Anyone who tried this course last year, can you please share your thoughts on this course and
* why should we take this course?
* what have you achieved after taking this course?
* did it help you build/finish your startup?
* why should we take this course?
* what have you achieved after taking this course?
* did it help you build/finish your startup?
Perhaps more importantly you make connections. Just yesterday I was speaking to someone from my startup school group, and I did startup school over a year ago. They provided feedback and I provide them feedback, we also found synergies and can introduce one another to other teams, sales, etc.
I'd argue startup school isn't going to help you "finish" your startup. Only you can do that... You're motivation is the real premise behind the whole thing. However, they can give you the tools and connections to make it easier. It's always a cost benefit analysis - "is this worth doing?" Is something startup school helps answer, and also tips the balance (slightly) towards being a bit easier.
For reference, I'm still working on my project a year out (with some revenue):
Startup school helped me get free AWS credits (which helped significantly), helped make connections, and perhaps more importantly - helped with introspection. I should note, I didn't even launch a prototype until the last few days of startup school... It would have been more helpful had I had something at least half way through.
>Organize Your Companies Knowledge
Company's
Can I be your grammar Czar?
Thanks for the input.
I wasn't ready for releasing it, and was breaking some stuff last night. Thanks for pointing it out :)
1) Content - learn a lot from lectures
2) Accountability - office hours will hold you to your goals and keep you making progress
3) Mentorship - Experienced founders and office hours mates will help you make sure that you are working on the right problems in the most efficient way.
4) Community - it's inspiring and energizing to be around founders in a similar position as you. Plus, it can give you early users and customers. (Our first customers were through Startup School).
> what have you achieved after taking this course?
My co-founder and I make enough profit to live on our business while traveling full-time.
> did it help you build/finish your startup?
Yes. And, I want to participate again this year. Our 2017 problems were building the right product. Our 2018 problems are navigating product/market fit and growth.
You get placed in a cohort representing a wide range of business plans and industries. Some were moonshots requiring a lot of capital-raising and dealmaking, and others (including ours) were smaller SaaS products targeting particular business niches. There were participants at each stage of the startup pipeline, some without a product (or even a concrete idea), some just starting to sell to customers, and some mature companies with employees and interns and such.
We were making a lot of mistakes common to first-time founders, building things without first asking our customers about them, not experimenting with our message, etc. Meeting with our mentor helped us combat those issues and probably was the difference between having a functional company and not.
We'll probably try to do it again this year. Our challenges are different; last year we were trying to get our product built and get acceptance for our first few customers, whereas now we're trying to figure out how to scale our sales pipeline. I'd recommend it to anyone working on a startup, regardless of where they are in the process.
* We got accepted into YC after being in Startup School.
* Yes, I believe that the lessons in the course have been important for us.
I guess it depends on what mentor you get. I've heard of people having excellent mentors, and others that didn't even show up half the time.
But it probably also depends on your experience level as an entrepreneur. If you are just starting out with your first venture, then it can definitely be helpful if your mentor doesn't suck. If you are experienced or your mentor sucks, it's a waste of time.
I ended up wrapping up the idea I was working on. I've gone back to consultancy, still toying with other ideas looking for something else to try.
Did it help? Not really. My sticking point seemed to be that I was selling (or not as was more the issue) b2b software mostly geared to massive companies. As my mentor succinctly pointed out it's a hard game to get into because other businesses start by looking for the cloud of logos of other companies who use your software. That was the start, middle and end of his advice for me - and a fair summary of the impass I'd reached.
I've been left thinking b2b procurement is probably an area that could do with shaking up but I don't have any answers there - not surprising given I couldn't crack it at all.
Much of the course advice felt irrelevant to the actual problem I had with getting things going. But if you're targeting consumers or smaller companies, have some traction, are generally spinning a lot more plates with your business, want to move to the US and get into YC proper, it's probably far more relevant.