Innovation Culture David Weekly, PBwiki Stanford University October 13, 2008

Why Does Silicon Valley Work? Value capability over everything versus your parents, GPA, school… Failure-tolerant culture From Gold Rush days Hard work buys you the right to fail. Hippy culture Rapid peer distribution of best practices Lack of formalism in peer connectivity

Value capability over everything

versus your parents, GPA, school…

Failure-tolerant culture

From Gold Rush days

Hard work buys you the right to fail.

Hippy culture

Rapid peer distribution of best practices

Lack of formalism in peer connectivity

The Mentality of the Successful Entrepreneur Confidence Knowing you will succeed where others failed. Humility Knowing you have more to learn. Energy The stamina to run a long, hard race & inspire. Insight Through training, seeing what others cannot. Curiosity Wanting to know WHY.

Confidence

Knowing you will succeed where others failed.

Humility

Knowing you have more to learn.

Energy

The stamina to run a long, hard race & inspire.

Insight

Through training, seeing what others cannot.

Curiosity

Wanting to know WHY.

Ideas are Cheap! Innovation: 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration. E=MC^2 doesn’t mean you can make a nuke. Value is execution: EBay, Google, Wikipedia. Don’t hide ideas. Make them valuable. Talking about an idea will help you hone it & make it valuable.

Innovation: 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.

E=MC^2 doesn’t mean you can make a nuke.

Value is execution: EBay, Google, Wikipedia.

Don’t hide ideas. Make them valuable.

Talking about an idea will help you hone it & make it valuable.

 You’re a Failure!  Most of your ideas will be bad. It will take a lot of hard work to find this out. You will feel bad. You will feel stupid.

Most of your ideas will be bad.

It will take a lot of hard work to find this out.

You will feel bad.

You will feel stupid.

 You.

 You’re a Failure!  The key to success in any discipline? Rapid, safe failure Learning how to fall without hurting yourself Learning how to recover from an error You need this in order to train @ 100%! Embracing failure will let you be more aggressive in vetting bad ideas. Which will let you find the good ones.

The key to success in any discipline?

Rapid, safe failure

Learning how to fall without hurting yourself

Learning how to recover from an error

You need this in order to train @ 100%!

Embracing failure will let you be more aggressive in vetting bad ideas.

Which will let you find the good ones.

Technology Lets You Fail Fast Vetting technology ideas is faster, cheaper, and easier than ever. CPU, storage, RAM, bandwidth = cheap 8gb quad-core: $1600->$1150 in 9 months! Cloud compute & services = easy Rapid-prototype frameworks (Rails, PHP, Python) = fast

Vetting technology ideas is faster, cheaper, and easier than ever.

CPU, storage, RAM, bandwidth = cheap

8gb quad-core: $1600->$1150 in 9 months!

Cloud compute & services = easy

Rapid-prototype frameworks (Rails, PHP, Python) = fast

The Surprisingly Low Cost of Fail

The Surprisingly Low Cost of Fail Regular employment (25->60 @ $65k, 5%) $6.23m lifetime earnings Your startup fails after 3 years of $0 salary $10m ($125k salary after fail) Your startup wins, $4m after 4 years $17.7m ($200k salary after win) You’ll earn twice as much to do startup, even with an 80% chance of failure.

Regular employment (25->60 @ $65k, 5%)

$6.23m lifetime earnings

Your startup fails after 3 years of $0 salary

$10m ($125k salary after fail)

Your startup wins, $4m after 4 years

$17.7m ($200k salary after win)

You’ll earn twice as much to do startup, even with an 80% chance of failure.

People are your best asset! Find good people, hang onto them for dear life. Don’t be tempted to hire so-so people. Connect with others! Be social!  (But don’t just pretend to care.) M&A napkin-math = $2m/engineer.

Find good people, hang onto them for dear life.

Don’t be tempted to hire so-so people.

Connect with others! Be social! 

(But don’t just pretend to care.)

M&A napkin-math = $2m/engineer.

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