I did the very first Startup School and the most recent Startup School. When I did the first Startup School I made a number of mistakes. The most costly was that I didn't launch early enough. When I did eventually launch my product, I launched with too many features and I found it difficult to explain to my beta testers. It was "cool" but my users found that it changed their workflow too much and they didn't want to make the investment to see if it was worthwhile. I got disheartened and gave up. The funny thing was that I was aware that what I was doing was considered "common startup pitfalls" even as I was making the mistakes. From talking to other founders, it seems that a lot of us only learn by making the mistake for ourselves. At the most recent Startup School, I started again with a new idea. I was determined to build something that solved a specific problem that was easy-to-explain and I wanted to launch quickly . I'm still very early-on in the journey but I have customers, revenue and growth. I would particularly recommend solo founders to give Startup School a go. As a solo founder, the weekly updates with peers really helped keep me honest with myself. edit: Old (failed) Startup: [link] New Startup: [link] edit2: If you watch one SUS video ever then watch this 16 minute video from Sam Altman: ▶ this video
in “Applications Are Now Open for YC Startup School – Starts in January” · View on HN