Michael Seibel - Building Product

YC CEO Michael Seibel outlines how successful startups think about building something people want. Startup School is YC's free online program for founders. Sign up to access the full curriculum and over $100k in deals! www.startupschool.org/
Chapters (Powered by bit.ly/chapterme-yc) -
00:00:00 Introduction
00:00:53 What allowed us to survive?
00:03:50 What problem are you solving?
00:10:11 Who is your customer?
00:18:39 Does your MVP actually solve the problem?
00:21:10 Which customers should you go after first? (the easy ones!)
00:25:46 Should you discount or start with a super low price? (no!)
00:27:58 How to setup metrics
00:32:02 Product Development Cycle (v1)
00:43:44 Pivot vs Iterate
00:46:09 Fake vs Real Steve Jobs
00:48:04 Summary
00:51:06 Q&A

[@chapterme]

Chapters (Powered by ChapterMe) - 00:00 - Intro 00:53 - JustinTV (Twitch now) make a lot of mistakes but the things that allowed them to survive 03:50 - What problem are you solving? 05:31 - Can you state the problem clearly? 05:45 - Have you experienced it yourself? 06:12 - Can you define your problem narrowly? 07:02 - Is the problem solvable? 10:11 - Who is your customer? 10:23 - Everyone? (no!) 11:30 - How often do they have the problem? 13:50 - How intense is the problem? 15:07 - Are they willing to pay? 17:05 - How easy are they to find? 18:39 - Does your MVP actually solve the problem? 21:10 - Which customers should you go after first? (the easy ones!) 24:25 - Which customers should you run away from? (the hard ones!) 25:46 - Should you discount or start with a super low price? (no!) 27:58 - How to setup metrics 28:15 - Google Analytics + Something else 29:36 - Pick 5-10 important stats 31:13 - Make measurements a part of product spec 32:02 - Product Development Cycle (v1) 36:11 - KPI Goal 37:52 - Brainstorm 39:01 - Easy/Medium/Hard 40:50 - Decide 41:35 - Written Spec 43:44 - Pivot vs Iterate 44:43 - Pivot = Changing the customer and/or changing the problem (rare) 44:59 - Iterate = changing the solution (common) 46:09 - Fake Steve Jobs vs Real Steve Jobs (how not to be a product dictator) 48:04 - Summary - Find the right customers, ask specific what they want, and make it. 51:06 - Question 1 - Should you be going free if the final idea for the product is to be free? 52:27 - Question 2 - KPI is revenue and the number is zero, should you still be tracking that as your top line KPI? 53:50 - Question 3 - Hardware company pre-launch pre-sales tips? 54:29 - Question 4 - Hardest part of having a slow burn? 55:26 - Question 5 - Beta to early MVP? 56:51 - Question 6 - How do one figure out what feature to build next? 58:09 - Outro

[@youtuberun6626]

Ruben godoy islas

[@magnumopus1628]

I truly appreciate it when people do what you just did. It's a simple yet powerful act of kindness that symbolizes a lot of the positive and constructive spirit that resides in the buisness world, which is something in which I see a lot of the problem solving needed for a gradually better off humankind. I'm agnostic, but God bless you for doing that. Greetings from Milan. 🇮🇹

[@chapterme]

@@magnumopus1628 Thank you very much 😊

[@anish.wijesinghe]

I'm a products person. And I spent countless hours researching about how to make my process better. And this video has been one of the most brilliantly put together pieces of content on product delivery I've seen.

[@keemkorn]

It’s been 2 years, but care to point out the key things that stuck with you?

[@AlexRechevskiy]

@@keemkorn I’m a google group PM and the best part… is the entire video. Absolutely stellar, priceless advice for building product. Wow.

[@keemkorn]

@@AlexRechevskiy heh very true, but my mind can only hold sub-37 seconds of memory at a time 😅

[@rakeshbhatia2804]

I am a Melissoomkmmiiikun m kkllllllllllllkkkk a BBgek

[@LazizbekYusupov92]

I do agree. This guy is insanely smart. It is visible, he had all of this problems a lot to think about.

