The University of Santa Cruz has a sequence in entrepreneurship (https://startups.ucsc.edu/). I gave this talk on the basics of forming a company, to help the students understand that startups take time, and nothing happens overnight.

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The World’s First Dynamic Pricing Engine for In-App Purchases
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It Takes a Village: Going from CTO to CEO
(The Short Version)

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TL;DR
• Habits, social skills, and the ability to shape your
environment are the keys to success
– Easy to learn, require diligence
– This is not rocket surgery and you already know how to do it
• Smart isn’t nearly enough
• IQ is table stakes
– Once you get two standard
deviations out, it just
doesn’t matter
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TL;DR (Second Version)
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Timeline
H1 2014H1 2013H2 2012 H2 2013
• Quit job
• Get EIR /
listen to 30
pitches
• Do
consulting
• Survey
market
• Start to build
first team
• Market
Surveys
• Confirm
initial idea
• Rebuild
Scientific
Revenue
team
• Incorporate /
get legal
advice
• Start building
initial
prototype
• Expand to
team of 5
engineers
• Start to raise
first round of
funding
• Talk to
market at
least twice a
week
• Build
advisory
board
• Close initial
funding
round
• Start paying
people
• Start hiring
more people
• Go to market
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18 Months to Beta
• It takes time
• It could have been 15 months if I’d been more
efficient
• But not much shorter
• Key point: this stuff takes time, even if you’re
experienced and know what you’re doing
• Even more key point: you knew that already
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Overarching: You’re Not Unique
• We all have great ideas
• We’re all busy
• The key to success is,
astonishingly enough,
understanding this
– Respect other
people’s time and
effort
– Pay it forward and
backward
– Understand that
everyone is doing
their best
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Things Have Their Own Pace
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Always Take the Meeting
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Always Take the Cookie
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Startups are about Sales
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Always Listen
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Stick to It
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Be Happy
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Thank You
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