Rahul Pandey

what city should you build your startup in? I was in SF for a few days last week and I've been reflecting on this age old debate what I've noticed about this question, is that people always talk their bags. - if you live in LA, you'll talk about quality of life - if you live in NYC, you'll talk about how cosmopolitan NYC is - if you live in SF, you'll talk about how SF is coming back - if you live in St. Louis or some other random city, you'll talk about how great remote work is having lived in 3 major hubs - SF, LA, and now NYC - I've come up with a simple heuristic for making this decision: there's a spectrum: SF -> NYC -> .... -> middle of nowhere the more advantages you have, the further right you can (not "should") move. advantages include: - strong network (of investors, hires, customers, etc) - experience in startups - experience building great software - strong work ethic - credibility in startups (e.g. multi-time founder, worked at a top tech co) - traction with your company the reality is, because SF has so much density of people who have invested in and built the most influential tech companies in the world (even still after the pandemic) and because there's basically nothing to do there except work, it is the best place to passively accumulate these advantages. this means, for most unproven, non-conventional founders (esp. who are new), SF is the best place to be. and even for folks with every advantage, it's still crucial to visit SF and build relationships with people who live there. I remember hearing a stat that YC companies based in SF were 2-3x more likely to succeed than ones that weren't. so why am I living in NYC instead of SF? family at the end of the day, stacking advantages is irrelevant if you don't have your basics accounted for. NYC is the closest tech hub to a lot of family that lives in Pittsburgh. as I've gotten older, being close to them has become more important to me. additionally, meeting a partner to start my own family is just easier in NYC than SF, which is something I'd like to do soon. I've noticed that my effectiveness as a leader is just exponentially higher when I'm in a loving relationship. having spent 8+ years in SF (on top of graduating from Berkeley and growing up in the Bay Area), I've also accumulated a lot of the advantages listed above. that coupled with staying active on twitter/linkedin and visits to SF nearly every other month, give me many of the benefits of the city without having to live there. there are many exceptions that do not follow this heuristic, but startup success is a probability game and the more things you can do to increase that probability, the better. fwiw SF is also one of the most beautiful cities in the world, this is a pic I took while on a walk during the pandemic

49

11 条评论

On the surface, I have: - Built Supergrow with my co-founder Deven - Bootstrapped and scaled despite limited resources - Grown to 1200+ paying customers without external funding Under the hood: - Failed at 12 side projects - Spent months questioning everything - Got rejected by 20+ companies - Faced rejections and silence from prospects - Burnt all my savings and failed I have failed over and over again. But every "No" is part of the process. Be relentless. Pick yourself up. Dust yourself off. And keep building—because nothing great ever comes easy.

42

15 条评论

Pangea was in the YC batch when Brian Chesky said "happy employees make happy customers." I wrote it down and it became my own mantra. I hired people to do sales, CS, product, marketing etc, and abstracted myself out of the day-to-day. We had a big beautiful office and different teams with different KPIs. But we became slow - every decision was voted on. We scoped out new product that would take months to release. And our burn went through the roof. That is why Brian's talk is now centered around "founder mode" Founder Mode means you don't hire sales people - the founder does sales. You don't hire "product" (especially pre-pmf) - the sales and customer support calls you have drive iteration. And when the founder is the one doing all 3 - you move A LOT FASTER. Founder mode is about rolling up your sleeves, making decisions, and holding high standards. It's about being in the weeds - even after you hire folks to expand your production capabilities. It's your company, run it. (just don't be a jerk)

44

5 条评论

🚨🚨 🚨 Unlocking Innovation: The Power of the Adjacent Possible Innovation programs can stall when the team tries to ideate way beyond their collective perspective and frame of reference. Like a software engineer brainstorming genetic modification of mycelia, or a senior executive ideating process improvements which they haven't been participated in for decades. It's challenging, exhausting, and ultimately self-defeating. Enter the concept of the "Adjacent Possible" - a game-changer for innovation. What is it? The Adjacent Possible, coined by Stuart Kauffman, represents the realm of new ideas within reach based on our current knowledge, resources, and capabilities. Why it matters: ➡️ Realistic Innovation: it focuses on achievable advancements, not far-fetched concepts. ➡️ Incremental Progress: each innovation opens doors to new possibilities. How to leverage it: • Constantly explore the boundaries of your adjacent possible. What's in your line of sight is what you know best. • Combine existing ideas in novel ways. Even small perturbations from status quo can generate large innovation leaps. • Stay curious about developments in adjacent industries. Cross-domain patterns create fresh sources of ideas, while also expanding the adjacent possible. Most of all, it takes the 'genius' pressure off the team. No one knows everything, but each one of us knows a lot about something, and we can all drive plenty of innovation potential by focusing on the spaces we know best. Are you exploring your Adjacent Possible? Share your thoughts below! 👇 #Innovation #innovationsystems #AdjacentPossible

