Simple Products That Became Big Companies - Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel

[@MiladMirg]

Hearing how opensea didn't know what their initial product would be was eye-opening. We are all just trying to figure it out, and the harder you work at figuring it out, the further you go

[@Axel.The.Conqueror]

And how did they got accepted at yc from the beginning? 🤔

[@chunkyMunky329]

So I guess Y Combinator is pretty flexible about what it means to "create what customers want." I guess all those millions of OpenSea customers were asking for 95% of their NFT investments to be worthless in 2023. Funny how Y Combinator decided to use OpenSea as an example of "building something that works". lol

[@louisb1]

Love this format, feels like watching a podcast. Just raw honest uncut conversation. Great dynamics between you both.

[@marioacosta1842]

Had my startup during college and things were doing good! We had to stop do to COVID and financial issues. A friend of mine, that got into YC, told me to watch all the YC videos and man, they have been helpful! I seriously believe this is GOLD. Students should have a semester or year of to only do entrepreneurial work. THANK YOU MICHAEL AND DALTON

[@mmjsj2929]

- Don't boil the ocean. Most successful companies start out solving one small problem really well. eg Amazon started out just as a book store. Gusto started out just as a payroll solution. If you try to do too much, you won't do anything well. - A product that doesn't work with lots of features is way worse than a product with one feature that works really well. - Just because a product works in one market, with one founder, doesn't mean it will work in another market, with another founder. - A lot of success is about discipline - it's not genius. Smart people have an advantage but hard workers are lethal. - Teachers and authorities won't tell you what to do - the only thing to do is get things in front of customers as quickly as possible and iterate based on their feedback. - Be careful with crowdfunding - if you screw up with a lot of peoples' money, it could follow you for the rest of your life.

[@jerome-neareo]

These conversations with Dalton Caldwell & Michael Seibel are the greatest content this channel has to offer ! Can we have more of that ?

[@grammar_shark]

Agreed. I get so much value from these somewhat structured conversations that always go interesting places. The examples and the humour that comes out really drive the key points home in a manner that is very vivid.

[@shawnemployee6906]

Crazy how the universe works because I was going to build a whole suite of products before even getting one user then I thought to myself, "This makes no sense why am I going to spend all this time building when I don't even have one user?" Then I see this video and it confirms my thought process. I already built just the one main product that solves the problem, got one user, and working on improvements. YC has the best business content on earth! You guys need a little bit of a re brand because when people think of YC, they think of software start ups but literally all this content applies to all businesses.

[@shawnemployee6906]

"if your looking for authority figures to tell you that your idea is good then you still aren't getting the point of these videos" Something so simple yet so profound.

[@rhemaimoloame8182]

The crowdfunding aspect is definitely spot on.... and i say this from personal experience, cause it happened to me when i was building my start up "Rimo Network". I had an idea of what i wanted to build, but i did not not know exactly how much would be required to get started and how much what i wanted to build would cost and at the end of the day, i ended up getting burned out, but watching this has actually made me understand that a solid plan is definitely important, at least i now know the things to avoid and the things to focus on .

[@guitarhackr]

Building companies is so messy. I think a lot of very smart people get out of college and think there is a right way, because they were taught there was a right way to do things in school. You're just going to be wrong all the time, until you aren't. I think it's a hard pill to swallow for smart people. I don't have this problem :D

[@rudyfraser7117]

Love the content per usual. Highly motivational. The “Way Back Machine” is one of my favorite motivation hacks for seeing how my favorite products/companies started.

[@badiskarboul2095]

I could hear you out for hours and hours. Thank you!

[@theliftleague4090]

Talking to potential customers/vetting ideas - we found it very difficult to talk to potential users because they become biased as soon as someone figures out you're doing market research. Instead, we went to as many threads and forums as we could and listened (or read). If you ask someone about a problem, they try to give you a solution. If you listen to someone talk about a problem, you can find the answer on your own.

[@CuttingEdgeSchool]

It's unbelievable how good these videos are man.

[@oah8465]

these talks are gold mine. "boiling the ocean" simply amazing.

