Paul Graham: How to Start a Startup

Paul Graham ha escrito otro interesante ensayo como los que nos tiene acostumbrados: How to Start a Startup.

En él, relata su experiencia fundando su propia empresa y nos da su receta para tener éxito:

Empezar con la gente correcta.

Trabajar con la gente más capaz en su campo, aquella capaz de trabajar obsesivamente hasta conseguir que todo funcione al 100%, la más inteligente:

It’s no coincidence that startups start around universities, because that’s where smart people meet. It’s not what people learn in classes at MIT and Stanford that has made technology companies spring up around them. They could sing campfire songs in the classes so long as admissions worked the same.

Hacer algo que los clientes realmente quieran.

Esto parece fácil y lógico, de hecho comenta que es fácil porque casi todo el software que existe “es un asco” por lo que no resulta difícil mejorarlo y hacer algo que el cliente quiera comprar. El reto es ser capaz de ponerse en el lugar del cliente para saber lo que este necesita:

The only kind of software you can build without studying users is the sort for which you are the typical user. But this is just the kind that tends to be open source: operating systems, programming languages, editors, and so on. So if you’re developing technology for money, you’re probably not going to be developing it for people like you.

Además nos previene de hacer un “gran” software, caro y que lo hace todo:

In technology, the low end always eats the high end. It’s easier to make an inexpensive product more powerful than to make a powerful product cheaper. So the products that start as cheap, simple options tend to gradually grow more powerful till, like water rising in a room, they squash the “high-end” products against the ceiling. Sun did this to mainframes, and Intel is doing it to Sun. Microsoft Word did it to desktop publishing software like Interleaf and Framemaker.

No derrochar el dinero.

Después de hablarnos de cómo conseguir financiarnos, nos previene de la tentación de gastar el dinero demasiado rápido:

When and if you get an infusion of real money from investors, what should you do with it? Not spend it, that’s what. In nearly every startup that fails, the proximate cause is running out of money. Usually there is something deeper wrong. But even a proximate cause of death is worth trying hard to avoid.

El ensayo es una lectura absolutamente recomendable, llena de jugosas anécdotas y experiencias.