8

2 条评论

I just came back from SF after a 1-month trip. People ask me how it was, and merely responding with the obvious "crazy start-up community/talent" always felt short. I’d change it to say "it's the energy, man," but just mentioning the energy feels vague, almost like I'm brushing them off. Until today, when I read "Where To Build Your Startup" by NFX, I realized that the "energy" I felt was a set of mental models ingrained in SF culture. Here are the cultural protocols that power Silicon Valley: - Non-zero-sum thinking - Anybody can be anything - Habitual speed - Thinking big impact as the status marker - Paying it forward - Sharing information - "If you're not weird, you're weird." - Drinking the Kool-Aid - The concept of the founder as a hero One takeaway is that if we can adopt these mental models and spread them to the people and communities around us, it'll feel like SF wherever we go.

29

7 条评论

My latest episode is about what you need to know about AI!

37

4 条评论

After years of interviewing job candidates for Vimcal, I found a surprising trend amongst the best people: They made a career change at some point. Hear me out 👇 It takes guts and grinding to throw away everything you went to school for and start from scratch. But that's exactly what makes these people great (especially for a startup): * Got that underdog energy * Strong 0-to-1 muscle * Creative by accident from combining the knowledge of their past field * Sees everything with fresh eyes * Willing to eat sh*t today for a better tomorrow * High risk/pain tolerance * Picks up new skills in a short time I realized this after noticing that over half the Vimcal team started their careers doing something completely different than what they're doing now. * Our mobile engineer was a lawyer for 20+ years. When he decided to learn iOS programming, he woke up an hour earlier every morning before his lawyer job to answer Stack Overflow questions. When we interviewed him he was a top 0.1% answerer. DAWG. * Our designer is a former growth marketer who taught himself design. As a result his work is both beautiful AND converts well, which is a hard combo to find. * Our customer support rep was an English teacher. If she can deal with adolescent tantrums, she can easily handle corporate adults. etc. etc. Once I started seeing this pattern I saw it everywhere. Many high performers start in a field that's not meant for them but once they make the jump to something that's a better fit, that's when they really take off. So all this to say — if you're hiring and you come across an oddball candidate, consider yourself lucky.

215

30 条评论

What's a Group PM at a Series E+ company in SF making these days? Base Salary: $235k - $290k Incentive Comp (Bonus + Equity, Annualized): $230k-$365k Question for the broader product community: • Is this data consistent with what you're seeing in the market? • What product role and (private) company size should we cover next? More details about the salary benchmark: • Level/seniority of the role: Group PM • Amount raised: $250-500M The ranges above come from a combination of sources: 1) Fair Offer 2) What I've seen from Supra members's offers 3) Exec recruiters. Just so you know, the equity numbers for seed stage by Fair Offer are way higher than I've seen in other places, so please take a look at the equity numbers I shared at the top of the post. To increase salary transparency, I will post Salary benchmarks for product leadership roles at private companies every two weeks. I also shared how to leverage Fair Offer to access these insights in the comments. --- Enjoy this? Follow Marc Baselga for similar posts.

