Lenny Rachitsky’s Post

Mike Maples, Jr passed on Airbnb at a $1.5m valuation 🫠 Here's what he learned from that experience.

The 3 elements of breakthrough startup ideas from Mike Maples, Jr Here's the full conversation: https://lnkd.in/g_jVaKSb

How close is AI to replacing product managers? Closer than I expected. In collaboration with Mike Taylor(a professional prompt engineer and co-author of the O'Reilly book "Prompt Engineering for Generative AI"), we've begun to develop a benchmark to track how good AI is at the most common and hardest PM tasks. In our first attempt, AI beat humans at 2/3 tasks, including developing a product strategy 😮 Check out our approach, and the surprising results https://lnkd.in/gCBYVqt9

Typical comment I'm getting about my episode with Mike Maples, Jr Here's the episode: https://lnkd.in/gPjw8RXk

Mike Maples, Jr is one of the most successful startup investors in history. He's worked with more early-stage startups than almost anyone alive, and with his fund, Floodgate, helped pioneer seed-stage investing as a category. He's been on the Forbes Midas List eight times and has made early bets on transformative companies like Twitter, Lyft, Twitch, and Okta. In his new book (coming out this Tuesday!), Pattern Breakers: Why Some Start-Ups Change the Future, he shares the three common elements he's uncovered that separate startups (and founders) that break through and change the world from those that don’t. This research is rooted in his decades of notes, decks, and founder relationships, and is unlike anything I've seen elsewhere. In our conversation, Mike shares: 🔸 The three elements of breakthrough startup ideas 🔸 The importance of founder disagreeableness 🔸 Why you need to both *think* and *act* differently 🔸 How to avoid the “comparison trap” and “conformity trap” 🔸 How to apply pattern-breaking principles within large companies 🔸 Mike’s one piece of advice for founders 🔸 Much more Listen now 👇 - YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gPjw8RXk - Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gAUbgGxz - Apple: https://lnkd.in/g6t367uY Some key takeaways: 1. Get out of the present: Instead of just thinking about solving current problems, you need to immerse yourself in the future. Look for emerging trends, technologies, or shifts in behavior that suggest where the world is heading. Great innovations often stem from individuals who immerse themselves deeply in a niche or cutting-edge area. 2. Great startup ideas share three elements: a. Inflections: External shifts that create potential for radical change in how people think, feel, and behave. b. Insights: A unique understanding of how to harness these inflections and enable a future that the company believes in. c. Founder-future fit: An alignment between the founders and the future they envision, including their skills, motivations, and network. 3. Three things that successful founders do differently: a. Movements: A movement aligns early believers around a higher purpose, leveraging their emotional commitment rather than just pragmatic benefits. b. Storytelling: Frame your startup’s story as a hero’s journey. Position yourself not as the hero but as the guide (like Obi-Wan Kenobi) who invites customers (the heroes) to embark on a transformative journey toward a better future. Tailor your narrative to resonate with different stakeholders—investors, customers, employees—by emphasizing how they can achieve their aspirations through your vision. c. Disagreeableness: Founders who challenge the status quo often appear disagreeable because they defy conventional norms. They drive change by questioning existing patterns and persuading others to embrace new ways of thinking and acting.

"It took way too long. Don't do that." Dylan Field on why it took Figma 3.5 years to launch Clip from our live conversation at #Config2024

Why the Airbnb founders got into YC even though PG and Jessica Livingston hated the idea (and even tried to get them to change it)

We polled more than 20 of the sharpest AI product builders and investors asking them for the most counterintuitive and surprising things they’ve learned about building AI products. Here's what they had to say: https://lnkd.in/g8eMwiEh A huge thank-you to Elad Gil, Scott Belsky, Sarah Guo, Paul Adams, Claire Vo, Rahul Vohra, Cameron Adams, Johnny Ho, Gaurav Misra, Joel Kwartler, Dan Siroker and everyone else who contributed their advice, and Kyle Poyar for writing this epic guest post ❤️🔥

Cameron Adams's insight that the way your company communicates is influenced by the type of product you're building has stuck with me ever since he suggested it. e.g. Spotify = talking. Canva/Figma = decks/designs. Stripe/Amazon = writing/documents. Clip from our chat: https://lnkd.in/gCCkMeUM