I started to watch the invaluable series of videos from the Startup School of Y-Combinator. Here I’m sharing some of the points in the discussion I found more interesting.
This is based on their YouTube Playlist, which is the 2017 version. The most up-to-date info is in their official site startupschool.org

In this video we have the presentation of Box CEO Aaron Levie.

Key points:

  • Box is a storage solution for enterprises.

  • Half of the video is referencing the power of foresight. The presenter seemed to have a clear vision of a future that is mobile oriented, of infinite computing power, and a networked economy. He and his team envisioned that a consumer-oriented storage solution was a flawed idea, as eventually the big companies will offer it for free. Thus tackling an enterprise solution was a better choice.
    All this ended to be true. However, I find this part of the presentation of little practical use. It is surprising that a group of 4 drop out students were this lucid to envision this precise future and committed to it. And there is no explanation how their thought process was to reach that.

  • Targeting enterprises has the benefits of helping slow and less innovative big companies to catch-up with current trends. Hence, business opportunities abound as a B2B startup.

  • 7 lessons learned in their path of becoming an established company:

    • Start as simple as you can.

    • Make sure you’re benefiting from a technological tailwind, and spot inflection points that change the market.

    • Your product should literally sell itself. Sales should be used to close deals, not push products.

    • Spend lots of time with your most futuristic customers, but don’t just build what they ask for. (This kind of customer suggests to you other possibilities for your product in the future. Also, a bit differently from what we learned with Twitch and Reddit, he suggests talking a lot with customers and gathering feedback, but not to reflect all the feedback into the product. Stick to your vision, and do not become genie making reality all customer requests.)

    • Make sure you’re building a modular product, not customizing for specific customers.

    • When you get to a tradeoff point, always build for the user first. Never confuse the buyer with the user.

    • Exploit business model and strategic asymmetries that incumbents can’t economically defend. (Specially talking about competitors, what is your product-wise core capability that would be very expensive, or not feasible for the competitor to achieve)

  • He recommends these books:

    • Crossing the chasm

    • The innovator’s dilemma

    • Behind the cloud

    • Blue ocean strategy