[@MrGiustom]

I've met Micheal during the Startup School Beijing in May 2018. I was impressed by his modesty and humanity. Thanks to his tips, I'm finally managing to achieve product-market fit!

[@asutoshmittapalli]

There are times when you think YC's program is very competitive and overrated, now I know the incredible value that folks like Micheal Siebel add to YC startups. This is absolutely gold!

[@aaronb2551]

Amen.

[@kelvingitari]

"You don't understand the problem you're solving, until you understand the person you're solving it for." Michael 10:15 That's powerful!

[@beautifubae7523]

Love this statement

[@Melissa-tk3ng]

This is hands down one of if not the best recorded advice for start-ups. So glad I found this. Thanks for making it accessible.

[@ronque23]

1. Need to first resolve what the pain you’re solving. Can you state the problem plainly in one or two sentences. 2. Is it a problem you’ve experienced yourself? 3. Can you define the problem narrowly, immediately. 4. Is the problem solvable? 5. Who is your customer? You have to focus on an ideal initial loser/early adopter. 6. How often does your user have the problem? Who’s getting the most value? It helps to have a problem that people use frequently. 7. How intense is the problem? 8. Are they willing to pay? Sometimes it’s better to make the product harder to use to see if it’s an intense enough problem or not. Don’t start free. Charge a price and a good price. 9. How easy are your customers to find? 10. Does your MVP solve the problem you designed it to? 11. Which customers should you go after first? Don’t just go after the hardest ones. With MVP, find people desperate enough to use a bad product? (Maybe people at stores already). How do you find people who desperately need your app? Ignore investors of friends to ask these questions. Once you have customers it’s good to identify bad customers who are toxic and have unrealistic expectations. Some exploit in bad faith. 12. Don’t discount unless it’s a way to speed up a sale. 13. Set up metrics. Don’t use Google analytics. It’s important so you know if your products is. Wing used or not. Doesn’t tell you how long people used each item on your page. It’s good to have a highly technical team to use Mix Panel. Pick 5-10 simple stats at the beginning. 14. Make measurement a part of your product spec. Building measurement are a part of your product spec as part of first release. 15. Product development cycle: (v1) A. KPI-Track revenue if you charge customers or usage if not. B. BRAINSTORM-any idea is written in the board. Lots of value in seeing idea in writing. C. Iterate and talk to customers to see what they like to improve your product. C. Do hard first, medium, then hard. D. Written spec-write down what you mean by every step and how it’s gonna work. [e-mail]

[@ionasguitar]

This is one of the best videos for startups in KZbin. Michael knows exactly what he is talking about!

[@JordanCrawfordSF]

I doubt there is another video on KZbin that is so actionable and helpful for startups in 2018. Thank you!

[@tariqh5751]

Almost half way through this and have to say this is the most practical lecture I've ever watched on building a product.

[@chiefenumclaw7960]

When I finished watching this I watched it again just to make sure I didn't miss anything. I can think of no higher compliment.

[@djambidextre]

Absolutely agree.

[@hussamalshamaily5441]

Michael Seibel is one of my favourite so far in YCSS 2018. Thank you

[@DuraanAli]

This is the best talk I have ever listened about product development. Love it

[@joeovip]

Thank you Michael and Y Combinator for this talk. Was so amazing, down to earth, super practical. Greetings from Mexico 🇲🇽

[@brianwestphal]

It's amazing how common sensical this is. But the beauty is in asking the right questions so it seems simple.

[@dorothyb.]

‘This guy has such incredible insight but able to tell his story in such a clear way . Thank you 😊

[@DrTune]

Fantastic talk; clear, concise, humble, wise. A gift!