[@hdroptech]

Very insightful talk about crowdfunding. We ran a Kickstarter because it was our best possible way to get some real feedback from customers, and to put us under pressure. In fact, we did previous small manufacturing runs as Michael and Dalton mention in the video. I would NOT do a Kickstarter if you are not 100% sure and planned every single piece of your manufacturing chain, with costs and quotes directly from manufacturers, and created a +%50 profit margin on the product, that way you create some cushion. (Obviously with a working product before launching the campaign) The good news, we were successful through it, learned a lot directly from our customers, established a community directly with them to better shape all the software related with our product. No changes were made to the hardware after launching the campaign (we did hundreds of customer interviews regarding the hardware and knowing our limitations, before Kickstarter). - Adria, Founder of hDrop -

[@LifeofthePRTY]

"There are a few things in the startup world that are kind of like one-shot kill and this is one of them. You screw up with enough people's money, that relieves you, like you get that permanent Wikipedia page. That's not what you want. All right, well, that was a good wrap-up! Great chatting, Dalton!" LOL

[@AlexCookaacook]

So true about the close connection between exercise/athletics and deeply focused work. "Champions are made when no one's watching" - Michael Jordon

[@sathishkannan6600]

These are invaluable points to start a business.

[@adnansiddiqui3650]

Keeping it simple + find 1 or 2 pain points for customers = Success. Thanks for sharing

[@irene_battery_starts_here]

I really like these guys and the channel. They are just being so honest and genuine in the start-up real world! Thank you for sharing

[@ianevans2697]

I guess this is why it's best to solve your own problem because it's the best validation you can get. Especially if you know there are others like you.

[@justusgreen8498]

Money 💰

[@KahlilAshanti]

discipline outperforms intelligence every time. brilliant.

[@artashesvardanyan763]

I was expecting Dalton to say "If these videos don't work, maybe we should not do them" loooool 👍 That was a brilliant video YC.

[@jimieafolabi2376]

Great conversation! learned so much watching this. Thank you so much

[@DannyBoy443]

Idk about the others, but from what I've read, OpenSea is that it grew and grew w/ NFT's becoming more and more popular. They literally couldn't do anything because they were dependent on the NFT market. Something that is still pretty new but growing really quickly.

[@enioluwaodunjo]

13:24 on Discipline was the Bomb 💣. Thanks for these videos

[@tsepomkwebu5577]

Thank you so much for your time. I am starting my own start-up, still in the team building stage any tips on that.

[@codekaze]

Thank you so much for this quality content. I really needed to hear this as I found myself guilty on nearly all counts mentioned here. Let's be humble and make the fewest assumptions necessary about our target costumers to launch our product. then quickly iterating over our product with real user feedback. Hopefully at the end, we'll emerge with something that people want.

[@manomite3544]

I understand every bit of information passed in this video... People having the problems should be the people saying your product is good...

[@balajivenkatesan6586]

Some tremendous insights from siebel. especially regarding discipline and focused work..

[@JefteSantos27]

I needed this so much. Thank you!

[@SuperKillaki]

Really enjoy these!

[@helloryantanaka]

Thanks for the great episode guys.

[@muditsaxena8770]

Loved the take on building just a simple product at first. At the end of the day, what matters most is - a.) Has the problem been solved? b.) How simple the solution is? c.) What is the impact and scale of the solution? If all things go right no matter how simple the product is, it sees growth on steroids.

[@louisb1]

Love these conversations guys, keep it up ❤️🙌🏼

[@ibrand23]

Love hearing them chat, on point and great reminder - start super small and simple, big vision is ok, but earn your way there with real traction by starting small and simple.

[@markosemanu00]

Start with simple , Thank you very much

[@luxurytax5261]

Love these guys content! I do not say that often about many individuals. Very insightful, direct, & concise. We're waiting on a TV show lol

[@SouthsideWing]

Amazing content. Am a big fan of Michael and shoutout to Dalton.

[@PeaceUpGuy]

I needed this 3 years ago, good thing I have my entire life left to get it right. 😊

[@ralphgreen8059]

THE BEST DECISION I EVER MADE IN MY LIFE WAS INVESTING IN FINANCIAL MARKET. TRUST ME GUYS, IT PAYS!

