This document summarizes the unlikely journey of an MIT student who founded a startup called Inbox after not fitting the typical founder profile. It outlines how they initially had little technical experience but gained skills through shipping many small projects and learning to code. It also details how they came up with the idea for Inbox after identifying pain points with existing email services and gathered inspiration through constantly reading, learning new skills, and persevering through hard work.

3. The least likely founder

12. Wasn’t the prodigy kid programmer....
... no Intel Science Fair, robotics club, programming
classes, research labs, aced SATs, ivy league, etc.
“MIT? That’s in Michigan right?”

13. MITERS
tEp
The Media Lab
Alex Hornstein

15. what about a startup!
...what is a startup?
[crickets]
how about a conference?

16. +1000 people
$15k from sponsors (VCs, law firm)
12 speakers from Boston & SF ... 3 full-time students.

20. ... where am I going?

21. The important thing is to strive towards
a goal which is not immediately visible.
That goal is not the concern of the mind,
but of the spirit.
– Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
ie: stop worrying, keep working

22. ( Most of them will be crap.That’s ok. )
1. Have (lots of) ideas

23. • Business
• Product design
• Founder blogs
• Hacker News
• Design magazines
• HBS Case Studies
• Take classes in
other departments
• NYT & NPR
• Technical papers from
industry companies
2. Read everything

24. MIT does not teach you how to build (enough) stuff.
I shipped +20 projects before graduating. Almost all of
them were well-paid contracts with flexible hours.
... and I wrote my first line of code during freshman year.
You don’t run a marathon without training first!
3. Develop skills

25. 1. Have lots of ideas
2. Read everything
3. Learn to build stuff

26. 1.01365 = 38.8
0.99365 = 0.03
Inspiration exists,
but it has to find you working.
― Picasso
Raw truth: no substitute for hours

27. Today
Something new...

28. Would I rather lose all of my email
or all the files in my Dropbox?

29. everyone uses this
everyone hates it
technical challenges
meta-problem
gmail sucks

30. ☑ large market
☑ hard tech
☑ pain point
☑ crufty foe
Ingredients for a startup:

32. New web-based app
Works with existing accounts
The “Tesla” of email
For power users
• sales
• biz dev
• project management
• knowledge workers

35. 1.01365 = 38.8
0.99365 = 0.03
1. Have lots of ideas
2. Read everything
3. Learn to build stuff
Learn to code
...and work your ass off

39. PS: We’re hiring!
mg @ mit.edu
Follow @InboxApp