[@joshuasuzyomazubagoma660]

YC is my favorite. I don't know how I never knew about it all along. People pay a lot of money for this information. Thank you very much for this YC.

[@christianweichselbaum2870]

I really liked that talk. After being 4 years into my startup I learned to start any new business like that.

[@wynton921]

The fact that he’s explaining what to track after you build means that this is all very new!

[@MrPatrickhuang]

I’m so thankful you create this content and are intensely blunt. My startup is just turning to success and these lessons all ring true for me. Keep it up and helping people improve their lives.

[@emp1980]

Simple one of the greatest lectures I’ve seen! Thanks!

[@Pumpamentals]

This is awesome - what a great talk. Instead of continuing to be baited into arguments about whether or not the problem is the super crucial thing, I can now send people this video. Thank you!

[@Mark3ng3lhardt]

Thanks Mike for sharing your knowledge and I found it especially valuable as we're also building something for the eSport and Gamer community. And I will definitely email you, it's very rare people actually guarantee they write you back! Again, thanks so much.

[@HosseinMirzade]

All the time i was watching this video, i was admiring him. he is an amazing man.

[@jonathanli66]

Great video with tons of advice. As a college student, this video really got my gears turning and provides more structure to the process of founding a startup.

[@gprosser88]

The observations in the talk are so obvious that they are brilliant. Seek the most simple, objective path and rely on users that need your product for their company to survive, talk to them, focus on delivering value.

[@valp855]

This is gold. Thank you Michael and YC crew! You made my day 😊

[@praddingari5334]

Thank you, Michael Seibel and Y Combinator. This video has great practical, no-nonsense, and direct insights for Product builders.

[@FahmiEshaq]

This content is pure gold. I can't stress that enough.

[@BeginnerMoto]

Thank you for this video. The information was presented clearly and I learned a lot. Keep up the good work!

[@honorhonor3352]

Best business talk for entrepreneurs I have heard on KZbin yet. Respect.

[@amorosogombe9650]

Awesome. You're fantastic dude. Thank you. Have taken away some real lessons I'm going to effect in my start up tomorrow! Thank you!

[@Kellastico]

This gets me so excited to continue!! This put the battery back in my back! 🔋

[@armintrepic6169]

This really helped me think through my product. Thanks Michael.

[@paragbharadia2895]

The whole 1hr was very valuable! love to hear with so good ending! words were like 1 hour & even refreshments at the end.

[@cleanlyapp2508]

Truest words! Michael's advice is pure gold.

[@ZeusMcKraken]

Fantastic talk. Nothing better than learning about building product from those who’ve lived it.

[@MubashirullahD]

God bless this guy. He was so fun, educating and entertaining.

[@AbdelrahmanMoussaAbuOuf]

I have learned a lot from this talk it blows my mind.

[@Pavel.Fomitchov]

Outstanding summary of the process. Very glad that I found it.

[@AarneHuttunen]

Good talk! One comment about the KPI goal: One former founder current investor told us to track the rate of user problems solved. Usually this is then related to the revenue model in place. It has been a fantastic advice.

[@devjeet_choudhury]

YC videos are GOLD for startups and the application itself is a great questionnaire to analyse your startup.

[@maherjilani]

This is pure gold. I love Michael.

[@RIMJANESSOHMALOOG]

gonna watch this a couple of times more, so many useful info condensed in 1 hr

[@tonydo6383]

Actionable & amazing advices for tech entrepreneurs. Thank you Michael!

[@MikeWilliamsYoroomie]

Such a great vid and Michael drop some serious knowledge in this!

[@akshay2012rdts]

Every young entrepreneur must watch this at least once. Twice is ever better !

[@RahulBhojwani1993]

Absolute Gold. Connected with it really well. 🙏🏽🙏🏽

[@YourCustomersShoes]

I absolutely love how raw you kept it in this talk. Figure out what problem you are solving and who you are solving it for. Listen to them. Iterate until your KPIs are moving in the right direction. Thanks for sharing this.

