What Does It REALLY Mean To Do Things That Don't Scale? - Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel

Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel talk about Paul Graham's essay "Do Things That Don't Scale" and what it really means for founders. Read the essay here: paulgraham.com/ds.html
Chapters (Powered by bit.ly/chapterme-yc) -
00:00 - Do things that don't scale
00:58 - Reddit
02:54 - DoorDash
04:39 - Cruise
06:19 - What is the life and job of a CEO in the pre product-market fit stages?
08:01 - Customer support
09:30 - Criticisms
11:02 - Learn at Google - Before startup I need to work at a big company?
13:46 - Mental prep - How do we help founders prepare their minds for this zone?
16:13 - Wrap-up

[@rohankamath88]

My most favorite part of mid-week is looking forward to these. I literally block 30 minutes on my calendar to listen to them and take notes. Thanks for being so consistent with these Michael and Dalton.

[@StartupSpells]

share your notes

[@Neonb88]

@@StartupSpells I think the process of taking notes is what will help it stick. I still remember things from PG essays from years ago, though; our brains are magical Key: summarize rather than copying every detail

[@StartupSpells]

@@Neonb88 oh yes, i did try taking notes once or twice & maybe one of austin kleon's book steal like an artist but i rarely revisit them hah. that's the problem, sadly :(

[@jeromeneareo4730]

Same here ! And I keep Last Week Tonight with John Oliver for another lunch 😆

[@RoadmapMBA]

I’m a 38 year old founder in the U.K. currently doing the sh*t and this video resonated with me so much!! KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK 🙌🏽

[@poseidonericsson756]

Nice haircut Dalton! Very refreshing.

[@vasanthr5623]

I'm a cofounder of a startup with zero employees. I can completely relate and just loving the entire rookie mistakes series!

[@RoadmapMBA]

Me too! Keep going! I’m sure you’ll smash it 💥

[@00doblecero]

I think the first stage of first line with direct contact with the customer is the best part, you validate the product and also see first hand all the problems that will be needed to automate when things scale up a little.

[@oozieligus]

On days when life punches you in the face, these videos are a lifeline. Please keep them coming.

[@oliver1121]

That was absolutely hilarious. The motivational speech telling me my greater than 1 customer has separated me from the pack made me FeelsGoodMan. I needed that especially after last night where I had one of my PE Routers have issues and take down my network for a few minutes. I'm lucky my customers are understanding and even encouraging while I try to get the issues resolved so it doesn't happen again.

[@jonhegarty4269]

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - Teddy Roosevelt on your friends with comfortable jobs

[@fintent-for-dealmakers]

so good. i literally never comment on anything on youtube and had to leave a note. saving this to rewatch for later and thank you for putting this together!

[@ststan7071]

Love your videos! On Mental Prep: be prepared for the inevitable unexpected event; something you never considered, never saw coming; that’ll suck as bad as cleaning your bathrooms because you can’t yet afford janitors. But you’ll learn from the experience, and hopefully come back even more determined to succeed

[@johnstalkernet]

These are great talks. Really practical and motivational. Thanks!

[@polymathematics_]

When I was contemplating launching the “things that don’t scale” version of my company, I realized the resistance was really just my ego. The long term version of my product is much more impressive then the MVP. Once I realized it was largely my ego in disguise insisting on the sophisticated version, I could accept launching the MVP. Thanks y’all!

[@gidd]

How's the startup doing bro

[@jonjeskie5234]

Yeah what industry are you in?

[@chadflux5686]

"oh a shadow, let's see how the car handles that!" ... "I didn't know that I should be afraid of the shadow"... I love this part so much. :)

[@mfundomkhize2337]

True, building a company requires you to be on the ground and do the hard work.

[@arya7592]

My favorite pod along with All in one. Thanks for such great information and being so grounded.

[@bernardlomo2334]

Thank you for this message. We are on our fourth product iteration and we will be doing our fourth mini launch next week. We have learned a lot by practicing this principle. God Bless you guys for all you do ❤. Hopefully we can build something meaningful, get tons of exciting users and apply for YC Again. Thank you once again ❤❤

[@co66]

Why are you both so cool, guys? ) you do a very important thing - you do energize lost founder's souls and get them out of their cozy holes of sadness👌🏻 Many thanks again and again!

[@pablorpalafox]

I enjoy this videos so much! Both entertaining and insightful. Keep them coming!

[@GauravSharma1]

Outstanding insights from true operator founders! Really enjoy this conversational content shared by Dalton and Mike.

[@KingHonh]

Nice! A very practical sharing. Do what is enough at the beginning instead of doing perfectly at the wrong stage.

[@lukasbohler7683]

Thanks a lot for sharing your expertise! Really refreshing!

