Great to hear Jessica's voice (literally) on this. Listening to her story, it's wild to think she and pg had such success with what really must have felt very experimental. "Learn quickly by funding a bunch of startups at once" feels like a very startup-y way to go about your business.
A little meta, but I am noticing more "startups stories as content" out there. (It maybe the red car syndrome, you drive a red car and so see them everywhere) but more and more podcasts, news items are about the real honest it's not all rocket ships to the top stories.
It's good to hear, despite the angst, uncertainty, stress
Your post makes me think of that recent (laptop?) commercial where the kid is going off to college, but is also starting a company, with the final scene being a teleconference where the kids presumably receive funding from some investors.
It's really pop culture. Take a browse around some of the new TV series coming out they usually will have some episode where they encounter a start up or one of the main characters creates a "start-upy" business themselves.
Two off the top of my head are The League, and Two Broke Girls.
I, personally, think people realize that tech companies are more than just the technology (obviously that is important, but it's not like the tech just appears one day). They are about the people who built it, the struggles and the triumphs and everything in between. It's really an interesting world to be part of and there is something for everyone to learn. I really love reading (and hearing) stuff like this! Having made a similar career shift as JL, I really admire her :)I read the essay that PG wrote about her earlier this month almost daily because it reminds me what I'm doing here, too :)
I find these stories helpful on a lot of levels, and they provide great insight into problem solving, technology, and you end up learning a large amount about why things are the way they are when people recount how they got started. E.g Anthony Casalena is young by non-tech standards and I still find it totally foreign that when he started squarespace he bought 2 physical dedicated servers and hooked them up in New York at pier 1 hosting, he needed to own the physical boxes and have 2 for redundancy.
I am not doing a startup but have found these talks particular insightful generally. I am looking for some more Inspirational ones if anyone knows any great founders or leaders with inspirational stories, or particularly good interviews. Here are some I have found particularly good:
[0]Ashton Kutcher, Startup School
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I listed this first because it is most likely to get dismissed. Give it a chance. He starts off shaky and it is really a great Meta look at how people are out of their element, but really come back, win the crowd and provide insight when it is unexpected.
[1]Kevin Rose, Foundation
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He has done 43 interviews with very prominent tech leaders for his foundation series. Some of them are Elon Musk, Biz Stone, Jack Dorsey, Ben Horowitz, etc.
[2]Paul Graham, Pycon 08'
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This is one of the most interesting things I have seen in a long time. He makes predictions, and talks about technology climate and infrastructure. To reiterate, it is 7 years old but just brilliant in terms of his foresight.
[3]Steve Wozniak, HAAS B-School
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Steve Wozniak is just an amazing person.
[4]Elon Musk, interview by Sal Kahn
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Guy is a great entrepreneur and will likely add a lot of value to the world. Talks about how he got started and future predictions. It is 3 years old, so interesting to re-eval now.
[5]Patrick Collison, Startup School Europe
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The history of stripe.
[8]Jessica Livingston, PG: Y-Combinator
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This was done after Sam Altman had taken over as president. They both talk about their roles in founding the company and what the early days were like. At the time, one of the few interviews with Jessica that was publicly available.
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Instructional Series
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[6]Sam Altman How to Start A Startup
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One of the best resources explaining how startups work and the important parts of both the product and the business aspects. Interesting class by Adora Chung of the now defunct Homejoy, which is insightful both because she is super smart, and you can retroactively post-mortem the company and apply her own advice to the company.
[7]Stanford/GreyLock CS183C Blitzscaling
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Similar to Altman's how to start a startup. Interviews great founders and provides a more instructional look at how to think about startups, technology and the key components of products and businesses.
