startup concepts

A very brief post here, but I just like to capture some validated concepts from the speakers for the last 2 days.

1. Product/market fit
Google this. Very important.
http://startup-marketing.com/the-startup-pyramid/
http://andrewchenblog.com/2009/06/15/why-you-should-make-it-easy-for-users-to-quit-your-product/

a. good problem, good solution > b. no problem, good solution > c. bad problem, no good solution > d. no problem, no good solution
My understanding so far is that a is the best. Your startup will fly after you achieve this. b is not bad, but you need to work harder cause you got the ass but not the head. So you find the right head since you already have a good ass. c is bad cause you tackled a problem that is too big to be handled by your team (assuming you have a team). d. Don't give up, talk to more people, do your groundwork.

2. MVP, Pivot
Google this. If you find the wrong results, cannot help you sia..
MVP - minimum viable product
Pivot - Validate, then change slightly to test hypothesis, then measure (which leads to pt 3)

3. Metrics
Choose the proper metrics to measure success. What they are, I don't know. I'm also figuring out for my own startup.
Common ones are:
1. Traction - new subscribers, new users, new sales accounts, people calling to complain (sometimes the best source). Unfortunately, press is not a metric to rely on, unless your business is in the media industry.
2. Finance - Cashflow, revenue from advertisements etc..

4. Negotiation skills
Err.. mostly applicable during major crunch times, e.g. Loss of major customer account, equity sale, exit stage

5. Don't feature bloat
Listening to your customers (or whom you thought were your ideal customers) would cause you to add more features to satisfy them. Super Bad. This pt is also closely related to..

6. Talk to the REAL customers
Very applicable to the geeks (sorry, I'm not a geek yet, I only have friends who are geeks). Geeks are not the real market for most of the projects. Not many people need a command line interface that makes it easier to hack a consumer-focused application. So don't build it.
Summarised in one short snappy sentence:
"Talk to your MUM."

7. No money, no talk
You can ask during trials/alpha launch etc:
"Do you think this is a good feature? Does it solve your problem? What improvements do you want?" etc etc. All very good questions
But the most important questions might be:
"How much would you pay for this? If I remove a few features, would you still pay for it?"

8. Focus

9. Saying No
No to partnerships when you have not figured out your product/market fit, no to miscellaneous requests, no to blah blah blah that distract you from your focus. (If you don't have a focus, ho sei.. )

10. Relentlessly resourceful

Go figure

Just summarizing my thoughts after the last 2 days, so I might be wrong. I have not been through the whole journey from start to exit, so I can't comment much except for what I understand from people whom I've talked to.

Stupid to make mistakes people already made, Stupider to repeat mistakes.