Stop Innovating (On The Wrong Things)

Startups need to innovate to succeed. But not all innovation is made equal and reinventing some common best practices could actually hinder your company. In this episode, Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel discuss the common innovation pitfalls founders should avoid so they can better focus on their product and their customers.

00:00 - Intro
00:13 - Innovation Economy
02:53 - Anti-Patterns
03:28 - Corporate Law
04:45 - Proving It Wrong
06:53 - Because It's Fun
08:30 - Business Models
09:52 - Being Unique
11:43 - Outro

[ycombinator]

What other distracting innovation should founders avoid?

[yaelfelicia]

I am a religious consumer of your content and cannot get enough!!! Light and funny with legit gold content. It doesn’t get better

[prathyusha]

It is a hard balance to strike to be absolutely bold and downright grounded.. Choices one makes on the kind of choices they're making, I guess, in their centre.. come from a place of wisdom.. and not passions and aversions ..

This is really insightful and helpful !

[AB-xigr]

Visionaries love to imagine the extreme future, but they don't anticipate the sacrifices they need to make to turn that into reality. So orgs often promise the world but don't make the grounded choices to make it a sustainable business.

[megham_]

I also had this that I want to build this startup from my small hometown, I think it was because i don't see any community in my town dedicated to building internet companies. Although I know, that if any opportunity comes which helps me make a successful startup I'll take it. Other things could wait for the second time... that's correct

[chapterme]

Chapters (Powered by ChapterMe) -
00:00 - Coming Up: Avoid Innovating On The Wrong Things
00:13 - Intro: Innovation Economy
01:41 - Prioritize Customer Needs
02:53 - Most Common Anti-Patterns
03:02 - Avoid Unnecessary Innovation
03:28 - Mistakes Smart People Make: Corporate Law
04:11 - Stick to Best Practices
04:45 - Proving It Wrong
06:53 - Startups Choose Fun Programming Languages Because They're Fun
08:30 - Business Model and Pricing
09:52 - Beware of Branding Bias. Don't Blindly Copy. In Tech World At Least 80% the same
11:26 - Putting Customer First and Getting One Successful Startup
11:43 - Outro

[johnstalkernet]

Tonight my team and I just rattled off few 3rd-party services that’ll help us get to revenue sooner. We *could* reinvent the wheel and build these functions from scratch, but since they’re not part of our core differentiators, we are planning to use existing services instead. This brings me to a great question for future video: with limited resources what are some good optimization tips for when or when not to go 3rd-party integration. Thanks all!

[earl.grey_]

I think that when you do something fundamentally different, you can probably earn much more due to lack of conpetition. Thats why startups may take more risks

[ordinarygg]

Love the quality of videos! Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yeah, Yes, Oooh, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes

[reprovedcandy]

The company Dalton referenced "anonymously" is clearly Phoenix Hydrogen in case anyone was curious lol

[rohinb]

I love the “innovation juice” graphic when Michael said it lol. That’s an innovation for YC videos in itself 😂

[emmanueloluga]

Yeah, the holy spirit is undefeated!

To have a superficial peek into why I am, look no further past this video.

It's prescient I got recommended two hrs after I focused directly on our ICP and separated the different startups into multiple brands!

10:43 is all the insight you need. Then, 11:20 is extra candy.

Let's Build! ... Then, Bundle!!!

[alpinevictoronyt]

These conversations are so so helpful. You guys are great.

[majormajor]

A lot of good info in these videos regardless, but y’all’s perspective in general seems very influenced by hindsight bias.

You remind me of sports analysts who act like they knew a player was great after they have one or two great games, and then call them an obvious blowout after they have a bad one.

Instead of being about what to innovate on, this video should have focused on how to tell a focused story about your business and more effectively assign business value to the things/innovations you’re interested in.

[djone]

I am proving startup advice wrong, that you can be a good founder who was non-FAANG, non technical (initially), community college and state school educated, and grew up in difficult circumstances.

Some innovation in your startup outside of your product can help reject antiquated views, such as those who "should be" able to build a successful startup.

[jonathanmerritt]

Most startups are the modern equivalent of “put a digital clock in it”, and these guys love to encourage that limited outlook in founders that have no business founding anything. This is all just ordinary business advice for ordinary businesses.

Here’s an exercise: go watch the groundbreaking “Mother of All Demos” video from 1968. While watching, ask yourself what parts of that video would still be there if they had followed modern Y-Combinator advice to the absolute letter. I know it was a different time, but the answer is: none of it would have existed. That’s often the case with amazing skunkworks customer-free innovation that becomes something amazing. (You can’t always sell it though…)

[hsuyuting]

I just love the Dalton + Michael series. I watch every single video at least 10 times! (Not kidding.) These videos just bring so much value.

[dsolodukha]

Great stuff. I loved the part about using the best practices. We built best practices based infrastructure made as code. All best practices together casting the lowest possible costs when fully secured and compliant.

We had some revenue but don’t have at this current moment. However we have long term free client who can potentially convert into … almost $100k MRR. And I’m not sure if we are at the good stage for YC combinator.

[mwaffi]

8:55 AWS pricing is complete nonsense, though. I would never willingly present that to a customer.

[AddressHub]

Well about the Delaware incorporation part, with what’s happening with Tesla and Elon’s comp package, it is clear that this is something that founders should definitely innovate in