Why Should I Start a Startup? by Michael Seibel

Michael Seibel is a partner and the CEO of YC. He cofounded Justin.tv, which was in the winter 2007 batch and Socialcam, which was in the winter 2012 batch. / mwseibel
In this video Michael comments on his essay Why Should I Start a Startup? blog.ycombinator.com/why-shou...
The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon - / craigcannon
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0:00 - Why Should I Start a Startup?
2:00 - Three types of people: people highly motivated when working for themselves, people that could succeed starting a startup or within a big company, and people that could succeed within a big company.
6:00 - How do you decide what type of person you are?
7:30 - Identify bias in advice givers
10:30 - Peer advice becomes less valuable during college

[@MagnusAnand]

Michael is so articulate. I can be all day listening to him

[@wdai03]

There's this one where he just sits at a table on a stage, takes out his phone, starts talking, and leaves, and it was super informative

[@HezOmanjo]

Its because its coming from his experience. It thrrefore just comes naturally.

[@jasongrig]

"as a founder almost by definition the thing we are good at is the thing you stop doing". shockingly true

[@sun-ship]

I'm almost 40 and I still find this helpful

[@richardmatthews7489]

I literally just came across Y Combinator as well as this KZbin Channel and Michael is a G! Love him already!

[@leanprogrammer]

Great vid very informative All negotiations are based on information asymmetry (buyer - seller, employer - employee..).. and I totally agree with the idea that we're not all productive in a box

[@Baddy67110]

Thanks for the interview guys. Great to listen to you. Very helpful

[@AiAddysonZhang]

Wow! Absolutely love this essay!

[@tcsiwula]

Great point about the machines later two objectives. Really great points too about the one to many relationship after college. Quite visual.

[@Weensy]

one of the best video ive seen about 9 to 5 and entrepreneurialship

[@skhumbuzomjoji3575]

Thank you for these. Also, the essay asks some very pertinent questions

[@mohdmajid1]

Love Michael.. A really smart guy

[@supalarry1009]

this really hit home, i appreciate the wise words.

[@TobiasLA]

Great interview, like it!

[@letsgosean]

Thank God for Michael Seibel. Love him.

[@muskangupta3998]

BEST VIDEO. PERIOD.

[@jdavidson124]

I think the problem with the 1%,1%, & 98% theory is that it assumes people can't change during their lifetime. We have different experiences as we get older that greatly influences and changes our outlook and drive as we progress. Using Michael's example, you may think that you do thrive in an unstructured environment until you don't. It's never a forever thing.

[@matthewafisher9643]

1, 1, 98 definitely feels like an aggressively lopsided number, just my guess numbers would be 15%, 25%, 60% - I meet way more than 2 in 100 people who would rather make their own rules than optimize within anothers, but I may be wrong too.

[@marcosalcantara8050]

An introverted person can be a politician if he puts the effort into acquiring social skills, however, it's going to be easier for him to be a web developer for example. There are characteristics in people that are inherited from birth, if your father was a neurotic, you are going to be more neurotic than other people by default, you can fight it, but you are always going to fight, that is very tiring, and you are going to go back whenever you stop caring. Little people do it. Still with people changing there are not a lot of people that would be the ideal for an entrepreneur. The reason that so little people is the ideal person for an startup is that to be the "Perfect model" you have to be high in openness, low on neuroticism, high on conscientiousness, high on extroversion and low on agreeableness COMBINED, you don't have to be the best at them, but you need them COMBINED. On top of that, you need to be a bit intelligent to see patterns and analyze the results of every improvement on your product or service. Of course, not all entrepreneurs have those characteristics, you can do it if you are different from those dimensions or find a co-founder that complements them, but the more different that you are from those dimensions, the harder that it will be. Suppose that you are not open, you are not creative, you don't innovate, you die in the competition, imagine you are a neurotic, you are afraid, so you over-analyze, so you don't move fast, competitors beat you if you even launch, low on conscientiousness, you don't put the effort, high on agreeableness, you are not aggressive, you don't negotiate well, investors eat you. low on extraversion? you are going to have a hard time building your network or talking to customers. However, each job requires a different combination, you can be a good accountant being very neurotic with very low openness if you are very conscientious for example, or a good service support if you are agreeable and extrovert. Also, one thing that reduces greatly the people that is going to be more effective for a startup is the combination of openness and conscientiousness, as they are somewhat opposites. You do find lots of clever people that like to discuss abstract ideas, you do find lot's of people that are very rigorous and productive with work even if it's mechanical ( and you find lot's of mechanic jobs in a startup as most things are not automated in order to iterate faster ). But it's difficult to find people that does BOTH. I don't want to discourage nobody, in fact I'm a bit neurotic, introverted and a bit too agreeable to be the "ideal" and I'm still trying it. but just imagine an entrepreneur that is exactly the contrary of the "ideal": uncreative, neurotic, messy and unproductive, introverted, and submissive. It would be hell to do an startup even if he fights against himself. Still that guy could work on a big company if you give him clear rules and he works just for fear of being laid off. And he would kill it in some jobs just with being really good at one dimension: being only very creative at an advertising agency, being very conscious at a lawyers firm...

