Do More Faster Chapter 1: Idea and Vision
I recently started reading the book Do More Faster By David Cohan and Brad Feld. It contains a bunch of small stories of various entrepreneurs who have worked with Cohan and Feld at TechStars. What I really love about the book is how each small story is design to deliver one important message about running a startup.
For my own personal (and anyone else reading this) reference, I will be outlining the sections of each chapter (which they call themes) and writing out what I think is the take home message for each section.
Chapter 1: Idea and Vision
Trust Me, Your Idea Is Worthless
- Ideas are worthless, execution is everything. Most startup’s ideas change during the process of running the startup. Dont’ be gung-ho about executing your idea exactly as you pictured it, it will probably change.
Start With Your Passion
- The startup path is a very difficulty path, make sure you are doing something you are passionate about.
Look For The Pain
- Find something that people are having a painful time with and then fix it by making it easier and less painful.
Get Feedback Early
- Share your idea with as many people as possible and as early as possible to see if people like it. Don’t be afraid of people “stealing” your idea.
Usage Is Like Oxygen For Ideas
- Iterate in the in the wild. Push frequent updates in order to test features on actual customers. Do A/B testing.
Forget The kitchen Sink
- Avoid “everythingitis”. Focus on one thing and do it better then anyone else. Focus on quality not features.
Find That One Thing They Love
- Observer how your users use or misuse your product. This will tell you what your users really want to use your product for. You could use this as a sign to change the direction of your product or make a spin off.
Don’t Plan. Prototype!
- Focus on prototyping and iterating, don’t spend so much of your time planning (plans change).
You Never Need Another Original Idea
- Listen to your customers, they will tell you what your products needs.
Get It Out There
- Get your product out ASAP so you can get feedback early. Don’t build a “Dream Product”, you need customers in order to know what they want.
Avoid Tunnel Vision
- Don’t be set on a plan, most plans change in a startup.
Focus
- Focus on one thing, don’t waste time branching out.
Iterate Again
- Iterate on all your products. Take the mistakes from your past products to learn about how you could make your current and future products better.
Fail Fast
- You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Fail fast, learn quickly, and try again.
Pull The Plug When You Know It’s Time
- Learn when to pull the plug on a dead idea, don’t just wait and run it into the ground.
That’s all for chapter one, lots of great messages! I definitely recommend getting the book if you want to read the stories behind each message.
[...] This is my summary of the second chapter (theme) of Do More Faster. Feel free to check the summary for the first chapter here. [...]
[...] the third chapter (theme) of Do More Faster. Feel free to check the summary for the first chapter here and the second chapter [...]