Jessica Livingston is an American author, coordinator of the Startup School and a founding partner of the seed stage venture firm Y Combinator.
We've distilled the most important points for you to enjoy.
- Embrace Unconventional Thinking
- Expect social pressure and skepticism
- Learn from successful founders who faced similar challenges
- Be prepared to explore unconventional ideas
- Bet on Crazy Ideas
- Most unconventional ideas are bad, but some have potential
- Focus on users' needs and satisfaction as a guiding principle
- Be willing to explore weird ideas that make users happy
- User Happiness as a Source of Strength
- Making users happy validates your idea and direction
- User satisfaction helps you resist conventional opinion
- Treat your early stage startup as a growing party with users
- The Gap between Conventional and Users' Opinions Indicates Potential
- Bigger gaps between conventional and users' opinions may signal greater potential
- The relationship between risk and reward applies to ideas as well
- Chase users' needs to find unconventional ideas with the potential for success
Jessica Livingstone advises startup founders to be prepared to think differently and to focus on users as their guiding principle. By making users happy, founders can resist the force of convention, and the gap between users' view and the outside world's view can be a sign of a startup's potential.
You can read the full article here: https://foundersatwork.posthaven.com/think-different-think-users