[@BillDybas]

Wow, this was a great talk! Thanks Michael!

[@geekboy328]

Single best YC vid. Contains most of the content covered in the others

[@drpp1984]

What a video! Crisp, credible and enriching... 🙏🙏

[@Youtube_Enthusiast_]

I think that I am going to have to watch this several times - very potent

[@ozzyfromspace]

This man is easily the best communicator I've come across in a long time. He says things so precisely, and his use of concrete examples really helps me understand. I'm only a few minutes into his talk and the thing about babysitters isn't something I can say I've appreciated. Sure, I've thought about how my tech-in-development might work in different markets one day, but his exercise of narrowing your first market to see if the problem you're trying to address is even solvable was so eye opening. Anyway, time to unpause and get back to this amazing learning experience! If I apply to YC, it's because of Micheal Seibel (i.e. to get closer to people with that kind of wisdom).

[@bobbyv369]

There’s a reason why they made him the CEO.

[@fabianpetrescu]

A couple of years later, do you know of any similar (updated) videos? Thanks!

[@millertime6]

I got a degree in business and entrepreneurship and learned more in this talk. Listen to this 5x and start creating 💪🏾

[@kimvangvideomarketerbangko3265]

I feel like it's very to the point with these videos. What school did you go to? Would you say it was worth it?

[@millertime6]

@@kimvangvideomarketerbangko3265 I got my entrepreneurship MBA from the University of Baltimore but I also got a degree from Johns Hopkins. I would say the MBA was worth it for the emphasis on strategy but you can definitely succeed without it!

[@kimvangvideomarketerbangko3265]

@@millertime6 Yeah, that's one of my worries. That the juice, worth it or not, is to be found on the graduate level. Another guy I spoke to said his BBA program was too basic. It makes sense, as they drag you through all of accounting, macro and microeconomics, and all sorts of finance, marketing and management. Sometimes it sounds more like one big expensive counseling session that just shows you what roles there are in business administration, and it mostly caters to just that, business *administration* -- not business creation.

[@millertime6]

@@kimvangvideomarketerbangko3265 I definitely had some good instructors so that was a factor. One guy was a biotech CEO that later ran a venture capital fund.

[@kimvangvideomarketerbangko3265]

@@millertime6 Yeah I can imagine that may make it worth it. I rate having a mentor, being in a supportive environment with like-minded people and being forced to interact with these like-minded people for 4 years (thinking entrepreneurship BBA) as the 3 biggest advantages of getting such a degree. But I think the mentor represents maybe the most significant coefficient in that equation.

[@adennyh]

Thanks a bunch for this video! This is really great and insightful! :)

[@quintacaylor1382]

Truly inspiring and educational. Thanks so much

[@lutzruhmann7162]

I think your videos are realy great and I can learn a lot of realy valuable practical stuff from it. Thank you very much for making these videos! Thank You!

[@ramloganathan6454]

One of the best videos on Product. I am a huge Steve Jobs fan and I have to say Michael is probably the next best Product guy after him.

[@amulpatel]

i had to listen to that first bit over again... incredible. Tied to Ego - Can't Quit. Cheap - blow minimum wage. Highly Technical.

[@stefanoskapetan]

a magical presentation, a talented presenter. thank you sincerely Michael. You are awesome

[@joepsaila8345]

Great lecture. Extremely valuable information. Building a product is complicated and I love how Michael simplifies the process. Example at 56:05 regarding beta/ launching. Michael : "Are people using your product?" New founder: " Yes." Michael :" Great! Bam, your launched! Congratulations."

[@TheDataScienceLab]

Fantastic!!!! What a great talk. Thank you for sharing your valuable experience.

[@therealOssie]

Thanks for the upload, as an aspiring innovator with a few projects aligned. This was helpful. Thank you once again. Cheers.

