6 Skills for Successful Startup Founders: Maximize your chances

Summary

视频讨论创业者在创业之前应该提前掌握的技能,包括工程、产品、设计、销售营销、财务、领导力等。每项技能都很重要,但每个人一生只能精通一两项。所以,创业团队成员应该各擅其职,互相配合。具备一些关键技能可以降低创业风险,但并不能保证成功。

Takeaways

• 😀 要成为未来的创始人,需要提前掌握工程、产品、设计、销售营销、财务、领导管理等多项技能
• 😊 技能越全面,吸引高质量合伙人和员工的可能性就越大
• 😎 如果不懂编码,至少要对技术有基本理解,这是参与创业的基本要求
• 😯 产品需要不断迭代和改进,以实现和扩大产品市场契合度
• 😮 通过自己动手做项目,可以培养产品能力
• 🤔 交互设计关注产品的使用方式和体验,这与产品密切相关
• 😀 销售和营销可以帮助创业公司打入市场和获取用户
• 😉 财务知识有助于公司从0到1后做出正确决策
• 😳 领导力来自于同理心和责任感的结合
• 🤓 技能熟练程度不同的人组成创业团队,可以互相 complement

Q & A

这篇视频主要谈论了什么?

这篇视频主要谈论了未来创始人在创业之前应该提前培养什么技能。

创业之前需要掌握哪些技能?

需要掌握工程、产品、设计、销售和营销、财务、领导力和管理等方面的技能。掌握的技能越多,创业成功的可能性就越大。

对于没有技术背景的人,应该如何获得工程技能?

可以在线学习编程,或者与有技术背景的合伙人团队合作。至少要对技术有基本的了解,这样才能更好地与技术合伙人合作。

如何提高产品设计技能?

通过在业余时间构建和发布产品,与用户交流沟通,了解他们是否喜欢你的产品以及原因,从中获取经验。

设计包含哪两方面技能?

视觉设计和交互设计。视觉设计决定产品的外观,交互设计决定产品的使用体验。

销售和营销技能为何很重要?

品牌塑造和获取用户关注至关重要。优秀的销售和营销技能可以帮助创业公司更准确地访问目标用户。

创业后哪些财务知识很关键?

公司估值原理、投资回报率分析、现金流分析等,这些可以帮助做出更好的业务决策。

怎样提高领导力和人际交往技能?

通过参与需要协调多人的项目和活动来锻炼,同时要培养同理心和责任心。读《人性的弱点》一书也很有帮助。

单个人要成为所有这些技能的专家有多难?

基本不可能,一生之中最多只能在一两项技能上达到专家级水平。所以创业需要组建不同技能互补的团队。

技能和团队之外,创业还需要什么?

需要有 Shared Vision,需要有创造巨大价值的点子。这需要时间和运气,技能只是更好地把握机会。

Outlines

00:00

😊 创业前需要具备的技能

视频提到创业者在创业前需要提高的技能有:工程、产品、设计、销售营销、财务、领导力等。具备这些技能可以吸引优秀人才加入,增加创业成功概率。即便不需要全部掌握,至少要在1-2项上有深厚积累,其他方面也要有基本认知。

05:00

😃 产品设计的重要性

产品设计包含交互设计和视觉设计。交互设计决定产品的使用流程和体验,是产品中心。视觉设计决定产品的外观和美感。产品人需要不断迭代和优化,才能获得并保持市场地位。

10:01

😎 销售和品牌营销的魅力

销售是一项被低估的职业。每个人都是一个品牌,在当今时代更需要展现自己。初创公司通过社交媒体直接面向目标用户,品牌营销意义重大。

Keywords

💡创始人

创始人是指那些创立或启动新企业的人。在视频中，创始人需要具备或者了解多种技能以提高创业成功的可能性。这些技能包括工程、产品、设计、销售与市场、财务、领导力和管理等。创始人不仅要有深厚的专业知识，还要有足够的广度来理解团队中其他人的专长。

💡技能

技能指的是完成特定任务所需的能力和知识。视频强调，创始人在创业之前应该尽可能地掌握多种技能，包括但不限于工程、产品开发、设计、销售和市场营销、财务管理等。这些技能能帮助创始人更好地理解市场需求，开发产品，吸引客户，以及管理团队和财务。

