How to Start a Startup
Sam Altman
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Recommended Readings, to be read before watching the lecture:
9/23/14, Lecture 1
, Sam Altman and Dustin Moskovitz - Ideas and Products; Why to Start a Startup
#1:
Advice for Ambitious 19 year olds
by Sam Altman
#2:
Good and Bad Reasons to Become an Entrepreneur
by Dustin Moskovitz
9/25/14, Lecture 2
, Sam Altman - Teams and Execution
#3:
Stupid Apps and Changing the World
by Sam Altman
#4:
Do things that Don’t Scale
by Paul Graham
9/30/14, Lecture 3
, Paul Graham - Before the Startup
#5:
How to Get Startup Ideas
by Paul Graham
#6:
[video] Excerpt from Steve Jobs’s 1995 interview with Computerworld’s Oral History Project
- watch from 1:10:53 onwards
10/2/14, Lecture 4
, Adora Cheung - Building Product, Talking to Users, and Growing
#7:
From Failure to $37M in Funding with Adora Chueng
#8:
Why Startups Need to Focus on Sales, Not Marketing
by Jessica Livingston
10/7/14, Lecture 5
, Peter Thiel - Business Strategy and Monopoly Theory
#9:
Chapter 3-5 of Zero to One
by Peter Thiel
10/9/14, Lecture 6
, Alex Schultz - Growth
#10:
[video] How we put Facebook on the path to 1 billion users
- Chamath Palihapitiya;
(user-provided transcript)
#11:
Does Slow Growth Equal Slow Death?
by Joel Spolsky
#12:
A Recipe for Growth - Adding Layers to the Cake
by Jeff Jordan
#13:
Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook’s Early Days
by Mike Isaac
#14:
The Secret Behind Pinterest’s Growth Was Marketing, Not Engineering
by Liz Gannes
#15:
[video] Growth Accounting & Triangle Heatmap Explanation
by Danny Ferante
#16:
Startup = Growth
by Paul Graham
#17:
Chasing Facebook's Next Billion Users
by Douglas MacMillan
#18:
[video] Ready to Grow Breakout Session
at f8
10/14/14, Lecture 7
, Kevin Hale - How to Build Products Users Love
#19:
Your App Makes Me Fat
by Kathy Sierra
#20:
What Makes a Design Intuitive
by Jared Spool
#21:
[video] Creative mornings with Ben Chestnut
;
(user-provided transcript)
#22:
What Makes Marriages Work
by John Gottman, Nan Silver
Bonus Material
BJ Fogg’s
Behavior Model
Customer Intimacy and Other Value Disciplines
, Harvard Business Review
The Sanctity of Marriage
, This American Life
Creating Passionate Users
10/16/14, Lecture 8
, Walker Williams, Justin Kan, Stanley Tang - Doing Things that Don't Scale, PR, How to Get Started
#23:
The Press is a Tool
by Alexia Tsotsis
10/21/14, Lecture 9
, Marc Andreessen, Ron Conway, Parker Conrad - How to Raise Money
#24:
Why Software is Eating the World
by Marc Andreessen
#25:
How to Convince Investors
by Paul Graham
#26:
How to Raise Money
by Paul Graham
#27:
Linkedin’s Series B Pitch to Greylock
by Reid Hoffman
Ron Conway's Recommended Reading List
10/23/14, Lecture 10
, Alfred Lin and Brian Chesky - Hiring and Culture, Part I
#28:
The Happiness Culture: Zappos isn’t a Company -- it’s a Mission
, Fast Company
#29:
Don’t Fuck Up the Culture
by Brian Chesky
10/28/14, Lecture 11
, Patrick Collison, John Collison, Ben Silbermann - Hiring and Culture, Part II
#30:
What’s It Like to Work for Stripe
by Alex Maccaw
#31:
How to Hire
by Sam Altman
10/30/14, Lecture 12
, Aaron Levie - Building for the Enterprise
#32:
The Continuous Productivity of Aaron Levie
, MIT Technology Review
#33:
Robert Cialdini’s six principles of influence
#34:
Marc Andreessen on the Future of Enterprise
by Alexia Tsotsis
11/4/14, Lecture 13
, Reid Hoffman - How to Be a Great Founder
#35:
The Information Age to the Networked Age: Are you Network Literate?
by Reid Hoffman
#36:
The Alliance: A Visual Summary
by Reid Hoffman
#37:
What I Wish I Knew Before Pitching LinkedIn to VCs
by Reid Hoffman
#38:
If, Why, and How Founders Should Hire a “Professional” CEO
by Reid Hoffman
#39:
The 18 Mistakes That Kill Startups
by Paul Graham
11/6/14, Lecture 14
, Keith Rabois - How to Operate
#40: Bill Walsh, The Score Takes Care of Itself, pp. 2-31, 137-146, 202-203
#41: Andy Grove, High Output Management, Chapters 3 (optional), 4, 9, 11, 13, 14
11/11/14, Lecture 15
, Ben Horowitz - How to Manage
#42:
Making Yourself a CEO
by Ben Horowitz
#43:
A Good Place to Work
by Ben Horowitz
#44:
How to Minimize Politics in Your Company
by Ben Horowitz
11/18/14, Lecture 17
, Hosain Rahman - How to Design Hardware Products
#45:
[video] Hosain Rahman at Startup School 2014
11/20/14, Lecture 18
, Carolynn Levy, Kirsty Nathoo - Legal and Accounting Basics for Startups
#46:
How to Work with Lawyers at a Startup
by Mark Suster
#47:
Startup Company Lawyer
by Yokum Taku
12/2/14, Lecture 19
, Tyler Bosmeny, Michael Seibel, Dalton Caldwell, Qasar Younis - Sales and Marketing, How to Pitch, Investor Meeting Roleplaying
#48:
SaaStr – From-the-trenches sales advice
by Jason Lemkin, founder of EchoSign
#49:
How I Raised Myself From Failure to Success In Selling
by Frank Bettger (1949)
#50:
Five ways to build a $100 million business
by Cristoph Janz
#51:
Pitching Hacks! How to pitch startups to investors
by
Venture Hacks