Great founders actually build.

less than 1m read

·Nov 3, 2024

So this question is: what are the biggest red flags for startup founders that you've interviewed?

There are many, many things that I look for in interviews, but one of the most important things I look for is the ability for the team to build the product themselves. Are they technical? Are they engineers? Are they scientists? Can they prototype this product? Is the demo built by them themselves?

The red flag that I look for is explanations that don't involve, "We're going to build it ourselves." Examples of that might be: we have hired an agency to do it for us, or we have hired outsourced engineers, someone else that is going to do it for us. Or, "We don't really need to build it because it's not needed to prove out this startup idea." Or, "Are we using some no-code solutions?"

That might be interesting, but at the end of the day, it probably isn't going to scale. All of these ideas are ignoring the fact that great startups are built by founders who can build prototypes themselves. That's what I look for, and all the things I mentioned are red flags to me.

HONEST TRUTH About Creating A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS & Why MOST FAIL! | Kevin O'Leary

Limits of combined functions | Limits and continuity | AP Calculus AB | Khan Academy

View All

Gravitational forces | Forces at a distance | Middle school physics | Khan Academy

When you hear the word gravity, you probably just think of things falling, like an apple from a tree. But did you know it’s also the reason why your lamp is staying on the floor? That’s because gravity is so much more than things falling down. Gravitation…

Later Stage Advice with Sam Altman (How to Start a Startup 2014: Lecture 20)

All right, uh good afternoon and welcome to the last class of how to start a startup. So, this is a little bit different than every other class. Every other class has been things that you should be thinking about in general at the beginning of a startup. …

Parallel resistors (part 2) | Circuit analysis | Electrical engineering | Khan Academy

In the last video, we introduced the idea of parallel resistors. These two resistors are in parallel with each other because they share nodes, and they have the same voltage across them. So, that configuration is called a parallel resistor. We also showe…

Worked example of linear regression using transformed data | AP Statistics | Khan Academy

We are told that a conservation group with a long-term goal of preserving species believes that all at-risk species will disappear when land inhabited by those species is developed. It has an opportunity to purchase land in an area about to be developed. …

Office Hours with Adora Cheung

Alright, hey everyone! Today we have Dore Chun. She’s a YC partner and co-founder of Homejoy. Thank you! How’s it going? Good, how are you? Good! Alright, we’re gonna do some office hour questions from the internet, so let’s go! Cool! So first question…

Fundraising Panel at Female Founders Conference 2015

Wow, this is awesome! There are so many women in the audience, and I am so happy to be here with you. So, um, I’m Danielle, as Cat introduced, and I want to talk to you a little bit about fundraising. We’re going to have a panel in just a minute and have …

Great founders actually build.

More Articles