Lecture 8 - How to Get Started, Doing Things that Don't Scale, Press

YC lecture on early-stage tactics uses DoorDash and Teespring to demonstrate validating demand through non-scalable founder effort before scaling or seeking press.

Doing Things That Don't Scale

• Founders personally delivered orders and handled support via Google Docs and Find My Friends to test the local delivery hypothesis (0:00-10:03).
• This direct contact produced insights that later informed dispatch algorithms and automation (10:00-20:01).

Achieving Product-Market Fit

• Early users need handholding; turning them into champions requires exceptional personal service (19:59-30:02).
• Optimize for speed over clean code and focus on the next order of magnitude rather than distant scale (29:58-40:00).

Strategic Press

• Define specific business goals first; only pursue stories that are newsworthy to outsiders (39:57-50:02).
• Treat outreach like a sales funnel: secure warm intros, prepare bullet outlines, and give reporters lead time (49:59-52:07).

When Press Works

• Useful for the first 100 users and practice, but never a long-term acquisition channel (49:59-52:07).

00:00:00Major Topic

SubtopicDoorDash origin story and the philosophy of doing things that don't scale

• detailed notes / examples / explanations
• Stanley (Speaker: Stanley) recounts the emotional arc of DoorDash from Stanford to a Series A term sheet, highlighting the chaotic, hands-on early days.
• Core narrative: building an on-demand delivery network for local cities starting as a dorm-room/college project and turning it into a scalable business with Sequoia's funding.
• Personal context: photo of the moment after raising Series A; juxtaposition of CS homework, tax forms, a speeding ticket, and a $15 million term sheet—illustrating the absurdity and intensity of the startup journey.
• Problem identified: local merchants (small businesses) lacked reliable delivery infrastructure; Chloe, a Mac store owner, showed pages of unfulfilled orders due to no drivers. This spurred the exploration of a delivery solution for small businesses.
• Early customer insights: after interviewing ~150–200 small business owners, the team confirmed delivery as a widespread pain point with no good existing solution.
• Key pivot point: sensing consumer demand and testing the hypothesis with high risk: do merchants want delivery? If yes, how to test without a fleet or sophisticated tech?
• First experiment (landing page): built a simple landing page (paod delivery.com) with PDF menus and a single phone number (their personal cell) to gauge demand. It was intentionally ugly and minimal because the objective was to validate interest, not build a product.
• Notable moment: first order—Thai food—and the spontaneous delivery experience: driving to the restaurant, picking up food, delivering to a customer who happened to be the author of a book (Weed the People). This anecdote highlighted real customer demand and the learning loop of direct delivery.
• Growth pattern: orders grew from 1 to 2, to 5, to 7, to 10—demonstrating demand on a simple landing page with no real infrastructure.
• Core lesson: test quickly, even with minimal investment; the goal is to determine whether there is demand before building a scalable system.
• Concept introduced: Do Things That Don’t Scale (a YC mantra). Early on, Stanley and co-founder Andy acted as drivers, customer support, and marketers (flying by the seat of their pants) to learn the business and validate demand.
• Illustrative operational hacks: used Square for payments, Google Docs to track orders, Apple’s Find My Friends to locate drivers, etc.—a collection of improvised tools to get a functioning delivery system off the ground.
• Operational hiccups: Square briefly shut down their account due to anti-money-laundering concerns because of rapid, small-dollar transactions; co-founder Tony leveraged internal Square connections to resolve quickly.
• Behavioral insight: direct engagement with customers was critical—manual, personal touchpoints (e.g., nightly personalized emails asking how the first delivery went) created trust and loyalty and yielded valuable feedback.
• Cultural takeaway: the ice-cream anecdote (Cream on University Avenue) demonstrated a scalable motivation—delighters and incentives can help fuel growth once demand is proven (i.e., a reward for scaling).
• Transition to scale: once there was proven demand, the team recognized the need for automated systems and dispatch optimization, but stressed that initial success hinges on quickly validating demand and learning from real customers.
• Summary of three core learnings:

1) Test your hypothesis: treat startup ideas as experiments to learn quickly. 2) Launch fast: a minimal landing page and manual processes can validate demand in under an hour. 3) Do things that don’t scale: early, hands-on, non-scalable work (driving, customer support, flyer campaigns) is a legitimate competitive advantage in the early stage.

• Notable lines (verbatim):

> "All Began two years ago actually in a matun store" (paraphrased storytelling frame, emphasizing humble beginnings and the leap from test to traction). > "we launched in about an hour" and "we didn't have any drivers... we just launched" to stress speed over perfection. > "doing things that don't scale is one of your biggest competitive advantages when you're starting out" to anchor the philosophy.