💡团队

团队是指一群共同朝着相同目标努力的人。视频中提到，高质量的团队对于创业成功至关重要。一个团队应该由在不同领域有深厚专业知识的人组成，这样可以确保各方面的工作都能被有效地完成。

💡工程

工程技能主要指技术和编程能力。视频中提到，虽然不是每个创始人都需要有计算机科学学位，但拥有基本的技术知识是非常有帮助的。这些技能是建立技术驱动企业的基石，可以帮助创始人理解和开发产品的技术方面。

💡产品

产品能力是指能够理解市场需求，决定产品方向和功能的能力。视频强调，一个好的产品人需要不断实践和与用户互动来精细化产品市场的契合度。这是一个持续的过程，目的是不断改进产品以满足用户需求。

💡设计

设计包括用户体验和视觉设计两个方面。视频中提到，设计不仅仅是产品外观的问题，更关键的是如何提高用户的使用体验。好的设计能够使产品更加吸引人，并且解决用户的实际问题。

💡销售与市场

销售与市场技能是指能够有效推广产品和服务，吸引顾客的能力。视频中指出，销售是被低估的职业，但对于创业成功来说至关重要。一个有效的销售和市场战略可以帮助创业公司快速成长。

💡财务

财务管理是指对企业财务进行规划、监控和管理的能力。视频中提到，虽然在创业初期财务管理可能不是最关键的技能，但一旦企业开始成长，良好的财务管理对于持续增长至关重要。

💡领导力

领导力是指引导和激励团队成员共同达成目标的能力。视频强调，领导力不仅仅是通过权威指挥他人，更重要的是通过示范和共情来建立团队凝聚力。好的领导者能够理解团队成员的需求，并有效地管理和激励团队。

💡风险

风险是指在创业过程中可能遇到的不确定性和潜在失败的可能性。视频指出，创业本质上是一种风险投资，但通过掌握上述提到的技能，可以将这种风险转化为更加计算过的风险。这意味着，虽然成功不能保证，但通过准备和知识可以提高成功的机会。

Highlights

拥有更多的这些技能,你将吸引更多高质量的人来与你合作,无论是联合创始人还是员工。

如果您还在学校,那么学习领导力的最佳方式之一就是找到可以让您管理项目和协调人员的领导职位。

深入掌握其中一两项技能,同时对其他技能有较广泛的了解,就是您在有生之年所能做到的全部。

技术仍然是这个世界中的关键杠杆。它是最终的护城河。

产品是关于知道要建立什么。这基本上是在一个机器上运行不断找到和精炼产品市场契合度的过程。

无论业务规模如何,品牌的捕捉注意力的能力从未如此重要过。

财务知识在从零到一之后是绝对必要的。

每个企业要么正在增长,要么正在衰退,如果您没有指标来衡量,您就无法判断自己属于哪一种。

领导是一个非常重要的技能。如何带领并使人们做事,有时甚至没有权威?

跟随者对领导者更重要,而不是领导者对跟随者更重要。

如果您不知道如何编码或没有技术背景,您应该保持开放的态度并学习。

深入掌握一两项关键技能,在其他技能上具备“危险”的广泛知识。

最难的是,要成为一个出色的产品负责人的最明显的方法就是通过实践。

交互设计是设计的重点。它与产品联系最为直接。

《如何交朋友与影响人》这本书可以使您在全部技能上有所提高,而不仅仅是领导力。

Transcripts

- In this video,

we talk about what skills a future founder

can and should work on

before they take the plunge into starting something.

Let's get into it.

(upbeat music)

Do you have the skills

and do you have what it takes?

First off, here's the list

and it's pretty long.

Engineering, product, design, sales and marketing,

finance, leadership and management.

The more things out of this list

you are actually familiar with,

the more likely you will succeed.

We all want to be a part of a rocket ship

as it's taking off

but we don't want to join anything

that will fail without us.

And as a result,

we repel people when we need them the most.

And in the same way,

we attract them when we have other options.

This is a key fact of life.

The more of these skills you have,

the more you will attract high quality people

to come work with you,

whether it's cofounders or employees.

If you're early in your career,

know that you should try and figure out

which of those skills you can be particularly good at.

What do you enjoy?

At the same time,

learn the other parts too.

You might not enjoy working on some of these skills,

but every single one of them

will help you along on your journey.

And because you're strong at those parts,

you will be much more complimentary.