16

3 条评论

Since the YC deadline to hear back for W25 is coming up next week, here’s the story of how we went from 2 students coding in an MIT dorm room to being full-time YC founders building Delve in SF. For all you founders anxiously waiting to hear back, just keep building — you’ll be successful regardless of the decision. -- In Fall 2023, my co-founder Karun Kaushik and I were studying AI at MIT and spending all of our free time building an AI medical scribe to help doctors. We had vaguely heard about YC from a friend who had just gotten accepted but had no plans of applying whatsoever. However when the YC deadline rolled around, we spontaneously decided to put in an application on the very last day. We spent that whole day in Karun’s dorm room typing up the application and filming all the required videos. We finally hit submit the minute of the deadline! By the next day we had already moved on. We went back to the usual rhythm of coding in the dorm room, calling with doctors, attending conferences, etc. If anything, we were even more motivated now to get more traction and be successful regardless. Later that week, while we were eating in the dorm kitchen, I noticed I got an email saying we had a YC interview scheduled. My heart rate spiked. I jumped up out of my seat and immediately told Karun. I never seriously considered YC, but for the first time it hit me that it might actually be a possibility. When the day of the interview rolled around, we did mock interviews with former YC founders and focused mostly on calming our nerves. More important than the actual content of the interview, we wanted to show our excitement for building and hacking together as co-founders. Unfortunately the interview caught us by surprise. The group partners didn't seem to care as much about our actual AI medical scribe. Instead, they seemed more curious about a side idea we had listed in our application that we wrote up in a day. The idea was about streamlining HIPAA compliance (since we had to go through HIPAA for our AI medical scribe). By this point, we were already seriously considering pivoting into this and had made a lot of progress on the idea. The YC interview was our tipping point Not too long after, we got an ominous email titled “YC.” We were freaked out. I could not sleep the entire night. Then, in the middle of class the next day, I got a phone call from Karun with Surbhi on the other end of the line. My heart rate spiked. I ran outside of the classroom. That turned out to be our acceptance call:) -- For everyone out there still waiting to hear back, just keep grinding. Build as if you’ve been rejected and you might just be pleasantly surprised. I’m also always here to help with mock interviews/give advice! We’ve helped a handful of friends through the YC app process and are always here to support other founders!

189

20 条评论

Here's why prompt engineering is one of today's most valuable skills. VentureBeat recently published an article by Deven Panchal of AT&T Labs. I applaud Deven for his vision. He says, "A well-crafted prompt can significantly impact the quality and relevance of the output of LLMs." So many are refusing to accept this. Mainly because prompting uses natural language. They are misguided, assuming AI can expertly prompt for them. Even if it can someday (which I doubt), it can’t today. The closest thing is SmartGPT 2.0, which still can’t compete with an expert prompt engineer. I recommend learning and practicing prompt engineering. 🟢 If you don't know where to learn, comment "START" and I'll point you in the right direction. --------------------------------------------- See comments for a link to the full article. 🔗 Follow 🔔Mark Fulton for more on #AI #Prompts #AIAgents

27

18 条评论

I’ve been getting a lot of DMs from college students (especially students from Berkeley, my alma mater) about how to choose between corporate jobs or going all in on your startup. I unfortunately don’t have time to take calls with everyone who messages me (though I am experimenting with ways to do calls with/share advice with many students at once in the same position). Some advice I wanted to share on here: 1. I really do not believe that you can run a startup part time. If the founder of the company cannot commit their attention and focus to building, I see it as a red flag to everyone around (potential customers, new employees, investors). I’ve also noticed that many of these founders who try to do both end up burning out and not really doing either the startup or their job/internship justice. Focus is not solely a function of time; it is also a function of mental energy.  2. While it may seem scary, sacrificing an internship to spend a summer focused on validating your hypotheses and assumptions is the best thing you can do for yourself if you want to be a founder. This is coming from someone who turned down an offer at a coveted FAANG company and got in a lot of trouble with my university’s career center to focus on building. 3. Especially at schools like Berkeley where investors spend a lot of time and money coming and doing happy hours or events, it can be easy to waste time chasing capital; I saw this happen a lot. Most of my student founder peers were laser focused on which student fund would invest in them, and I felt like few of these students developed actual skill sets of customer discovery, user experience or product. Students saw being a founder as merely two roles: coding and fundraising. Arguably, I think these are two of the easier skills to learn. Most startups don’t fail because of money or because the product is not advanced enough but rather because fundamentally they are not solving a tangible problem that customers are willing to pay for. This is the skill set that student founders need to learn; student VC events and scout programs are a distraction if you are trying to build and I think universities should disincentivize student funds from doing happy hours in bars and incentivize students to get together and build or hack as this is how you truly learn how to build a business. I’m committing to sharing more insights for student founders. Let me know what you think and if you have more questions in the comments! #studentfounder #founder #berkeley #entrepreneurship #siliconvalley #logistics #supplychain