How customers heard about DoorDash: the very first customer was found via the landing page and very little marketing; word-of-mouth and early user enthusiasm drove initial growth.

• Visuals/diagrams: no explicit diagrams, but the described photo, the landing page, PDF menus, and the sequence of drivers and customers constitute a mental diagram of the early workflow from ideation to first orders.

• Resources Mentioned:

- DoorDash (startup being described) - Sequoia (funding partner) - YC (Y Combinator, accelerator) - Apple Find My Friends (location tracking tool) - Google Docs (order tracking) - Square (payment processor) - Cream (ice cream store on University Avenue) - Postmates and Seamless (competitors mentioned in a question) - Stanford University (founders’ location and context) - Mac store owner Chloe (Shantel Guon Mac Store) (example of a merchant pain point) - Pizza/Thai/Purple/Orange Hummus (examples of customer orders) - Ice cream trip (ice cream break as scaling motivator) - Watsi (charity linked to Teespring t-shirt proceeds) - YC montra: Do Things That Don’t Scale - 15-minute note: internal dispatch and manual processes (e.g., using Google docs to track orders)

SubtopicLessons on launch speed and doing things that don't scale (early-stage execution)

• detailed notes / examples / explanations
• The speaker emphasizes that early-stage success is about speed and learning, not polish.
• Key examples:

- The one-hour launch of paod delivery: minimal feature set, no backend, no drivers, no sophisticated dispatch—proof of demand was the objective, and it succeeded. - The use of non-traditional tools (Squares, Google Docs, Find My Friends) to operate the business before they had a real tech stack. - The anecdote about Square: the account got flagged; a co-founder’s internal connections saved the day. - The customer email outreach: personalized nightly emails to new customers; this taught them what features or experiences mattered most to customers.

• Notable quotes:

> "We launched in about an hour" to illustrate speed. > "At the beginning none of that is necessary" (dispatch systems, mobile apps) to emphasize the MVP mindset. > "If we can scale then you could go get ice cream next time" to connect growth with a playful, tangible incentive.

• Practical takeaways:

- When starting, focus on validating demand rather than building a perfect product. - Use whatever tools you have on hand; you can substitute expensive tech with simple processes to learn, iterate, and prove the concept. - Do not fear delivering personally and being involved in customer support; it yields indispensable insights and builds trust with early users.

• Notable lines (verbatim):

> "the beginning it's all about testing your idea, trying to get this thing off the ground and figuring out whether this was something people even wanted". > "it's okay to hack things together at the beginning". > "we used Square to charge, Google Docs to track orders, Find My Friends to track drivers".

• Resources Mentioned:

- Square (payments) - Google Docs (docs/spreadsheets) - Find My Friends (location sharing) - Postmates / Seamless (delivery platforms as context for space) - Sequoia (funding) (already listed)

00:10:00Major Topic

SubtopicTeespring – Finding first users, turning them into champions, and pursuing product-market fit

• detailed notes / examples / explanations
• Walker Williams (Speaker: Walker Williams) frames the core advantage startups have: doing things that don’t scale for a long period, because early-stage growth cannot rely on scalable sales channels alone.
• Core framework: three pillars of growth

1) Finding your first users 2) Turning those users into champions 3) Finding product-market fit (PMF)

• No silver bullet for user acquisition: the reality for most startups is that early users are almost impossibly hard to get. This is not a failure but a designed phase.
• The Teespring story (2012): early days were brutal with long cycles, revisions, and manual selling; the company sold ~50 shirts for minimal profit and relied on the founder's persistence to accumulate users.
• The common thread: founders must invest personal time and effort into acquiring those first users (e.g., dozens of emails per day, direct calls, leveraging networks) because those first users are the hardest to obtain and are critical to validating product-market fit.
• The metaphor: H pushing a boulder up a hill – the initial incline is steepest; once you pass the early, difficult phase, momentum grows; but the hill remains a drag until scale is achieved.
• Important point: this “first-user” effort is not sustainable at scale; it’s a learning period that informs product decisions and PMF.
• The three repetition pillars for engaging customers:

- Run customer service yourself (early days: you and your co-founder did everything) to understand pain points firsthand. - Proactively reach out to current customers and those who churn to minimize loss and to gather feedback for improvements. - Monitor social media and communities to catch conversations about your product and address issues quickly.

• Practical guidance on talking to customers:

- The founder still serves as the primary support channel, handling support tickets daily to stay in touch with users and understand their needs. - Use direct outreach to learn why customers leave, what they dislike, and what could have kept them. - Respond to detractors with exceptional care; one unhappy user can undo the momentum of many champions.

