We've cut down the first week of Startup School lectures to be even shorter and combined them into one podcast.
First, a lecture from Kevin Hale. Kevin is a YC partner and a cofounder of Wufoo. His lecture is about How to Evaluate Startup Ideas.
Then, a lecture from Eric Migicovsky. Eric is a YC partner and the founder of Pebble. His lecture is about How to Talk to Users.
Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.
Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/
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Topics
00:00 - Intro
00:43 - Kevin Hale on How to Evaluate Startup Ideas
2:04 - How can I predict if an investor will like my idea?
2:50 - A startup idea is a hypothesis
5:44 - Problem
6:59 - Solution
8:16 - Insight
8:57 - Unfair advantages
13:45 - Two beliefs about startups
15:19 - Eric Migicovsky on How to Talk to Users
17:36 - Three common errors people make when talking to users
20:20 - Five questions to ask in a user interview
20:28 - What's the hardest part about doing the thing you're trying to solve?
21:02 - Tell me about the last time that you encountered this problem
21:22 - Why was this hard?
23:08 - What, if anything, have you done to try to solve this problem?
24:10 - What don't you love about the solutions you've already tried?
25:21 - Three stages in which talking to users is extremely beneficial
26:07 - Idea stage
30:40 - Prototype stage
33:41 - Iterating towards product market fit
