创业与商业paulgraham.com编辑精选
Schlep 盲区
Schlep Blindness
2012 — 2022,它一次次回到首页
黑点是上首页(≥ 50 分)的那次投稿,空心点是没冲上去的投稿,点越大分数越高。
导读
Paul Graham 的短文讲“Schlep Blindness”:创业者常因下意识回避繁琐、枯燥、令人不快的苦活,而看不见近在眼前的好问题。文章以 Stripe 等为例,说明愿意处理别人嫌麻烦的环节,往往正是创业机会所在。
为什么经久不衰:它点出一个反直觉但持久的创业盲区:好点子常被“太麻烦”过滤掉,今天读仍能校准你该找什么样的问题。
HN 评论精选
苦活因人而异,关键是把你不愿做的部分交给真正热爱它的人,组成互补团队。
我认为这个前提有个缺陷:一个人的苦活可能是另一个人的热情所在。以 Stripe 为例,文章说“你得和银行谈合作”——我认识不少人,他们最爱的就是说服大银行签约新支付服务这种挑战。他们的热情是销售;越难卖,挑战越大。就像好黑客想解决硬技术问题,优秀销售也喜欢硬销售问题。真正的启示是:找出你个人的 schlep,然后和对其充满热情的人一起创业。如果一个优秀黑客、优秀销售和优秀欺诈调查员一起创业,他们就能做出 Stripe 这样的公司,而且每个人都在做自己热爱的事。
mixmax查看英文原文
I think there's a flaw in the premise, namely that one persons schlepp is another mans passion. From the Stripe example: "You'd have to make deals with banks." - I know quite a few people who would love nothing more than the challenge of getting big banks to sign on to a new payment service. Their passion is selling. The harder the sell the bigger the challenge. Just like good hackers want to work on hard technical problems great salespeople like to work on hard sales problems. The real takeaway here is that you should find your personal schlepps and start a company with someone who is passionate about them. If a great hacker, a great salesman and a great fraud investigator started a company they would be able to start a company like stripe. And they'd all be doing stuff they were passionate about.
要区分困难与不可能:值得做的是艰难但可行的事,而不是违背基本规律的幻想。
注意:“乏味、不快的任务”不等于“不可能完成的任务”。第一次互联网泡沫时,我在算 Pi,引起一些 VC 注意,当时“分布式计算”很火。他们问我是否有兴趣创业(我没有,我要去牛津读博),其中一位还问我对于一个商业计划的技术可行性的看法。我的建议(免费给出,真是愚蠢的19岁)是:“按所述方式解决这些问题,在不超光速传输信息的前提下,可证明是不可能的。”他们还是投了,1000万美元花完后公司倒闭,什么也没做出来。要做那个说“这会很难,但我相信可能”的人,不要做那个说“我肯定能找到绕过物理定律的办法”的人。
cperciva查看英文原文
Note: "tedious, unpleasant task" != "impossible task". Back during the first internet bubble, I was playing around calculating Pi and drew the attention of some VCs: "distributed computing" was big. After asking if I was interested in starting a company (I wasn't -- I was going off to Oxford to do my doctorate) one of them asked for my opinion on the technical feasibility of a business plan. My advice (which I provided for free, being a foolish 19 year old) was "it is provably impossible to solve these problems as stated without transmitting information faster than the speed of light". They funded the company anyway, and $10M later the company died having never produced anything. Be the guy who says "this is going to be hard, but I'm sure it's possible". Don't be the guy who says "I'm sure I can find a way to circumvent the laws of physics".
解决具体基础设施痛点的“互联网管道”公司往往有真实而持久的需求。
Stripe 是一个很好的例子:它解决的是具体的挫败感/真实需求,而不是欲望或更高层次的“想要”。我注意到提供“互联网管道”的公司常属于这一类:SendGrid(批量发邮件)、Twilio(易用的电话/短信)、Zencoder(视频编码)、MailChimp(邮件列表管理)。还能想到哪些?很想在这里看到一份清单 :)。
zapnap查看英文原文
Stripe is an awesome example of a company that addressed a tangible frustration / real need instead of a desire or a higher-level "want". I've noticed that companies that provide "Internet plumbing" often fall into this category: * SendGrid (bulk email sending) * Twilio (easy to use telephony / sms) * Zencoder (video encoding) * MailChimp (mailing list management) What others can you think of? Would love to see a list here :).
从自己切身的未满足需求出发,比空想问题更可靠。
不要问“我该解决什么问题?”,而要问“我希望别人替我解决什么问题?” PG 之前还有一句妙语,大意是:最好的创业公司是你在上一份工作中需要的那个。
chrisaycock查看英文原文
Instead of asking "what problem should I solve?" ask "what problem do I wish someone else would solve for me?" PG had another gem some time ago along the lines of: The best startup is the one you needed at your last job.
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