[@JesseTheGameDev]

@@marcosalcantara8050 I agree with you on this. Good points.

[@Everyone___]

@@marcosalcantara8050 well explained, hope you're doing great mate

[@ff-ne6xt]

I think he is so arrogant 😅😅

[@samibahig1702]

avoiding advices from bias people, i like that..thanks

[@EC-dc1rp]

Michael is such an effing genius. So smart

[@alexanderzin]

thanks about 2 and 3

[@muskangupta3998]

MICHAEL BIG LOVE

[@pratikkumar4160]

Question: what if you know you're most motivated in an entrepreneurial setting, but history tells you that you're more productive in a corporate environment, even if you don't enjoy it? What's your advice for such?

[@bryon2403]

We found product market while applying to YC. We didn’t get in, but we really got a lot of knowledge from the videos and understanding that we are a start-up.

[@isitfunnytoyouu]

Hello my dear friend! thank you for the cool video! I'll wait for new videos

[@edidasa]

Super content

[@alaeddinemenai5380]

Hi , I have this question : How I can create and present a Proof of concept to incubator ( A poc of web and mobile based app ) and what are the KPIs I include ?

[@mmcmann9539]

8:19. This is interesting, because it seems like most y combinator students are young and this would have been true in my youth. I have the opposite thoughts now that I am older. I assume danger and bias from everyone and everything. I have just started watching these videos and taking the classes, on my own, for the 2019 sessions. It seems like those fears are trivial , and it is really hard to reconcile that. My instinct is to be very cautious about investors or partners, and videos I have watched have said to basically jump. I can see where my thinking can completely stunt any progress, but there has to be a happy medium.

[@Mukund472]

I don't think being cautious is a limiting way of thinking. I believe it comes from a sense of responsibility and maturity. However, we almost always know when we are really being cautious or just being afraid/fearful of the outcome. I think to start as a founder for a new company we are better off being confident,well-researched and trusting our instincts to take the right decisions and letting go off confusion from a place of calm and clarity.

[@mmcmann9539]

@@Mukund472 Yeah, I'm at the point that I am learning as much as I can, so I can have the knowledge and confidence to make those decisions when I need to. I saw one video that said it looks bad to investors to say that you have been planning for a long time, but I want to try to plan and work things out as much as possible in advance, but not so long that I become stagnant and lose personal momentum. Thanks for the feedback!

[@loubloom153]

I have a question-my startup idea for medical devices is really capital intensive. Should I start a small IT/SAAS based startup then jump to my original idea?Thanks

[@malihsoufian2603]

Or should we say: most people (the 98%) are not set for entrepreneurship because of the failure of the current schooling system. The schools, as we know today, were invented in the industrial age with the sole purpose of feeding the industrial establishment. As humans we've gotten good at taking highly creative, energetic individuals, putting them into this 10+ years taming machine that spits optimizers, rule-abiders, risk-calculators ... Time travel to the farming age and you'll see that almost everybody was an entrepreneur.

