Jessica Livingston's Advice For Founders
I'm going to switch from talking about my own story to give you my general advice for Founders. This is very sort of quick advice. Um, the most important quality you can have is determination. I've seen so many smart and talented Founders fail because they just couldn't stick with it when things got tough. You can't even imagine what you're going to have to go through if you, you know, on your way to becoming super successful.
Um, you need to be able to withstand rejection. Um, people will think your idea is crazy or they'll think it's lame. Um, investors will say no. Um, reporters won't care, and so on. Three is empathy. You need to be able to talk to your users and really care about their experience. That's why it's best if you yourself are a Target user of your product. Then you can like have a conversation with your users just by thinking. Um, it's true, it's true.
Four, you need to make something people want a lot. Um, it's not enough if they just want it a little bit; they have to want it enough to actually sign up and to keep coming back and to tell their friends about it. Even when you're just like this crappy little startup at the beginning. Number five is um, live cheaply at the beginning. If you don't have a lot of money, you have to live in a way that buys you more runway.
It often takes startups a while to figure out exactly what they should be doing, and if you spend too much money, you won't have enough time for the necessary evolution to happen. I constantly start seeing startups that, like, I think they've almost got it figured out and then they run out of money and they die. Um, lastly is just focus. I can't stress this one enough. Um, it's easy to waste time on the wrong things because in a startup there's always a hundred things you could be doing right.
Um, and if you spend time on those other, you know, 99 instead of the one optimal thing, you aren't doing the right thing. Um, so that was just like my super brief distilled advice for general Founders. Um, but now I'm going to give you some advice specifically for women. I thought about what advice like I'd give to my own sister if she were starting a startup. And so I wrote a draft and then I read what I said, and as after it I thought, oh my God, I should just toss this part out.
Um, I was terrified to say anything because things seem to get pretty heated out there on the internet on the topic of women in Tech. And I was nervous. Um, so I was really like agonizing over what I should do. Like, do I keep my life simple and avoid controversial stuff? Or should I really try to help and like risk getting flamed on the internet, which is like my nightmare?
Um, and then literally in the middle of this crisis, I got this email from a woman named Bura, who I've never met, and it just like really hit me. I was so appreciative, and I don't know if you can read it back there, but she thanked me for this blog post that I wrote about what stops female Founders. And she's like, thank you for being the finger pointing to the moon. And I like, I think I teared up. I was very touched. And so I knew what I had to do.
Okay, so in the spirit of sharing practical information at this conference, I'm going to risk it and speak candidly. Okay, that's my baby! He's five now. So Paul took this picture in 2009, and he jokingly refers to it as combining work and life, which it was. And I have two sons now; they're five and two. And based on my own experience, I'd say it's easier to start a startup before you have kids.
Okay, shocker! I didn't have kids when we first started YC, and I'm honestly not sure if I would have done it if I had. Um, in the first few years of YC, when I was doing like everything, I was working like really long hours, seven days a week. It was all-consuming, and I just don't know if I could have worked that many hours with kids. Even now, when there's a great team and there are more people that do things at YC, I struggle to manage the balance.
I mean, I love doing both, but I struggle. In fact, just yesterday I was really, I was writing this talk and I got so into it that I almost forgot to pick up George from school. Like, I—something hit me; I was like, oh my God! And I rushed there. Um, it's definitely possible to combine having kids and doing a startup. Diane Green and Julia Harts have done it, and I hope they'll come out here and give you good advice on how to do it.
Um, I'm just telling you if you have a choice, it would be a lot easier to do before kids because I found that, um, after I had kids, I didn't want to work 12 hours a day. I wanted to be with them. Kids pull you in a different direction than a startup does, and these two competing forces are very, very powerful.
Um, so YC has funded women and men with children of all ages, including newborns, um, and we'll continue to do so. Um, but for your sake, if you have an option, I'd suggest doing it before kids. If you already have kids, start the startup, but know what you're up against, and try to like outsource things that aren't directly related to your kids.
Like, I mean, I use Instacart for groceries all week long.