#142 - Startup School Week 1 Recap: Kevin Hale and Eric Migicovsky

We've cut down the first week of Startup School lectures to be even shorter and combined them into one podcast. First, a lecture from Kevin Hale . Kevin is a YC partner and a cofounder of Wufoo. His lecture is about How to Evaluate Startup Ideas . Then, a lecture from Eric Migicovsky . Eric is a YC partner and the founder of Pebble. His lecture is about How to Talk to Users . Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year. Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/ *** Topics 00:00 - Intro 00:43 - Kevin Hale on How to Evaluate Startup Ideas 2:04 - How can I predict if an investor will like my idea? 2:50 - A startup idea is a hypothesis 5:44 - Problem 6:59 - Solution 8:16 - Insight 8:57 - Unfair advantages 13:45 - Two beliefs about startups 15:19 - Eric Migicovsky on How to Talk to Users 17:36 - Three common errors people make when talking to users 20:20 - Five questions to ask in a user interview 20:28 - What's the hardest part about doing the thing you're trying to solve? 21:02 - Tell me about the last time that you encountered this problem 21:22 - Why was this hard? 23:08 - What, if anything, have you done to try to solve this problem? 24:10 - What don't you love about the solutions you've already tried? 25:21 - Three stages in which talking to users is extremely beneficial 26:07 - Idea stage 30:40 - Prototype stage 33:41 - Iterating towards product market fit