[@davidshamiri1448]

Since getting into doing startups in 2017 .. I have learned so much

[@htstffcmnthru]

Thank you for making these videos. They have been really helpful.

[@mallu1001]

Such great insights and this is what the talks should be about. How to get more startup founders to get over the mental blocks when things get tough and unbearable...

[@zealotranger]

these videos are so helpful. thank you guys

[@rafeeqwarfield9690]

So fire and so thankful for the info 💯

[@raymourradhakrishnan5709]

This was so good!!! Appreciate you guys! 💯

[@shawnemployee6906]

Best business videos on youtube dont stop!

[@javiasilis]

10:55 Such a big truth. Countless the times that I've worked with people unable to put the amount of work required to make it happen.

[@krissinn]

Thanks for making this -- great examples from Reddit, Doordash & Cruise

[@entaditorium]

I read PG a while back but after watching this video I fully get it. Thanks!

[@paulbaker3465]

Motivation- is what meaningful change you can make in the world and how many lives you can change for the better.

[@jeynergilcaga]

I love this. Very interesting. Learned a lot!!!!

[@Adichu]

How do you know if your idea might be good or just plain sucks, because if a lot of now considered good and successful ideas got negative feedback early on, how did those people with the successful ideas know to stay with that idea and continue on that path?

[@martinstine]

Funny but insightful. Thanks Dalton and Michael. Great job YC.

[@YasinNabi]

awesome tips, and great chat sir

[@mattnmgh]

I’m signed up for the gritty part of the startup journey. Let’s go!

[@_techbk]

These videos really give me hope ! I really am not alone in this😭😂 Please keep up the good work

[@bilisumagetachew4358]

I learn so much from u guys. I am start up from Ethiopia.

[@michaelmcwhirter]

I really like Y Combinator. I feel like people are awake hear. The resiliency and persistence is hard to come by. Thanks for this great video 🔥

[@toofy7253]

Preach on! Some of my friend's probably think I'm an idiot, yet I just created the best dental video I've seen so far, and that was my prototype. Don't rely on your friends to boost your drive is so true. Now some of my friends are cheering me on though, so keep going if you have inside info and know that you're solving a problem, especially your own problem

[@trading-university.]

Really enjoy your channel guys. Some great insights into tech startups/businesses stateside. As a UK based tech startupper I really enjoy your discussions as there isnt ...yet.. a true Silicon Valley here!. thanks

[@RoadmapMBA]

Hi Guys, where in the U.K. are you based? I’m Newcastle 🙌🏻

[@YoannBuzenet]

This content is gold. Thanks

[@javi_park]

Fantastic insights - thank you gentlemen

[@saidur_rahman]

Wow, what an episode !

[@keerthivasanb7931]

7:28 - 9:32 Not just this but so much more amazing stuff in this video

[@wronggg]

I've personally broken it up into manageable goals/milestones, with each milestone perhaps having a slightly different/more scalable strategy each time: 1st milestone: Get 1 user/customer 2nd milestone: Get 10 users/customers 3rd milestone: Get 100 users/customers 4th milestone: Get 1000 users/customers etc. The first few milestones will come quickly (hopefully), and then slow down as diminishing returns naturally kicks in.

[@jotavrj]

Man I love these videos

[@cheatsolutions212]

Are you guys wearing the same pair of Airpods?

[@solothebest1]

Mental strength is crucial. The fear of failure is 100 times more worse psychologically than actually succeeding. I think it has been proven more many times before. More respect should be given for people who actually do it.

[@mjmikaelson]

Great talking to you guys!✨😉👍

[@SomeTechGuy666]

Fantastic discussion !

[@davidshamiri1448]

Thank you guys

[@ilidio6617]

I made sure to read @Paul article before watching this video, and lot of things make more sense and it is much clear. Thanks guys!

[@SamTuke]

Delivering one thing, to one paying customer, who buys it because they really need it - definitely puts you in the top 50% of early stagers. Hard thing: not fooling yourself to believe that the friend, hobbyist, ex-employee etc that is your first customer really counts. If you push hard enough, you can sell to someone (beat or beg them into submission). Getting that first sale to a genuinely needy customer, eg in a 10 minute sales call, not after a war of attrition? Harder.

[@rakeshkumarrout2629]

This really motivates people across globe to fulfill their hidden dreams

[@bluecuracao6478]

Thank you both!Fun and realistic ,heh

[@rubenhakopian]

Michael, Dalton, as always, awesome talk. We need more of this. Would it be possible to ask questions? What is the best way to reach out? Here in comments? Thanks.

[@ycombinator]

Sure! Just reply here.

[@danielr5343]

Is it just me if I've always enjoyed this stage of the startup? I teach rationalists how to master meta-learning and productivity, and the non-scalable part is doing everything myself. I'm teaching my only two customers, creating their flashcards, testing my learning materials, learning tax codes, building an audience on twitter... I don't even have a website. And I enjoy everything, there is no suck. I dread scaling, wonder what it'll be like.

