting now... back to my cave XD
@joelee5682 Жыл бұрын
Awesome sharing , really helps
@mlntdtechbae 8 ай бұрын
This is great, thanks!
@arman.assadi Жыл бұрын
MORE Diana please! 👏
@timlmit Жыл бұрын
Thanks Diana
@UduakEssien-fn5vm Жыл бұрын
Love this, thank you
@bananesalee7086 Жыл бұрын
this jacket seem very popular amongst san francisco tech people, what brand is it ?
@user-xu9om2vz9b 11 ай бұрын
Very helpful!!
@Snowy123 Жыл бұрын
What about for non-technical founders?
@koustubhavachat Жыл бұрын
Amazing video...
@BuckFanks Жыл бұрын
Hu's on point!
@VuLuuPsy 4 ай бұрын
Thank you so much!
@Marshall86MT 9 ай бұрын
These video are super inspiring and give a lot of great insights. Thanks for sharing! I have a question, I'm a web developer that works full time for a company, so no much time left during the week.. Would you consider "bad" starting an MVP using a CMS like Wordpress just to get the attention of some users and present the project to some potential investors? once the funds would come in, the all project would be done properly. Thanks to anyone who will reply
@exmachina767 6 ай бұрын
No, not bad at all. That’s exactly the point she made with “prototype quickly in a matter of days or weeks”. At that stage you’re just trying to figure out if your ideas resonate with users (i.e., are you after an actual problem?)
@sakchais Жыл бұрын
This is truth right here. “Comfortable with chaos”
@eliastouil7686 Жыл бұрын
Thank you 🙏🏽
@pratikgaikwad7405 Жыл бұрын
We also want tips for non tech founders and how to build as a non technical founder?
@peterbloomingdale Жыл бұрын
In my experience, the best advise for non-technical founders trying to build a product, is to become technical yourself. Trying to find a technical co-founder that is passionate about your business idea just as much as you is highly unlikely. Design the product yourself using Figma. Dev shops are usually a trap, but they can sometimes be helpful. Use KZfaq/ChatGPT as much as possible to assist with the development. Coursera is great for learning to code for free. Hiring part-time hourly based developers to help you when you get stuck. This is what has helped me as a non-technical founder that turned technical.
@bhaskaruprety230 2 ай бұрын
A quick and easy solution is to find a technical co-founder 😂
@dharaypm Жыл бұрын
as a tech person, whats the best way to find co founders?
@takshbamboli8129 3 ай бұрын
Learn business stuff
@pankaj16octdogra Жыл бұрын
Superb
@eronmonseleoaikhina5832 Жыл бұрын
Great Video
@jdtransformation Жыл бұрын
Great content as usual, BUT… Would be so appreciated if more of these resources were aligned for hardware and deep tech plays.
@wandilekhumalo7062 3 ай бұрын
Inspirational😮
@GabrielSestrem Жыл бұрын
15:10 NextJS, Vercel, Supabase. Iteration speed 🚀
@omarnomad Жыл бұрын
Where's the Spotify Podcast :(
@jessexing3456 11 ай бұрын
startups move quickly!
@cajotafer Жыл бұрын
Yep, I am feeling the heat of the technical debt 😂
@senju31 11 ай бұрын
same
@tungvu4339 Жыл бұрын
The speaker is really down-to-earth.
@nbhhcghgfyg 10 ай бұрын
How about non technical founder??
@tech3425 Жыл бұрын
Does this mean I should write dirty code?
@exmachina767 6 ай бұрын
It means that, in the beginning, you should prioritize discovering actual problems your users have and a product that solves them over excellent engineering. Because the best engineering in the world will be worth nothing if you don’t find product-market fit before you run out money.
@posthocprior Жыл бұрын
I’m a technical founder. Was hoping for insights. Instead, the video is, essentially, a summary of broad ideas that are often repeated, for founders of all types, in Silicon Valley. What would have helped:’how technical founders efficiently solved problems that are common. That is, case studies from YC that could be broadly applied.