Be deep in one or two of these areas

but broad enough to be dangerous in the rest.

You actually need this to be able to tell

who's actually good in those positions

and to be able to work with those best people

in those expertise areas.

(rockets firing)

I want to be super explicit here-

you don't have to have all of these things figured out.

Deciding to start is a very personal decision.

There are people who have very few of these things

and still succeed,

and there are also people

who have all of those skills listed

and they fail.

Starting a start-up isn't deterministic like that.

You're taking risk

and these skills make it a more calculated risk.

All right, let's start.

When it comes to engineering,

we're talking about technical prowess.

You have to have the basics down.

You don't need a computer science degree

but it sure does help.

Technology remains the key leverage in this world.

It's the ultimate moat.

When you have a piece of code

or an algorithm figured out

that nobody else has,

when you have something like PageRank,

that's the ultimate moat for Google

and it protects something

that is worth billions and billions of dollars.

Someone can't just walk in off the street

and take that from them.

They'd have to build PageRank first.

I realize a lot of different kinds of people

are watching this video.

So I don't want to discourage you.

If you have technical skills, great, that's table stakes.

If you don't,

then you do have to team up with someone who does.

And if you don't know how to do that,

then you should try to learn enough

to get dangerous with it.

Most people who try to find technical cofounders

don't even make the simple effort

of understanding the craft.

But if you understand the craft

and you can build a good but not perfect version

of what you ultimately want to build,

you can get the ball rolling.

It'll immediately distinguish you

against this sea of nontechnical people

who are also trying to find a technical cofounder.

Again, you don't have to be the best at this

but it helps.

All I'm saying

is that if you don't know how to code

or you don't have a technical background,

you should keep an open mind

and you should learn.

How do you acquire this skill?

Well, while top CS schools remain the gold standard.

Increasingly, there are great ways

to learn how to code online.

Codecademy, for instance, is amazing at this,

or for scientists who want to train up

into the data science and data engineering roles,

there are amazing fellowships out there

like Insight Fellows.

Link in the description

if you want to watch my video on that.

There's a YC startup named Career Karma

that is also an amazing way

for people to break into tech.

They'll even help you find the right bootcamp

or figure out if the bootcamp path is right for you.

Next is product.

Being able to do product,

being able to run the product function

is about knowing what to build and for whom.

I really like Suhail Doshi's lesson about product

and here's what he says,

"I wish I understood the degree to which

"focusing on a few things in a product mattered.

"I used to feel liberated

"that I could finally work on new ideas

"once things started growing

"but I later realized

"that you're only at the beginning of a curve

"to finally take the market.

"It's often so hard to discover and deliver on a use-case

"that's so important to people.

"And to let up on the gas and let others catch up to you

"is an opportunity wasted.

"Often, it requires continuous improvement

"over many years

"to keep and take the mantle."

Product is about knowing what to build.

It's basically being able to run the process on a machine

to continually find and refine product market fit.

This isn't a one time thing.

This is a constant process.

And how do you acquire this skill?

Unfortunately, there's not an obvious way

to become a good product person,

short of practicing it.

So that's why working on projects in your spare time

is probably my best recommendation

to learn product.

Build something and release it,

release it to users and see if they stick with it.

Talk to users

and see why they did or didn't take to it.

Did it solve their problem?

What are their hangups?

The next big thing to really focus on is design.

And when we're talking about design,

there are actually two parts to this,

interaction design,

also known as user experience,

and visual design.

UX and interaction design

is about how it works

and visual design is how it looks.

Most people think about visual design

when they hear the word design.

It's a skill like drawing or painting.

You can work on it,

this skill can be cultivated

and I think there are two practical aspects of visual design

to really note.

One is really being able to do it yourself.

And the fact is, most founders

would get a lot out of this skill

but it's not required for them.

It sure does help

if you're particularly consumer though.

Being able to do it yourself

just means faster iteration time.

The second aspect is probably more important

and that is having taste.

So being able to know when a design

does or doesn't work.

Does it fit the aesthetic?

Does it fit the mood?

Does it speak to your customer?

Does it convey the right level of quality?

Taste is something that is very important,

particularly for consumer,

but these days, for all businesses.

Now, interaction design is probably the meat of design

when I think about it.

Interaction design is most directly related to product.

And it's about taking the ideas of who's it for

and what problem are we solving

and it brings it to the level of how.

