How to Start a Startup
前言：Y combinator的How to Start a Startup. 一篇值得拜讀的好文章, 以下一方面節錄文中個人很喜歡的部分, 一方面也分享過去創業的心得, 為了跟原文方便參照比對, 以下將按照原文順序分七個主題段落做節錄跟分享, 希望對創業的大夥們有所幫助。本篇進入原文討論的另外一個主題：討論到People, 原文討論兩大核心, 前半段主題環繞在創業團隊如何尋找適合的雇員, 後半段在討論草創團隊的結構怎樣比較好。
創業團隊如何尋找適合的雇員?
節錄一：好夥伴或是好員工? 把每位人才描述成一隻動物，放到適當的位置去。
What do I mean by good people? One of the best tricks I learned during our startup was a rule for deciding who to hire. Could you describe the person as an animal? It might be hard to translate that into another language, but I think everyone in the US knows what it means.
節錄二：針對programmers除了上述的條件, 建議還要多加上三個test
For programmers we had three additional tests. Was the person genuinely smart? If so, could they actually get things done? And finally, since a few good hackers have unbearable personalities, could we stand to have them around?
節錄三：如何找到hacker? 最佳管道是我們在大學或是研究所認識的朋友, 但是不是去跟他們打屁聊天? 是專注自己的專題研究, 藉由專題跟這些good hacker結識。
If you start a startup, there’s a good chance it will be with people you know from college or grad school. So in theory you ought to try to make friends with as many smart people as you can in school, right? Well, no. Don’t make a conscious effort to schmooze; that doesn’t work well with hackers.
What you should do in college is work on your own projects. Hackers should do this even if they don’t plan to start startups, because it’s the only real way to learn how to program. In some cases you may collaborate with other students, and this is the best way to get to know good hackers. The project may even grow into a startup. But once again, I wouldn’t aim too directly at either target. Don’t force things; just work on stuff you like with people you like.
個人感想：
文章比較少討論到一個問題, 如何取得所需的人才, 在台灣草創的公司很難跟大公司競爭人才, 偏偏網路產業人才是整個網路服務的核心, 怎麼樣才能找到所需的人才呢? 有幸跟Eztable的Peter討論這個問題, 他以過來的經驗提出他的想法, 個人覺得相當有價值：
1. 人才寧缺勿濫, 等到對的人之前, 寧可自己累一點。
2. 產學的結合, 從學生時期就開始跟這些人才建立關係, 會有助於團隊找到對的人, 值得栽培的好人才。
3. 一開始從熟人推薦開始找起。
4. 跟其他網路創業的團隊建立好關係, 人才可以互相推薦。自己過去就聘雇過錯的人, 那引發了一場噩夢, 差點吃上官司, 所以對第一點的感受很深。
草創團隊的結構怎樣會比較好呢?
節錄一：需要多少創辦人是恰當的?
Ideally you want between two and four founders. It would be hard to start with just one. One person would find the moral weight of starting a company hard to bear. Even Bill Gates, who seems to be able to bear a good deal of moral weight, had to have a co-founder.
節錄二：創辦人不要太多, 人多會帶來太多的爭議, 創業初期需要彈性跟團隊的一致性。
But you don’t want so many founders that the company starts to look like a group photo. Partly because you don’t need a lot of people at first, but mainly because the more founders you have, the worse disagreements you’ll have. When there are just two or three founders, you know you have to resolve disputes immediately or perish. If there are seven or eight, disagreements can linger and harden into factions. You don’t want mere voting; you need unanimity.
節錄三：團隊組成：剛開始一定要有技術背景的成員, 其他的可以去學習的或補充。針對business people 文中基本上認為沒有特殊理由是不太需要的, 不必硬要兜一個business people進來。好的hacker可以透過學習解決很多商業的問題。
In a technology startup, which most startups are, the founders should include technical people.Do the founders of a startup have to include business people?
個人感想：
小公司最大的優點就是彈性, 這有賴草創團隊決策的彈性跟執行的一致性,太多人參予決策往往造成越多的爭議跟不一致性, 這會在草創階段傷害到小公司最大的核心價值。 個人在第一次創業的過程就遇過這樣的問題, 七個人開會, 議而不決, 決定又無法一致地去執行, 最後大家就開始各自為政, 讓草創的處境更顯艱困。草創階段找合夥人不可不慎啊!
另外針對團隊是否需要引進Business people, 個人認為如果是針對Niche Market, 那引入這市場相關專業的Business People就滿重要的, Business People的重要主要有兩個：一是在網路服務初期, 提供”工人智慧”, 靠該Business people用最低成本提供服務。二是Business people產業人脈讓Business Model在虛實整合上可以更有彈性跟執行力道。
Jamie給5945的建議中提到：你們的Business Model會在產業跟商家的關係, 就像Eztable一樣, 那個關係是關鍵。 建議我們可以嘗試走向統包, 建構信任機制, 利用網站幫客戶省麻煩。
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