Book highlight: Founders at Work
23rd of October 2007
Founders at Work is one of a kind when it comes to communicating what a technical startup is like.
It was composed by Jessica Livingston, a Y-Combinator co-founder (next to Paul Graham, whose essays are something of a mandatory reading here at Fry-IT), from interviews with founders of companies such has Paypal, Yahoo!, Hotmail or Flickr, who give some of the most open accounts ever published on what the beginnings of technical companies are really like. For technical folks pondering their next product or next business plan, even though not necessarily in a full-fledged startup environment, such a material is extremely inspiring.
The lessons from Founders at Work pretty much boil down to picking the right co-founders, as people are everything, not dwelling too much on an initial idea or a business plan, as change to those can be forced by varying market conditions, and working very very hard, maintaining a lead from the competition. Hiring the best people is obviously very important, too, as is maintaining the right culture to keep them.
I'll definitely be referring to Founders time and again for inspiration in decisions previously taken in successful technical businesses.