[@krishnapriyavinodhkumar9529]

Michael one day I wanna meet you 🙂 You are simply amazing 😊 and inspiring

[@koksus20]

Smart guy :-)

[@FahmiEshaq]

Rational talk

[@mob_pho]

10/10

[@Magns-AI-m]

People’s beard comes out of the face ! Mates face is coming out of the beard😂

[@kevinkang4427]

“As soon as most of these craftsmen enter entrepreneurship, their jobs don’t matter”

[@rantg]

There is an assumption they keep having there in silicon valley (YC), and it's that you can have only a $$$ millions dollars company or nothing, so when you are a founder you definitely stop doing what you like because of investors, scaling, etc. Point is, the world changed, there are tones of companies, that intentionally stay small, aim small, at

[@Personaje123]

It's not an assumption it's a clear part of the business model to grow(see Paul Graham essay on startup = growth) , what you mention they call it lifestyle businesses and they have nothing wrong if that's what you're up to, but it's not their market. They also mention in other videos that if you can afford not to take investors you shouldn't

[@badiskarboul2095]

I'm studying to become a CPA and when Michael says last "Will enjoy myself working in that company?". I think about the big four and I think to myself, certainly not. It's sad

[@badiskarboul2095]

@@lepidoptera9337 I work at a big four but I chose to be an innovation consultant (EY Wavespace). I love it!

[@badiskarboul2095]

@@lepidoptera9337 We reimagine businesses, accelerate transformation, rapidly develop new business models and products and casually answer conceited smarty-pants on KZbin.

[@aprilmintacpineda2713]

Is he trying to imply that being a founder/leader/entrepreneur is something that's you are born with rather than something that you could earn?

[@mariojohnson4695]

Average is a degrading term, I realize being an entrepreneur is not for me, but I worked for the government with some of the hardest most unappreciated people on earth, but our office ran like a business. I respect entrepreneurship fully and would prefer to find the good ones and invest in them.

[@danl7448]

Have you ever questioned yourself why you think the term average is degrading? After all, average just means the majority. To say the majority doesn't work hard is an obvious misnomer. Hard working people keep the country running. I believe the reason you think the word "average" is degrading is just due to the climate we live in today where advents of technologies such as social media make people seem that extraordinary, or above average is normal. That in of itself is a contradictory idea. Take grade inflation in American universities for example. Obviously, it depends on the class, but the theme is that in our society I think we have skewed what the term average really means to make people feel bad about themselves if they are labeled "average". I personally believe this applies in America more so in other countries, but I may be biased given I am American. Not every single person is going to lie in the extreme parts of the bell curve.

[@JeffLewis7]

9:40

[@MrDivad006]

The irony of talking about biased advice givers while simultaneously giving biased advice (eg. 11:47 vilifying big companies that keep talented people from applying to YC, 12:13 reverse psychology). Apply now it's free: www.ycombinator.com/apply

[@kollerjon]

Google should be more ethical in it approach. The orchestration towards new grads is very dishonest and troubling no?

[@jim999-aaa]

Oh! So, that's how you -brainwash- convince people to become founders? (Just Jk) Thanks, Michael and Y-C. I really learned a lot of knowledge here.

[@SnoopyDoofie]

If you're seeking advice on whether to become an entrepreneur, then you can stop right there. You will never be one. Entrepreneurs are born and not created. You are either satisfied to be paid to live someone else's dream (which is ok) or your entire life revolves around chartering your own destiny where you set the rules. A true entrepreneur has no issues when it comes to taking calculated risks.

[@irfanulkarim4992]

*Made* Not born

[@zxenon_]

To live someone else dream, this sentence ... everyone doesn't have to be an entrepreneur... It's not possible and not useful . And it's not about living someone else dream. It's about engaging in what makes u useful and proud

[@Power_Cosmic27]

Look at the histories of many of the most successful entrepreneurs, you will find the majority were "living someone elses dream" to begin with and then came to a realization to "chart their own destiny." Saying that you are either one or the other at birth is very detrimental. If someone came up with a groundbreaking idea after working for a company for 10 years, does that mean they will fail because they weren't born pursuing that idea? These ultimatum like sentences may sound cool ie. "a true entrepreneur", but are really lacking in logic and precedent.

[@rickitekgaaso2927]

If you seek inspiration dont do it-elon musk