129

10 条评论

Drove up to hang out in SF this week. Three things about the city I'm in love with: 1️⃣ Lots of highly talented investors, founders and operators here. The energy is truly infectious. Have been meeting 2-3 a day and learning SO much. LinkedIn advice and podcasts barely scratch the surface of what you can learn from deeper 1:1 conversations about company building. 2️⃣ Amazing views, lush greenery, interesting architecture. So much more inspiring than the semi-urban sprawl I get in LA. 3️⃣ It is actually kind of bike-able. Bike lanes are an actual thing here. And so far cars have been friendly to me. Think I'll be coming up here more often. Anything else I should be loving? Or anyone y'all think I need to meet? 🙃 (photo: Met Stedman Hood at Fort Mason this morning for breakfast. First got to know each other when I was an early user of a tool he was building to bring a inbox-zero workflow to Slack messaging. I'm pretty sure that at least in part contributed to what I'm working on now.)

52

16 条评论

Supporting & Amplifying: (summary) Mark Zuckerberg offers up Facebook misinformation and forthcoming lack of moderation to Trump as he jockeys for position with Musk and Thiel. This is a Billionaire right wing boy's club. And Zuck knows that Facebook has a global reach of users that misinformation can be poured into. To affect elections worldwide. That is Zuck's offer. That is lack of moderation and suggesting politcal content on a social network. This below (Georg's post) is the most honest take that I’ve seen. Zuckerberg by all accounts, and by those who described him, is competitive, power, hungry, and doesn’t like to be constrained. His once liberal ideals, never stopped him from datamining and exploiting every piece of consumer data from every device that his platform was connected to. His competitiveness, and focus on power got him chasing after the next devices (XR) after mobile when it was clear that he lost the ability to go into and control mobile. Zuck plowed into AI despite being a decade behind on cloud and a decade and a half on behind on using GPUs. Rememeber, Facebook was all CPU for AI in 2022. And now Zuck sees himself out-competed in the billionaires club. And he’s willing to put his platform out as a weapon of disinformation in order to build its relevance for foreign policy. It still feels like he’s being used, but that he can’t step out of the game because then he would feel that he lost the game. I wonder if Zuck now wishing that he took that chance to pummel Elon Musk in his backyard. That might’ve been the easiest fight that he could’ve won. This current fight is darker, more obscured, murkier, messier. And I don't think that Zuck knows what winning is anymore, or even if he can. He's just fighting to be on par with Musk. But hey, Zuck's all in, Facebook can provide Misinformation as a Service (MaaS). Here is Misinformation as a Service (MaaS): ----- "More Speech and Fewer Mistakes" (January 7, 2025) (Joel Kaplan, Chief Global Affairs Officer) Facebookhttps://lnkd.in/g6VP_JCT ----- CBS News: Meta to end fact-checking, replacing it with community-driven system akin to Elon Musk's X CBS News: https://lnkd.in/gKVEWyTk ----- Guardian: "Meta to get rid of factcheckers and recommend more political content. Mark Zuckerberg says company will ‘dramatically reduce censorship’ across Facebook, Instagram and Threads" "Meta will get rid of factcheckers, “dramatically reduce the amount of censorship” and recommend more political content on its platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and Threads, founder Mark Zuckerberg has announced. In a video message, Zuckerberg vowed to prioritise free speech after the return of Donald Trump to the White House and said that, starting in the US, he would “get rid of factcheckers and replace them with community notes similar to X”." Guardian: "https://lnkd.in/g-tnWXjd #socialmedia #fustercluck #markzuckerberg #chases #power

3

4 条评论

🕵️‍♂️ Ever wonder how Meta seems to know what you’re thinking about buying, even if you haven't told anyone? It's not actually listening to you speak... So how does Meta do it? Every time you interact with a website, IG, or FB—be it liking a post, shopping, or just browsing—this info gets tied not to your name, but to a random ID. Think of it as your secret agent code. Meta doesn't see "John Doe loves sci-fi books;" they see "User 12345 clicked on a sci-fi book ad." Here's where it gets interesting. Meta uses the info from millions of these anonymous IDs to find patterns. Say you're User 12345 who loves sci-fi books and indie music. Meta’s AI finds other 'secret agents' with similar tastes but different codes and shows them the same things that piqued your interest. It’s like anonymously connecting dots across the web to make better guesses about what ads you might like. While it sounds a bit like Big Brother, it’s not quite. Your real identity is never directly linked with your browsing habits in Meta's eyes. Instead, everything is stored under these random IDs. It's their way of keeping things personal, without getting personal with your actual details. This is what powers a lot of Meta's targeting, lookalike audiences, and why so many other ad platforms have so many challenges actually competing with Meta's abilities.

