Notes on Do More Faster by David Cohen and Brad Feld

I'm a big fan on Brad Feld's balanced and brutally honest blog, and when I heard that he had published a book of startup advice based on the TechStars experience, I knew I would enjoy it. I just didn't know that I would enjoy it this much. 

It's called Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup (by David Cohen and Brad Feld), and it now ranks among the top 5 startup books I've read so far. I'm recommending it to everyone along with The Lean Startup and The Startup Owners' Manual.

Below are my main notes and takeaways. I didn't capture every point in the book if I had seen it a lot before, but if you're looking for a great comprehensive overview of many important modern startup issues, this is the book for you. What I particularly liked was reading stories by well-known entrepreneurs from around the world and hearing about how they approached problems in their businesses (and I liked the commentaries by David and Brad as well). It was also neat to hear about how TechStars works and how the combination of mentorship and operational focus helps the companies have a better chance of success.


Foreword

• By Zynga founder Mark Pincus
  

Preface

• Entrepreneurship is very hard
  
• TechStars: no fly-by mentorship, community

Theme 1: Idea and vision

• Not about the idea
  
• About testing and pivoting
  
• Look for the pain
  
• Much more about execution
  
• Usage is like oxygen for ideas
  
• Don't wait to ship
  
• If not embarrassed then shipped too late
  
• Real artists ship
  
• Focus on smallest problem you can solve better than anyone in world
  
• You are stupid; listen to your users
  
• Don't have to have any original ideas, just listen to users

Theme 2: People

• Don't go it alone
  
• Avoid cofounder conflict
  
• Discuss tough topics up front
  
• List of good questions to discuss listed in book
  
• Hire those better than you
  
• Fire fast
  
• 90 day performance review
  
• If you can't quit no matter how hard you try, it means you are on the right track; if you can quit, you should
  
• Startups seek friends, not sales
  
• Close loops with mentor feedback
  

Great Culture

• No politics
  
• It's not a job, it's a mission
  
• Intolerance for mediocrity
  
• Watching pennies, make every dollar count
  
• Equity-driven
  
• Perfect alignment
  
• Good communication even in bad times
  
• Strong leadership by example, take care of own morale
  
• Mutual respect, celebrate wins from each other
  
• Customer-obsessed
  
• High energy level
  
• Fun
  
• Integrity

Be open to randomness

• Random Days: 15 min mtgs with anyone
  

Theme 3: Execution

• Concise emails
  
• Quick and dirty videos
  
• Startups have nothing to lose
  
• Can move quickly and not worry about brand
• Assume that you're wrong
• Make decisions quickly
• Advice is just data, you decide
• Use your head then follow your gu
• Must measure to manage; doubt all data and see everything as anecdotal
• Progress = validated learning

Don't suck at email

• Volume not excuse
  
• GTD
  
• Inbox to zero
  
• Address as branding
  
• Respond within 2 days
  
• Be concise
  

7 email rules

• Use the subject line
  
• 3 sentence rule
  
• Spell check
  
• Reply to important emails right away instead of thinking about it (and can set reminder)
  
• Use unread status to mark for later
  
• Be conscious of how much you suck
  
• Be persistent
  

Use what's free

• All free
  
• Open source
  
• Outsource all that doesn't matter
  
• Wordpress
  
• Google Apps
  
• Skype
  
• YouTube
  
• Balsamiq
  
• Dimdim
  
• Dropbox
  
• Evernote
  
• Gist
  
• Github
  
• Jing
  
• Mongo test
  
• PivotalTracker
  
• SendGrid
  
• Snapabug
  
• Twilio
  
• Vanilla

Celebrate what matters

• Only actual progress towards scalable business
  

Don't hide your failures

• Learn from them and wear as badge of honor
  

Quality over quantity

• Focus on ease of use and graphical look
  
• Build one thing well
  
• Listen to some not all users

Have a bias towards action

• Book: My Startup Life
  
• Requires self discipline
  
• Use external accountability
  
• Blame no one, expert nothing, do something
• Do or do not, there is no try

Theme 4: Product

• Don't wait until proud of product
  

Find your white space

• Like blue ocean
  
• Understand and talk to competitors
  

Focus on what matters

• Don't switch plan unless got data that not working
  
• Just 2-3 things should be doing

Obsess over metrics

• Engineering not most important
  
• Culture of feedback
  
• Acquisition
  
• Activation
  
• Retention
  
• Referral
  
• Revenue
• Avoid distractions
• Throw things away and pivot

Theme 5: Fundraising

• You don't have to raise money
  
• Angel groups often have fake angels
  
• Ask how long angel investing, how many investments, how large each time
  
• Ask for intros to last 2 investments this past year or last 3 total
  
• Call and ask for founder and confirm that invested and how helped
  
• Open Angel Forum
  

Seed investors care about 3 things

• People: most important 
  
• Products: use product, traction
  
• Markets: needs to feel huge; 10-15M in 3-5 yrs and 50-100M in 5-7 yrs without 100% adoption
• If want money ask for advice
• Focus on first 1/3 of round and fill it in with lead investors
  

Show don't tell

• Brad likes videos and URLs emailed to him of real demos
  

Theme 6: Legal and structure

• Form the company early
  
• Prefer Delaware S corp
  
• Easier to convert to C corp
  
• Interview lawyer for cost and vast experience with startups
  
• Vesting
  
• Always choose qualified lawyer in this space over family or friend
  
• Always file 83b election

Theme 7: Work-life balance

• Spend time away completely unavailable, no connectivity, 1 wk vacation per quarter ("QX vacation")
  
• Life dinner monthly: 1st day of month and give nominal or romantic gift, discussing past and upcoming month
  
• Segment space: separate work and living space at home
  
• Be present and be a person
  
• Meditate your own way: marathon, reading, etc.
• Practice your passion
• Lunch bike rides and hike meetings
• Exercise 5-6 days a week
• Eat fresh food with simple ingredients
• Sleep