Where do you put the buttons

and what do you say on those buttons?

What do you say around those pages

to get people through something really complicated?

How do you break up a complex multi-step process

into something manageable?

And how do you make sure the user knows where they are

and where they want to go?

And one of my favorite books

on how to learn the basics

is Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug.

I actually did a two hour talk

on Y Combinator Startup School

on YouTube that you can watch right now.

It's also a link in the description.

(phone ringing)

Next is sales and marketing.

As Ryan Peterson of Flexport says,

"Sales is the most underrated profession."

My cofounder Alexis Ohanian talks about

how everybody is a brand

and a brand's ability to capture attention

has never mattered more.

Brand is super important

because every business today is a meme.

It's never been easier for a startup

to access exactly the people who have that problem.

Sales, marketing, being able to sell,

being able to get in front of people,

it's super key.

(Intro to Pink Floyd's song Money)

Finance is another key skill to work on.

This isn't super important at the outset.

Engineering, product, sales, marketing,

they're really the key to getting product market fit

but financial literacy is absolutely essential

once you go from zero to one.

Matt MacInnis from Rippling

talks about, "I wish I'd better understood

"the principals of corporate fiance.

"Once I understood that my company was worth

"the net present value of all future cash flows,

"I started making better decisions.

"Also, all the investor tropes

"started to make a lot more sense."

Finance is a fundamental too

in helping you figure out how to repeatedly grow

and how well you're actually doing on that front.

Every business in the world

is either growing or dying

and you can't really tell which one you're doing

if you don't have the metrics to measure it.

Finance and budgeting

allows you to make sense

of the decisions you have to make in a business.

Should you hire that executive

and let them build a team?

Should you invest in that new office?

When do you get paid back for those things

and do they make economic sense?

One of the most important skills

is actually leadership and people management.

How do you lead

and how to do you get people to do things,

sometimes without authority?

Well, by example, for one.

Most people think being a leader is about being stern

or having some sort of authority.

Harvard professor Barbara Kellerman says,

"Followers are more important to leaders

"than leaders are to followers."

And this is why leading from empathy is more powerful.

It creates a more connected team

that can weather more storms

and make better decisions together.

There's more to being a leader

than being empathetic though, of course.

The next stage is to hold people accountable.

And in practice this is very hard

because you have to have very crucial conversations,

hard discussions about when things didn't go right,

ideally as constructively as possible,

while also having the impact you need to have.

This bad thing, it can't continue.

And how do you acquire this skill?

Well, if you're still in school,

one of the best ways to do it

is find leadership positions

that let you run programs and coordinate people.

That might be an after school sport,

that might be a club,

things right there in your school.

At work, there are even more

very direct ways to exercise this.

Take on projects that require coordination,

ideally with many people,

and try to actually drive to some sort of numerical outcome.

Can you actually increase sales by X percent?

Did you and your team

create X amount of value for that company?

The best book I can think of

that a lot of people haven't read

because it has a very cheesy title is actually

How to Win Friends and Influence People.

It's one of the most obvious ways

to put to work a bunch of skills

that you need to be successful

across the whole gamut of skills really.

Read that book and you'll be a better leader

but you'll also get better

at all the other skills too.

(dramatic music)

So that was a lot of things

and the reality is it takes a lifetime, or maybe two,

to even get good at one or maybe two of these things,

let alone getting to passable in the others.

How do you put lifetimes of experience together in a room,

well it could be a Zoom room,

in order to make something great?

Well, you just described the process

of putting together a startup, a startup team.

People talk about founders a whole lot

but founders are often the speck of dust

that forms the crystalline structure

that actually solves a real problem.

And this is why teams are so crucial.

Any given single human being

could probably only get truly great

at one or two of these skills

but you need a team of people who are great at all of these

in order to build a startup or business that really matters.

Finally, remember you don't have to have

all of these things figured out.

Deep expertise in one or two of these things

and then a broader view on the other skills

is all you really have time to do in a lifetime.

And having all of the right skills

is still no guarantee you'll find the right idea

or build the right team.

But that's why you're watching this.

If you want to hear more about ideas and teams,

stay tuned for future episodes

and please smash that like and subscribe button.

Hit the bell to get some notifications

and it all helps me a ton

so that I can try and help you all.

Thank you again for watching all the way to the end

and I'll catch you real soon.