Live Stream: How to Start a Hard Tech Startup with Sam Altman, 6:00 EST
Preliminary notes jotted down on the fly. If something seems odd or silly, I probably didn&#x27;t hear well or mixed things up.<p><i>YC:
- 11 years.<p>- 1200 startups.<p>- Recently started to fund &quot;hard tech&quot; (few are funding them).<p></i>How to start a hard tech company:<p>- What do you need to do differently than a software startup:<p><pre><code>    - The least amount possible. You&#x27;re not that different.

    - Same principles apply.

    - They were first segregated at YC. Turned out to be bad.

    - Most important change:

        - YC &amp; the market don&#x27;t care: Create value or fail.

        - Don&#x27;t think you&#x27;re that different:

            - &quot;But my idea takes 10 years!&quot;:

                - What can be done in 3 months?

                - Consistent incremental wins compound. 

                    - 10% every week for years.

                    - Find something small and get it done.

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- Advantage:<p><pre><code>    - 11,000th photosharing app is hard.

    - Competitive advantage (4 nuclear fusion companies in North America).

        - Tesla, SpaceX, etc. cf. Michael E. Porter.
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- Pay attention to what software companies did well&#x2F;right:<p><pre><code>    - If in doubt about a field, 2 important things (good indicators):

        - Cost down.

        - Cycle time is getting shorter.
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- Difference:<p><pre><code>  - SW companies are usually &quot;clearer&quot; than HW.
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- It&#x27;s a great time to start a HW company. Make sure:<p><pre><code>    - Weekly wins.

    - Keep costs down.
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- Make peace with the &quot;world&quot;:<p><pre><code>    - &quot;Big companies don&#x27;t play by the rules&quot;:

         - Make peace with that.

         - No excuses.

         - Your duty as a founder to get that 10%&#x2F;small wins consistently.

         - Keeping cycle times down is important because:

             - Maintains *momentum*.

             - Avoids mistakes (typically made by bigger companies).

         - Establish a culture of winning from the beginning, no matter how small.

         - Momentum attracts good people:

             - People want to join a winning team.

         - How?:

             - SW startups drive cycle time down by getting closer to the customer.
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- Detours:<p><pre><code>    - Sometimes you can&#x27;t reach &quot;final&quot; goal directly.

        - ex: Tesla - Roadster (revenue) --&gt; Model S --&gt; Model X --&gt; Model 3.

        - Not from 0 to mass produced car. SpaceX: Not from 0 to colony on Mars.

    - Even if you&#x27;re not in YC, you can adopt this model.

    - More people fail because of &quot;grandeur&quot; than because they did small things.

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- Raising capital:<p><pre><code>    - Too much money can kill you. (ruins your focus, for example).

    - Statistically (YC):

        - Companies that raised $40MM tended to fail.
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- Business side:<p><pre><code>    - Don&#x27;t be all hardcore science and bad at everything else.

    - Someone should take care of the business side.

    - Not hard: you can do science, you can do business.

    - It can be boring for some, but it needs to be tended to.
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- Many will do the thing everyone is doing. Think of a worthy problem. (?)<p>- U.S. Context:<p><pre><code>    - Centuries of abundance and massive growth.

    - Not so much recently (2%) --&gt; Democracy works badly in this context.

    - The only hope is innovation (and a more important growth).</code></pre>