[@fotoflo]

Great chat. So many good, deep points... I wonder if in a few years Open Sea will be called a rug puller.

[@davisclute7705]

Awesome knowledge to share with the world. Thank you both!!!!

[@kayhantolga]

Defination of Microsoft Teams: A product that doesn't work with lots of features

[@_ADHK293A_]

Amazing content, How much money, time and hassle this can save ? Thank you!

[@Mark-ms1by]

Is this available on Spotify? I’d love to listen to a series of Rookie Mistakes as podcasts!

[@EC-dc1rp]

Amazing video, just pure truth

[@Taskade]

This is always a fun topic!

[@citronovastava]

This is so awesome. Thanks guys, I enjoyed every minute of this video ... even though it was sometime really rough :D But as you said, you are honest

[@TicketRoot]

Great stuff guys! Though wrt a product like gusto, who now have a plethora of features, customers now consider it a base line for the industry, so for a new company to just do payroll, and compete in the same market, it’s hard. How do you work around that?

[@Collect-AI]

Yes, it sucks, but it's so fu#%en true that we need to get ground truth answers from customers. And yes, thanks for being painfully honest!!!!

[@adfriends599]

When you say to not look for authority figures to tell you what ideas are good, you’re basically nullifying the the entire Start up school class given on Tuesday the 5th. And if it’s the case that no one is an authority on good ideas, why is the start up idea a consideration in the YC accelerator application process, or is the idea not a consideration?

[@21copyCat]

Yes like - Square - it’s got a ton of features but full of bugs

[@SteveKalinda]

SO GOOD

[@girlsondesign357]

This is motivating, thank you!

[@vlogmoinc5597]

moral of the story theres still a lot of problems to be solved like hair loss restoration

[@al-ameenabolare3063]

At some point I felt like these two guys just act like bully big brothers 😅 making jest of me. Every episode reveals a lot of flaws in my mindset on building startups and it's nice how they find that funny. Thanks guys!

[@OfficialClintJames]

"For every ounce of discipline you have, you can probably lose 5, 10 ounces of intelligence and still outperform." Love drawing and listening to these "podcasts."

[@tbuglc]

Great content! Just had a question on how big should an MVP be in order to launch in a market dominated by competitors. I feel like the tendency is like to get to competitors’ level and then add the feature(s) that differentiate you from the others. If you start with the latter, you mostly going to find an epsilon user (almost none 😅). How can one balance this? Thanks.

[@chiraggupta8165]

Talk to users and ask what are the most important features of the competititors products sort them by ease of making and impact. Make a MVP in 1-2 months and just ship it. Let it break and fix later

[@leo_sn]

Search for Paul Graham talking about this. He uses a term that he admits is weird, something like a Quantum of Value. Point is, he says launch as soon as you have just one customer that wants what you've built. Just one. And build explicitly for their use case. Then move on, and you'll find what you've built works for others as well. Basically all YC advice, imo, can be summed in the slogan: build something that people want. Find one pain point/use case, and build explicitly for that. Smash that out the park, and then move forward and see where the journey takes you. Obvs you can't consolidate all YC advice in a sentence, but if I had to, that's what I'd say

[@startupbible.49]

Can you post those to Spotify podcast?

[@seymorebizz7950]

This is such an interesting video, really great truths in there mixed with some meh, at times comes off a little unnecessarily smug, which doesn't seem intended or typical

[@patrick_kabwe]

I love the content you guys produce

[@spiritsdontfly]

Ground truth answers from users are like the laws of physics from nature.

[@igordzivulsky4790]

Great advice.

[@bjovicevic]

Love your podcast, super useful and real. there is only one potential Improvement I have - sharing most common mistakes and laughing about them can make founders that made those mistakes feel even worse, a bit more empathy would IMO be better. Those same founders have been fed a lot of wrong advice, especially from VCs, for years, and they are putting 60+ hours weekly (most that I met at least). Otherwise love your content

[@amischthaker]

That was brilliant. Totally got the irony. Just for fun, going to test this out on others to see if they get the irony... :P

[@positiveenergy5733]

Love it ❤️❤️❤️ more videos like this plz

[@cheslenemojica4232]

success Warren

[@duongtt3]

Thank you! V10

[@alexandercrump2298]

12:13 sooooo true

[@harishs9808]

Quote of the video: "authority figures don't have answers to a lot of these(startup) questions".

