Evan's guide on how to start a startup with little to no skills

1.   Pick the best idea to work on.  

Not just the idea that sounds the coolest but pick the idea that you are best equipped to execute on.  Start with something you know. This may be a problem you have experienced yourself or maybe you are an expert in this industry.  For example, for my company, Radial3D, we picked medical education because we work at a medical school. The first startup project that I worked on was a running application that helped competitive road runners such as 5k or 10k runners find a proper training partner.  I did this because I was a runner myself and helped coach the track & field/XC team at my high school.

I find it odd when I ask people why they started their company and they respond with “oh I just thought it would be a cool idea.”  

Even if the niche is small or weird it does not matter.  Everyone is unique, has unique experiences and probably knows something that other people do not.  That means everyone can bring value to the table. Tristan Walker sum this up nicely when asked about competitive advantage on @Reid Hoffman’s podcast “What do you fundamentally feel that you're the best person in the world to do? Really be thoughtful about that. Increase your humility a little bit, and really think about what you're uniquely qualified to do, and then too, chase the best ideas.”

2) Make something people want.

This is the slogan of world-renown accelerator Y-Combinator.  In Reid Hoffman’s first episode of his podcast “Masters of Scale,” he talks a ton about building handcrafted experiences.  Reid drew upon Brian Chesky’s founder experience at Airbnb. They did many things in the beginning that were expensive and did not scale!   They took Paul Graham’s advice of "Go to your users, get them one by one, because now you are small enough to meet all your customers.” They wanted to really “sit in their user's shoes,” so they flew to New York and lived with their first users while still flying back to Mountain view in time to make it to YC Tuesday Dinners.  They literally knocked on the doors of their users and asked “so what if it did this?” for weeks. This obviously does not scale, but as Reid Hoffman said, “your product road-map will be in the minds of your users.” Their early feedback shapes the entire vision of your company. You wouldn't build a skyscraper without building a foundation first.  Also, pay attention to the questions you are asking your early customers. Don't ask them about the product, ask them what is the product of your dreams? For Airbnb the question was “What does an 11-star experience look like?” By asking this question, they got ideas from their customer of what a nirvana mind-blowing experience on their website would look like.  Then they tried to deliver that experience ONE customer at a time. Vivek Ravisankar, CEO and cofounder of Hacker Rank, sums this up as “Make something that 100 users really, really love versus making a 1,000 people or 10,000 people, they sort of okay like.”

3) Find the best people.

Startups are one hell of a ride.  It definitely helps to have a bad-ass team to ride the journey with you.  Wearing many hats is an understatement. I would compare the average founder experience to asking an accountant to fly an airplane.  This may sound crazy but the best founders are probably a little (or a lot) crazy. The best companies like Airbnb, Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn would not be the best without having the best founders.  

You never know what the next day will ask of you, which is why you need to know what you don’t know.  Then get advisors, that know what you don’t know. Then somehow, find peace in knowing that there are fires are burning when you go home.  Your job as an entrepreneur is never really done, even with a 90 hour work week. It's a burden you carry with pleasure and with pain. Pleasure that you are pushing innovation forward, but you are still pushing.  The good news is you are not alone. There are many people who have ran the same path you are running and can prevent you from stumbling in common spots. I encourage you to find the best and smartest people to advise you.  

In conclusion, if you pick the best idea, make something that people want, and are ready to be an entrepreneur (not everyone should) then it’s #getshitdone time.