10 Commandments of Startups Success by Reid Hoffman

The 10 commandments of Startup Success are taken from Reid Hoffman's podcast "Masters of Scale". As a startup founder, I found these commandments very useful and they might help you in your startup journey.

Commandment 1: Expect rejection. But learn from every "No". As a founder you have to be resilient and develop a thick skin towards rejection. This advice was given by Kathryn Minshew, she was rejected for 148 times by the investors.

Commandment 2: Hire like your life depends in it. It does. Hiring the right people can make or break the company. Hiring great people is as important as breathing. Brian Chesky personally interview the company's first 500 employees.

Commandment 3: In order to scale, you have to do things that don't scale. In order to scale, you have to get your hands dirty. Designing the core experience and understanding the customer requirements is the most crucial part. This advice was given by Paul Graham to Brian Chesky.

Commandment 4: Raise more money than you think you need - potentially a LOT more. As an entrepreneur, you'll run into a minefield of unexpected expenses. It is suggested by Reid Hoffman to raise more than required.

Commandment 5: Release your products early enough that they can still embarrass you. Imperfect is perfect. The fifth commandment is actually one of Reid’s more famous recommendations. He believes that if you’re not embarrassed by your first product release, you’ve released too late. 

Commandment 6: Decide. Decide. Decide. Every founder has to learn how to make decisions. It’s better to make a wrong decision than no decision. And this is something Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, learned when he was taking flying lessons.

Commandment 7: Be prepared to both make and break plans. In a fast-growing organization, leaders have to be ready to pivot. Every day, there are new competitors, new threats, new opportunities. Everything has to be subject to change. 

Commandment 8: Don't tell your employees how to innovate. Manage the chaos. Many creative people find that leading an innovative company actually means a lot less of producing your own great ideas, and a lot more of shepherding your employees’ great ideas to fruition.

Commandment 9: To create a winning company, make sure every employees owns it. This commandment is very often overlooked, especially at the startup stage. Many founders, especially inexperienced ones, downplay the role of culture in their success, or simply don’t know where to start. 

Commandment 10: Stick with the hero's journey. So the first nine commandments from Masters of Scale cover just about everything you need to succeed as a startup founder. Hiring and funding, managing and innovating, making decisions fast and testing products early. The final commandment makes all the rest possible. To succeed, entrepreneurs need a good idea, sufficient resources, good timing, a certain amount of luck. But they also need to follow Commandment 10: have grit and stay on your hero’s journey.