[@PraveenKumar-tk2hd]

Do things that people want. Please remove the "Title" written at bottom, as the YT caption overlaps YC title. Please.

[@ycombinator]

Good note. Thanks!

[@TechwithLawrence]

enjoying the series, this is the content we need. thanks

[@cheslenemojica4232]

Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel what is funny to Camera Nicholas during the Interview

[@dimi-eu]

Shows us DeepTech products that became Big.

[@cheslenemojica4232]

Bill, stand up straight

[@cheslenemojica4232]

Jeremy and Seth Brave okay bravo

[@cheslenemojica4232]

Michael Jordan bravo

[@djgg8156]

OpenSea aka BrokenSea is so rough. Hope they do better. Coinbase NFT please save us..

[@cheslenemojica4232]

Adam talk nicely

[@the.agent.k]

I am on a company that is doing that

[@daddyelon4577]

R u guys gonna reply to what Ryan breslow said

[@rohankamath88]

I'd buy that Dalton and Michael t-shirt btw... Just saying... You have one paying customer here.

[@mukesh316]

I have an assignment on this video

[@mangeshjahirrao]

11:51 is Kunal Shah Logic

[@mtrisi]

i love u guys

[@cheslenemojica4232]

Hello Marx

[@earleyelisha]

Does this same logic apply to companies that launch new “groundbreaking” products? iPhone comes to mind as a product where Apple was like, “we know what they will want…let’s go build it”. It doesn’t seem like the iPhone was simple at all.

[@5b2c950]

I think that’s the fundamental difference of hardware and software. Software can iterate so fast but not the case for hardware

[@ismynamemoyo6743]

@@5b2c950 what Y said 👍🏿

[@ibrand23]

You could say iPhone’s first iteration was just a really good music player (the iPod), and then they built on top of that infrastructure (iTunes) and learning to get to the iPhone. And even the first iPhone was missing many important features (copy/paste, App Store) but did the other added features well (phone, mobile internet)

[@earleyelisha]

Some hardware related content would go a long way given that there’s been a sea change. “Just do a software company” doesn’t seem like the most helpful advice. “The World of Atoms(as opposed to bits)” still exists.

[@KandiMan]

Michael’s wrong about school. Hands-on learning is actually a big part of most structured curricula, especially the sciences (like physics). Ever heard of lab? It’s this kind of talk that misleads young folks into thinking college is a scam or not worth the time or whatever. Get it right!

[@gwmendel]

how is MS's head so smooth...he needs a little stress.

[@Allyourneedsmet]

😂

[@CaliforniaRussianRiverBees]

Great information 🛋 Customers need to see the products to make a decision🪒🚿🪥🔑🪑🪟🌡🧹🪠

[@KitoKamiliMusic]

❤❤❤

[@kirstinstrand6292]

A lot of expectations and few tested plans...marriage?

[@turcottep]

Opensea still barely works though. Hard to believe such a broken product came from YC

[@SomeKiwi]

Great work when you're backed into a corner actually sounds a whole lot like raw dogging ADHD!

[@adeline7980]

My biggest problem is not being destroyed by the problem I'm trying to solve, before I can solve it. Can Y combinator give me some money before I apply with my company so that it's easier for me to live and learn the skills I need to build my solution.

[@ismynamemoyo6743]

Say what? You want YC to give you money before applying? Do you have a product?

[@edenassos]

What makes you so special? Go crowdfund or something.

[@Allyourneedsmet]

It's a joke guys.

[@Apexzy]

😊😂 😂😂😂

[@b.3845]

I’m sorry but this killed me 🤣🤣

[@iitzkryy9599]

michaels head is bouncing for 21 minutes

[@frogiwthoutahat]

theranos lol

[@VandamBerbecu]

Keep up the good work! I started to love this format!