27

9 条评论

The newest issue of The Pragmatic Engineer found a surprise uptick in eng hiring in the typically slow summer season - I'm curious to see how the macro environment impacts this uptick as we head into the fall, but I remain hopeful. I asked Gemini to give me the tldr of the article to share with my team (sorry, Gergely Orosz) and found it missed one of the most interesting pieces of the article. Gemini's highlights - Unexpected surge: Tech recruitment has seen an unusual spike in June and July, contrary to typical trends. Increased demand: Startups, especially AI-focused ones, are driving the hiring uptick. Global phenomenon: This trend isn't just limited to the US; Europe is also experiencing increased recruitment activity. Reasons for hiring: Companies are backfilling positions, investing in growth due to improved financials, and responding to increased VC funding. Challenges remain: While the job market is improving, finding qualified candidates and offering competitive compensation remains difficult for many companies. What I found most interesting - The nature of the backfills: the article finds that a lot of new headcount are actually backfills of folks that were "over-slashed" during rounds of layoffs. Not entirely surprising with the "trim the fat" and "rebuild lean" mentality, but interesting nonetheless. Either way, the uptick is encouraging (and don't always rely on Gemini's tldrs). #hiring #startups #VCbacked #softwareengineering

11

1 条评论

There I was: sitting on the floor of my shower in my San Francisco loft. Hot water pounding down my head. Crying. You might not realize it until it hits you hard: Burnout. Are you constantly feeling drained, overwhelmed, or stuck despite your best efforts to stay productive and focused? We often overlook the most destructive obstacles during make-or-break moments in our lives. I totally understand what kept tripping me up until I noticed the loophole, or should I say loopholes. Look, you and I are surrounded by energy drainers that hold us back from reaching our goals. You can feel them within you as they cloud your mind. But what are actually these drainers? 📌You struggle to make decisions Not that you haven't struggled making one in the past, but this time it's actually different. This time, you're scared. But what for? You fear this specific decision might turn into a disaster. But no one is right or wrong 100% of the time. Not the best entrepreneur, and not the worst, either. "There's no perfect record" you need to keep. First, drive the fear away by writing a list of pros and cons, ON PAPER. Something about writing it down physically helps focus thoughts, bringing clarity. Second, tackle the big decisions at the start of your day. We exhaust our decision making energy throughout the day, so try when your tank is full. 📌Wasting time You actually don't realize it, but your progress is being buried in the ground. Maybe because you prefer mindless scrolling, consuming tons of entertainment, and procrastinating. Take a walk, exercise, meditate, read a fun novel, or chat with a friend. Then you'll have the mental energy to conquer your challenges at work. 📌Fraying your focus Multitasking can be good in moderation, but staying focused on a single task is even better. If you utilize your full potential in each task, your mind is relatively more responsive and active. Turn off notifications, silence your phone, set a timer, and focus on the task at hand! 📌Being a people pleaser I suffer from this one, too. Some of us are inherently wired to mediate, seek calm, and try to make everyone happy. Learn to say ‘no’ even if you feel awkward sometimes. Give your honest feedback while staying as kind as possible. Stop pleasing everyone but yourself. 📌Regretting too much We’re all human – full of flaws, making mistakes, and falling short of perfection. I’m far from perfect and let my team know this often. You can admit mistakes and still be a leader. In fact, it makes you a better leader. But don’t dwell on those mistakes enough so they become energy-draining regrets. It's a struggle but these tactics helped me to overcome these pain-in-the-ass energy drainers. And, I encourage you to come up with your own strategies to save yourself from these all-so-human problems. Repost and help others overcome their obstacles too. ♻️ What strategies will you use to avoid these drainers? 💬

22

15 条评论

Old school and probably not popular but I still believe products should be customer-satisfaction focused/led rather than technology-led. Use cases for AI should be byproducts of the product improvement process primarily. The thing though is that founders need to fundraise so they're likely to sprinkle some AI on their decks to even look serious. Not sure that's how the most enduring companies have been built. Of course, if sources of capital become AI-biased, founders have little choice. Happy to keep an open mind and dive in when a use-case that can 10x customer experience for Good Tenants customers and users shows up.

5