I love this question, but I would like to extend it a bit. Even though the body of the question the OP asked is about software dev specifically, how do you learn other non-software dev best practices when no one is there to teach you?
Specifically, how do you learn how to build a company around your product? Or how to build a board of advisors/directors? What are the best practices around managing those?
How do you shift your cash flow management thinking from spending out of the reserves built up, to spending out of future cash flows?
In other words, aside from building product, there are so many other skills that a founder has to learn as they grow their company. I assume most YC companies learn this stuff from YC or their batch mates that have done it before them.
But for those of us not in the Valley or in YC, how do we learn this stuff?
Also, I guess the main premise behind my question was how do we learn best practices in company building in general? Ie how do we build the machine that builds the machine using best practices for everything, or as many things as possible (for both tech and non-tech companies)?
When you say handle sales, do you mean handle product development for each project that you have landed? So basically an account manager? Or do you mean someone that goes and lines up new sales? Just want to get specifics, so everybody understands what is being discussed.
Someone who manages what we promise to the client and how much they pay for it.
A huge part of the role is just deciding requirements. Whether this thing is possible, how much it costs, keeping the client from sneaking in something impossible, and lowering the costs to us when we can't deliver something that is too expensive to build.
The person has to be good at not overpromising things. Or managing client expectations.
Many clients prefer waterfall because it's easy to estimate project costs but it tends to be extremely costly to both parties. So someone who can educate the client in how to work from an agile perspective, suited to their budget restrictions.
There's the legal landmine to maneuver. What happens when things go wrong.
There are also many unethical people, especially in large companies, who are experts at pushing people into those landmines. They ask for impossible things then refuse to pay when those conditions are not met.
So the ideal person or service needs to be good at reading clients and avoiding these kinds of contracts.
Depends on how you define 'lifetime'. Sadly I've seen many SaaS businesses dia and with htem the 'lifetime' access. Otoh my Plex Pass value is still holding strong.
Finally if we're talking true lifetime, it can be averaged out to the median lifespan of subscribers, in my case $10k 'lifetime' it would work out to <$25/month
Well designed .js based, interactive link analysis functionality capable of taking feed of external data and showing links and relationships between nodes in a way that does not look like a mess on the screen.
Don't confuse it with Google page links to each other. It's not about SEO.
It's about having an ability to visualize relationships between entities.
I see in a lot of threads that people talk about "many companies that do third-party fulfillment". As someone actively in the market for such services, can anyone provide some links to a few services please.
I think one of the biggest points being missed here is that Uber may very well be an iceberg. Meaning moving people is literally just the tip, but to get to the rest you have to subsidize the hell out of moving people.
The fundamental problem with what Benjamin pointed out with the lack of benefits with network effects, only applies when you are thinking about moving people and only thinking about 1 singular network. Sure, you and I may only want to go from point A to B within my city.
I think the real value for Uber is when they have this huge network of constant activity between most points within any city/country, the value proposition to carry cargo goes through the roof.
Imagine being able to send a document (or a package) anywhere else within the city in 20 minutes.
Amazon is experimenting with Drones for quick delivery, but just imagine being able to purchase something on Amazon, Walmart, Target, and get it within 30 minutes from an Uber driver.
Their network effect looks different than most others, say Facebook, because the real value is a network effect of networks. i.e. they have highly concentrated networks within cities, and they have a high concentration of city-networks within states, and outward.
The clear value proposition there is one can easily move a package from your house through your network within your city, to another network in an adjacent city, and on and on to say the next state.
Right now, sure you can ship something 'overnight' via FedEx relatively long distances within the US but technically it's not REALLY overnight. Technically, you have to reach the FedEx store before some cut off time (say 12 noon), so that package can then be taken to their sorting facility and make it out on the flight that night.
Imagine if there is the a real-time network where at any moment any package can be placed on the network and be on the most efficient route to the destination immediately. That's obviously the holy grail, but no longer do you have packages sitting in sorting facilities and waiting on bulky planes to take off.
They may not have these plans, but I have no inside knowledge and that's one clear advantage I can see of having a network where something is always being delivered between almost any 2 points within the network.
I assume that all of these investors are not dumb and neither is Kalanick and his team, so I suspect there is a much larger logistics play than we can imagine.
Just like Tesla isn't just a car company, but is also both a commercial power (Southern California Edison) & oil company (Exxon) plus maybe an autonomous delivery fleet all in one, I assume Uber is something similar we just can't see it yet.
Yeah, Upwork is terrible, but that's because it is trying to compete on scale and price.
It seems the idea you have is a way to pass on high-quality projects that you'd otherwise take, to someone you know and can vet. You'd likely have someone in mind already, versus having it be a huge network of other people.
Unless you wanted to hire someone who administers this group, and keeps it close-knit so that people don't dump crap projects onto good workers, or good projects to crap workers, I don't see how this can work. I don't see it as being able to grow very much besides a group of friends or former colleagues.
Specifically, how do you learn how to build a company around your product? Or how to build a board of advisors/directors? What are the best practices around managing those?
How do you shift your cash flow management thinking from spending out of the reserves built up, to spending out of future cash flows?
In other words, aside from building product, there are so many other skills that a founder has to learn as they grow their company. I assume most YC companies learn this stuff from YC or their batch mates that have done it before them.
But for those of us not in the Valley or in YC, how do we learn this stuff?
Also, I guess the main premise behind my question was how do we learn best practices in company building in general? Ie how do we build the machine that builds the machine using best practices for everything, or as many things as possible (for both tech and non-tech companies)?