[@AcharyaChanakya108]

Note to anyone reading: Watch twice & make notes the second time round. Come back to this video again & again if you're stuck or confused getting product-market fit or in the middle of a pivot.

[@nishanek]

So much amazing insight in one video!! A must watch for all startup founders.

[@krghaa]

excellent talk and great delivery! spot on!

[@vedantm_]

Supremely helpful. Thanks Micheal, if you're reading this! :)

[@nuddle2360]

One of coolest videos for startups by far

[@just1689]

Wow! Thanks for this Michael. I feel a bit like you've picked on things we have really battled with

[@jasoncheung8407]

21:10 is gold. When you're testing out your MVP (as I am now), you don't want users who only kind of like your product. Go for the easiest customers, meaning people who show that they want what you're selling them. These people will be your early adopters. A good indicator of whether people want what you're selling them is if they're using your product and paying you.

[@reach2prasanna]

Hi Jason, how did the MVP go? Please share where are you in your journey now.

[@jasoncheung8407]

@@reach2prasanna Hey Prasanna! I'm working on a different product now and just launched our MVP. Our users are actually different to our customers so we're going for a different approach and not charging right now although this may change.

[@tsooooooo]

Clear thinker and communicator.

[@themalejodietaylor2599]

Great advice. Clarified a lot of effective action steps. Thank you.

[@vitaliyhamuha9956]

Now it's the real stuff. The secret weapon of YC.

[@sawaria123]

Excellent ideas. Extremely useful for me as a start-up founder.

[@Kl4x4]

so glad i found this video

[@RealityNomad]

Absolutely one of the best talks, thanks!

[@twist8250]

Full of great content, must watch for start-up founders

[@RonaldNyakahuma]

I have just shared this video with my co-founders and all other colleagues. Tomorrow we shall watch it together as a team.

[@censura1210]

so how did your startup turn out?

[@Fred0h]

0:16 "Michael!" I heard that in the voice of Jan from The Office.

[@ba8e]

Awesome dude and a great presentation!

[@MikeLocke]

Great talk

[@joshuageronimo5219]

Amazing talk! Learned a lot!

[@jaa928]

Thank you for sharing these valuable insights

[@mahdidi96]

What an amazing talk! Among the best of y combinator

[@ProductJourney]

Really great content, YCombinator congratulations on publishing such rich content for us! 👍👍🎉

[@kevgits]

Startup Gold. Thanks, Michael. You are AWESOME!

[@ChafikHnini]

This video is a gem. It's incredible how clear and simple the explanation of the dev cycle process is. And how it looks efficient, without never mentioning any of those words : "agile", "scrum", "sprint", "planning", "complexity", "fibonacci", "post-it"... Another proof that these words (and the associated rituals) are from penpushers and a complete waste of time 😅.

[@jammersa]

Love it, thanks Michael.

[@DWTT]

Enjoyed the video. Video provides good baseline to start working on a product. Thank you.

[@assaflaufer6762]

he is one of my favorites

[@cliffordrogers2734]

Wow I'm barely finding out about this dude tanks man

[@nelsonc5339]

“The things that allowed us to survive was that our founding team was extremely technical.” 31:13 “make measurement a part of your product spec”

[@AlabamaCare]

Hey Nelson C we are doing research on timestamps on long form video and we're wondering how often do you usually timestamp?

[@kimvangvideomarketerbangko3265]

@@AlabamaCare Not sure if still relevant, but I do timestamps from time to time, but I'd say it's very rare, maybe once or twice per 100 videos

[@massifaqiri6711]

Kudos to your humility 👏

[@Gverri]

This lecture is so underrated.

[@vikranthkanumuru8900]

The setting up price section is pure gold 26:00

[@michaeljtbusch4321]

Everyone should watch this! Thanks a thousand times :)

[@jimihendrixx11]

Thanks a lot Michael & Y Combinator

[@igordzivulsky4790]

Very good advice. Thank you for sharing this information.

[@joshkristine6189]

Such value in this talk