Aujourd’hui, je vous invite à lire le récent et excellent article de Paul Graham intitulé What startups are really like.

Le net est rempli d’articles et de blogs sur les startups, d’avis de personnes, de suivi au jour le jour, etc. Rarement très intéressant, car l’abondance ne fait pas la qualité. Là réside tout l’intérêt de cet article de Paul Graham qui a fait un enquête auprès d’une centaine d’entrepreneurs en leur demandant ce qui les avait surpris dans leur démarrage.

Un article qui se résume en 19 points:

1. Be Careful with Cofounders
2. Startups Take Over Your Life
3. It’s an Emotional Roller-coaster
4. It Can Be Fun
5. Persistence Is the Key
6. Think Long-Term
7. Lots of Little Things
8. Start with Something Minimal
9. Engage Users
10. Change Your Idea
11. Don’t Worry about Competitors
12. It’s Hard to Get Users
13. Expect the Worst with Deals
14. Investors Are Clueless
15. You May Have to Play Games
16. Luck Is a Big Factor
17. The Value of Community
18. You Get No Respect
19. Things Change as You Grow

Ci-dessous, je reprends quelques petites phrases sympathiques qu’on retrouve dans l’article. Pour ma part, le fait que certaines soient tellement applicables à ma propre expérience rendent l’article encore plus prenant.

You haven’t seen someone’s true colors unless you’ve worked with them on a startup.

It’s surprising how much you become consumed by your startup, in that you think about it day and night, but never once does it feel like « work. »

« I’m continually surprised by how long everything can take. Assuming your product doesn’t experience the explosive growth that very few products do, everything from development to dealmaking (especially dealmaking) seems to take 2-3x longer than I always imagine. »легла

When you let customers tell you what they’re after, they will often reveal amazing details about what they find valuable as well what they’re willing to pay for.

All the scares induced by seeing a new competitor pop up are forgotten weeks later. It always comes down to your own product and approach to the market.

Actually the best model would be to say that the outcome is the product of skill, determination, and luck. No matter how much skill and determination you have, if you roll a zero for luck, the outcome is zero.

Your job description as technical founder/CEO is completely rewritten every 6-12 months. Less coding, more managing/planning/company building, hiring, cleaning up messes, and generally getting things in place for what needs to happen a few months from now.

Par contre, l’article finit par une phrase étonnante:

Fortunately, it can become a lot less stressful once you reach cruising altitude: « I’d say 75% of the stress is gone now from when we first started. Running a business is so much more enjoyable now. We’re more confident. We’re more patient. We fight less. We sleep more. »

Plus confiant, oui. Plus patient, certainement. Par contre, on n’est clairement pas encore en Cruising Altitude, car on ne dort pas plus, on se bat toujours autant, et le challenges de plus en plus important.