Lessons from Y Combinator's Startup School 2019

I always take at least 30 minutes a day, in the evening after 7:00 PM, to learn something new: for a few weeks, I have been listening to the Y Combinator podcast, which republishes, in audio, the lessons of the Startup School 2019 they are doing in Boston.

In reality, it is a tour that this year involved more than 21,000 startup founders, and I believe the last lesson, the one I listened to today, is the most significant from a conceptual point of view. Below are some notes and the two videos of the lesson’s speeches.

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There is no single leader archetype.

It seems obvious, but there are so many startup founders (especially in Italy, I would say), who want to follow in the footsteps of Steve Jobs or Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos. Never something more wrong. One’s ability to be a leader is a direct consequence of our uniqueness that distinguishes us in the way of doing and carrying forward certain goals. As Steve Jobs said, (yes, you can quote them, just don’t think you can do the same things):

'*don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life'*

Be clear and concise in communication. This is a practice that I struggle so much to pursue, but I am trying in every way to improve my communication, often replacing oral conversations with written ones: writing, instead of speaking, allows me to think better about what I want to communicate, because I know that when I speak I think faster than what I would like to say, and so the conversation that comes out of my mouth is a mess.

• Take time every day to think, to align and coordinate your thoughts and to make them clear in your head, you will thus be able to communicate them more clearly to others.

Judge well the people around you. Take time to decide whether to hire them, look for many alternatives: you will make mistakes, but you will have put effort into it and you will learn from your mistakes - you will know what you want from the people beside and around you.

• If you make bad decisions about the people you promote or hire, this will reflect on the perception that the rest of the team has of you, and you will lose their trust.

Show strong integrity and long-term commitment. It must be an integrity that goes beyond your personal interests. Beyond money, on the vision and mission of the company. On the concept that sparked the spark in you, and made you fall in love. Make your work your life mission, and the team you lead will see clarity in the objectives.

• Ask yourself: if all the private conversations you have were to be made public, would you feel some kind of shame or embarrassment? If yes, then you are not honest with the team, and maybe not even with yourself about your goals.

Every leader’s job is to build trust.

It’s not simple, but if you work for a goal that is genuine, and is isolated from the simple need to make money trust will be built over time.

Optimize your processes and decisions based on trust.

• See every challenge presented to you as a challenge to put one more brick on your ‘trust building’.

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And finally, two gems that I take as pearls - I invite you to do the same.

Describe your idea in a text of maximum 78 words.

Talking to your users (even if few) makes you happier than those who don’t.

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Buy me a coffee @ home