[@ash000us]

Love you guys!

[@SuperKillaki]

Keep these coming please I really look forward to them!

[@vlogmoinc5597]

This was a good talk 18 min flew by

[@roasters4927]

We totally agree! 🚀

[@harpalsinhjadeja2568]

I agree that we should focus on not scaling in the beginning but what about after it. I can write unscalable code and make an MVP and get some users what happens when users come flooding do i hire someone or i learn how to scale?

[@Neonb88]

KZbin should keep showing me these videos. Comment tells the algorithm to show me more

[@schollwong]

Love it!!!

[@roberthinckley7508]

Our company is in the current batch and I was feeling a little physically drained today from all the programming. I don’t know how, but the “get punched in the face” phrasing was my rally cry to seize the day today 😂

[@onme6818]

Are Dalton & Michael in the same house? They are obviously sharing the same pair of headphones lol One left, one right lol

[@bensonkingori1070]

I love how you guys have emphasized the emotional side of startups. Version 1 will always suck and we all know it but we push it to the back of our minds as we build and launch until it comes back to haunt us. I hope in future you will do a video on startup metrics. I know about default dead and default alive but at what point will the startup become an IDE(and not SME) if you do things that don't scale? When should you start scaling?

[@bensonkingori1070]

@Surb Singh Thanks!

[@Taskade]

There's no secret to success. It comes from preparation, hard work and learning from failure.

[@FedericoMiras]

LMFAO because of the Doordash part, talk to users -> “here’s your burrito!”, brilliant!

[@ilidio6617]

Omg, this is so good, like Game of thrones.

[@dennilovejoy6399]

Dalton, I admire your speaking game...

[@fabdan5745]

A question here: How do you keep going and eventually beat incumbents when, let's say, 10-min delivery is the thing and the fastest you can afford (making deliveries yourself) is 45-min? Thanks by the way for this awesome and hilarious video, Dalton and Michael. I enjoyed watching 😅

[@jonjeskie5234]

You have to innovate to match or beat the competition.

[@coworksurf]

14:51 PREACH 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@itayhilel2168]

This was nice

[@leafhappy]

Very good

[@skillfine]

Great fun :)

[@jerbear7952]

Retrofitting an Audi is telling to me that there is a fundamental disconnect between a car guy and a software start up guy. I like Audis and have worked on them for years but I cannot think of a worse car to use.

[@Alwalou]

Great talk I wish if you had just explained the meaning of the word Scale for non native English speakers cause as I know and the dictionary says it means measure , and I don't understand How its true to build things that cant be measured

[@fabdan5745]

A question here: How do you keep going and eventually beat incumbents when, let's say, 10-min delivery is the thing and the fastest you can afford (making deliveries yourself) is 45-min? Thanks by the way for this awesome and hilarious video, Dalton and Michael. I enjoyed watching.

[@danta2811]

That's pretty much your job as a founder to figure out, either yourself or you hire someone who can do better than you

[@beomjoonkim]

CEO's job section told me (or reinforced my thoughts) a very important lesson: be willing to do the shittest job. Thanks!

[@tubopedia]

Reddit's seeding is one of my favorite internet startup stories.

[@michaelkonviser8848]

"You learn what other people are unwilling to learn, so you build a better product"

[@jonlouie]

Are Michael and Dalton sharing the same pair of AirPods? That startup life must really be rough!

[@efexzium]

I still love ❤️ the start up life and Im ENTJ above average IQ

[@itsmebougie]

Looking at this video from the perspective of an artist gives me hope

[@keerthivasanb7931]

14:20 Maintaining motivation is three quarters of this game

[@just1689]

Saw you cruising in a Cruise Michael! 👋👋

[@just1689]

You had a big smile

[@OmarQunsul]

If there was only one book that you are allowed to read, to prepare for building a startup, what would be it?

[@paraskumar8706]

There is no such thing as Motivation, only DISCIPLINE can take you ahead being A co-founder or better version of yourself.

[@azheralhabsi22]

VALUABLE

[@KlaasVictor]

Haha amazing 🤣 thank you!

[@itayhilel2168]

When is this channel going to find product market fit

[@bwhit7919]

This is great until the App Store rejects your app submission!

[@mhb11]

well to be fair, the story ending around 6:10 is more about a crappy prototype than doing something that won't scale (he could have scaled that proto to more units technically speaking).

[@kanayanaila1787]

Be ceo be personaly accountable

[@rishanchopra4719]

Love the videos but love Dalton’s haircut more

[@CarsMeetsBikes]

And in some circular way, now doordash engineers have to drop their things and go deliver once a month or something

[@louisb1]

The duo we needed but didn't deserve.