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Comment by fizx | Hacker News Reader

Anyone else not want to watch a video to see a checklist? Anyone kind enough to paste notes?

It's 8 minutes. Watch the videos. You'll be happy you did.

Honestly, it's not really a checklist. PG enumerates some of the most important qualities in an interview. There was content in the interview that's rather difficult to express in writing, particularly the parts about friends sticking together and founder-groups with no apparent leader.

"No apparent leader" is easy to say, but during the video PG describes his observations of that leadership vacancy in a number of different ways. You can intuitively understand what sort of leadership he's talking about, in a way that "we don't like not knowing who to address a question to" doesn't really convey. (ie, it's nothing about the artist not wearing a "hi I'm the artist" nametag.) And it doesn't have to be a super-charismatic visionary who also knows everything, just someone who is more assertive and capable of driving the others.

Evelyn Rusli is the best interviewer TC has and is enjoyable to watch.

IMO it sounded like she was bored/dismissive during most of his replies. Like she'd rather be interviewing an NBA star or something and just wanted to get this shit over with.

Seconded. Please tag as a video, this "article" isn't useful if you're not using speakers/headphones.

PG's Startup Checklist

Been friends

Worked together for awhile

Don't come together for only the startup

If close friends, stick with it even if things look bad because things eventually get better.

Don't want companies run by committee.

Need clear leadership, don't want unclear sense of who the primary decision maker is. Want to know who they should address a question to.

But not a megalomaniac, just want somebody who steps forward.

Founder power is increasing, investor power waning, probably good because those most knowledgeable getting more power.

Lot cheaper to start a startup these days.

More socially acceptable to start a startup these days.

Conway said a lot of his portfolio companies were in New York these days.

----

I hate watching videos too as interesting as PG is to watch, I took the hit for the rest of ya.

(I read much faster than anyone can possibly speak.)

This does not convey the sentiment that Paul expressed.

I took away : friends will work on a project through the bad times out of loyalty (which happens to be a good thing), while co founders who were not friends will bail at the point when the walls come crashing down.

That's what I meant to express precisely. I'm sorry you were dissatisfied but I was fighting leiningen and swank-clojure while transcribing.

You may have your refund of $0.00 for my services in two weeks.

Also, he stated that every startup will go through such a phase, where it seems that there's really no point in continuing. Even with startups that are bound to be really successful, the founders first have to find some way to get through that rut. If the founders were already good friends, they will pull each other through it, if for no other reason but because they enjoy working together.

Samuel_Michon, That's what I said... (almost) since you misstated one of the points 'if for no other reason than the co founders like working with each other' when PG actually said they will continue to work out of loyalty and not wanting to let their friend down.

Didn't mean to criticize you. I personally found it quite enlightening to hear Graham say that every startup will eventually go through a tough phase, whether or not the business has any chance of making it -- I felt that little nugget of truth needed some attention.

Everything else I said in that post were my own words, especially the reasoning on why good friends stick it out. I find it kind of negative to simply put it on guilt -- I choose to believe that good friends work together and help each other out because they like each other, not because of fear of losing a friendship.

Excellent list, alnayyir. Thanks for doing that.

Sure, but it's nothing that we haven't heard before. Every startup faces moments of uncertainty and the feeling of impending doom, and founders that know each other are more likely to stick through hard times due to the pair bond. See, if the only thing holding two people together is the potential success of the startup, they're more likely to jump ship when the going gets tough. If the founders are friends, they'll weather the storm out of sake of the friendship, and have greater chance of getting lucky.

So...

PM me if you are interested in working on a side project together and nurturing a friendship based on shared values.

Yeah, we've heard this from day 1. What was interesting to me was to hear PG say that even they underestimated how important the people are compared to the initial idea. Compared to the first batches he said the application form now has a lot more questions about the people, and a lot fewer about what they plan to do.

I think anyone who is in the HN environment has already realized that the people and, likely more importantly, the ability to execute* is the #1 secret in a successful startup. People outside the HN circle don't understand this though. I have friends who are still looking for that perfect idea and then they'll start working on something on the side. I just don't see it working that way, instead you keep working on the side until you morph whatever you have into that perfect idea.

*Execution really is king, but is greatly helped by being smart and fast. Basically if you have all three you can take a whim idea do it quickly and see 'what if.' The faster that someone can iterate through that process the more chances they can give themselves at finding a good business.

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