@OskarD90 Жыл бұрын
The large majority of technical founders are still making these mistakes, and their target viewers with these videos are people who don't have the experience to understand this. I think this video will do a huge service to the startup ecosystem as a whole. Would be valuable to share the things you mentioned as well, of course. But it wouldn't be practical for most people viewing this video
@posthocprior Жыл бұрын
@@OskarD90 Am not sure how you've reached the conclusion that my point is 1) in the distinct minority 2) repetition of easily available material and points is necessary. I'm the obvious counterexample. The question is if YC has data that can validate that repeating the same points, made elsewhere and at YC, are more worthwhile than, for instance, the point I made.
@markjackson8181 10 ай бұрын
where have you found good insights?
@posthocprior 10 ай бұрын
@@markjackson8181 Talking to other technical founders. The answers I get, to my questions, are very different from what the videos I've watched, on YC's KZfaq channel, on most topics. (Can provide an example or two if you ask.)
@markjackson8181 10 ай бұрын
@@posthocprior please do. additionally, may I ask how did you build this network signed a tech founder in progress
@vinodrajj Жыл бұрын
What is MVP
@ephreyilunga6360 Жыл бұрын
Minimal Viable Product
@vinodrajj Жыл бұрын
@@ephreyilunga6360 thank you for answering 😊
@lebranding Жыл бұрын
You could've googled it. Move fast! jk
@anuwatsongkarn1443 11 ай бұрын
How about Tips For Non Technical Startup Founders ?
@casinarro 3 ай бұрын
Angela Yu has so similar accent ❤
@uzisyed2852 Жыл бұрын
This is been great advice. Thanks. On a side note, the glasses you are wearing are no good as they kept sliding of the nose.
@IggySpolsky Жыл бұрын
Cool
@Bobadeeznuts Жыл бұрын
Love how everyone at Y Combinator are midwit meme connoisseurs
@banksofbarcelona3893 Жыл бұрын
It was an intense battle between what she was saying and how she looked. Glad they both won
@genyklemberg 8 ай бұрын
What if we are family business?😅
@fannyfanny1524 Жыл бұрын
Loura kaoo
@saswatpattnaik98 Жыл бұрын
I can't appreciate this video more..the yc content has always been good. But this time it's even beautiful 😍
@CharleswoodSpudzyofficial 8 ай бұрын
Ok so to be successful you need to build software in about 15 seconds that users will pay for. EZ
@TheBlackManMythLegend Жыл бұрын
No I thank you.
@afrivox 6 ай бұрын
Diana who? 😂😂😂 good talk 😂
@nanay3000 Жыл бұрын
So, basically find someone that is willing to work with you for free in the begening ?
@exmachina767 6 ай бұрын
Huh?
@beschterrowley3749 6 ай бұрын
listening carefully, plenty of mixed messages in here, poor signal .. kinda dumb
@miranashussain7534 Жыл бұрын
Diana who?
@ErnestoSun 6 ай бұрын
Quick, fast, ... time is money ... and then ... where is the susyainable quality? Who cares. Money!
@exmachina767 6 ай бұрын
You can improve your product once you’ve proven product-market fit (i.e., once you’ve proven there’s a market that’s willing to buy your product). The thing is, that product is often the result of many feedback iterations after initial launch. If you do it backwards, it’s more likely than not you will find yourself with great engineering that serves no customers. That’s the point repeated over and over again at YC.
@VoltHaul 11 ай бұрын
Feels like some of those are problematic for devtools companies. I mean if you're building something for engineers, will they be ok to pay for imperfections or just go "well i could build this myself" for which engineers have a tendency already :D
@saidmuminrahmatov5451 Жыл бұрын
We need a video about Non- Technical founder/CEO for tech startup!!! @ycombinator
@michaelmontero2902 10 ай бұрын
I spent like two months working on an mvp and making onboarding and that kind of things 🥲 know I realize I just could call one of my customer, request the initial data and bring him the actual service he needs and start testing and validating the idea base on that 🥲
@zayyanusmani5360 6 ай бұрын
Diana who?
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