• PMF and scaling guidance:

- Early decisions should optimize for speed and learning rather than long-term scalability. If a feature is blocking PMF or enterprise adoption, consider creating a separate branch or experiment to test it rapidly, even if it means duplicating codebase briefly (as they did with a parallel product for enterprise clients). - The rule of thumb: focus on the next order of magnitude (10 → 100 → 1000) rather than leaping to a million users immediately.

• The T-shirt business as PMF validation:

- Teespring argues that a seemingly silly idea can win if customers adopt it rapidly; it’s not about immediate profitability but about whether the product solves a real need. - In Teespring’s case, entrepreneurs building brands and influencers needing merch became primary customers; nonprofits also used it, but not as the main growth driver.

• Notable lines (verbatim):

> "There is no Silver Bullet for user acquisition." > "Founders need to spend personal time and effort a lot of their personal time to bring those users in themselves". > "Delight them with an experience they're going to remember" (to create champions). > "Three ways to talk to your customers" – 1) run customer service yourself, 2) proactively reach out to current/left customers, 3) social media and communities. > "The faster you talk to users and learn what they actually need, the faster you can reach product-market fit." > "The product you launch with will almost certainly not be the product that takes you to scale—iterate quickly until PMF is found."

• Notable lines (quotes) about PMF and iteration:

> "the product you launch with will almost certainly not be the product that takes you to scale". > "speed is so, so important early".

How customers hear about Teespring: early customers were acquired through personal outreach, network-based referrals, and the natural organic growth of a product that solved a real need; later, the company grew as it formalized its product and expanded into influencer-driven merchandise.

• Visuals/diagrams: no explicit diagrams; the narrative relies on three-stage framework, the hill metaphor, and the progression from single founder effort to scalable product features.

• Resources Mentioned:

- Teespring (Company) - Postcards to entrepreneurs; founder’s story (narrative framing) - Influencers and brand creators on YouTube and Reddit (audience types) - A thousand people making a full-time living on Teespring today (scale reference) - Nonprofits as customers (market focus) - The three-pronged approach to customers (service, outreach, social/community monitoring) - The PMF concept and “order of magnitude” thinking - The enterprise customer story (bespoke features) as a learning driver - The ice-breaker capstone: Teespring Startup t-shirt promotion (teespring.com Startup) - Watsi (charity; funding from Teespring proceeds)

SubtopicPress strategy for startups – how to get coverage, what stories matter, and how to work with reporters (Justin Kan talk)

• detailed notes / examples / explanations
• Speaker: Justin Kan (co-founder of Justin.tv and Twitch; later runs Twitch and other ventures; now a YC alum and entrepreneur)
• Key premise: press is not magical; you must have a clear goal and a plan. Coverage is valuable primarily as a way to acquire early users or customers and to frame your product in a context useful for investors, potential hires, and customers.
• Types of stories journalists look for:

- Product launches (new version, new feature) - Fundraising milestones (seed, Series A, etc.) - Milestones or metrics (e.g., revenue, users, engagement) – but not all PMF milestones are newsworthy; the story must be novel or timely. - Business stories (company trajectory, strategy, market impact) - Stunts (attention-grabbing, often unconventional or controversial tactics) - Hiring announcements (big-name hires) - Contributed articles (opinion pieces, industry analyses)

• Important caveat: press is not a vanity metric. It’s not a substitute for building product, acquiring users, or delivering value; it’s a channel that can accelerate early traction but requires a meaningful business goal.
• The value of context: early-stage press should be targeted and aligned with a specific business objective (e.g., TechCrunch coverage to reach tech-savvy early adopters; local press for a local service).
• Mechanics of getting press (a practical playbook):

- Treat press outreach like a sales funnel; you’ll contact many reporters, but only a few will cover you. - Story first, journalist second: craft a compelling narrative that would be attractive to a journalist; a strong story idea beats a generic pitch. - Get introduced by a credible source: warm introductions from reporters who’ve already covered you or someone similar is far more effective than cold emails. - Do pre-meeting prep: reach out to reporters with a planned story, schedule a face-to-face or at least a phone call; come prepared with a clear outline and the key points you want covered. - Prepare a narrative outline: write down the story you want published, and internalize it so you can guide the conversation to hit those points. - Follow-up is essential: provide collateral (screenshots, demos, video, b-roll) and confirm timelines; send a recap with all essential facts and proper spellings of names. - Recognize the value of relationships: journalists remember who helped them and who provided good leads; maintain a healthy, reciprocal relationship.

• The role of press in a startup’s lifecycle:

- Press can help you land your first 100–200 customers when used strategically. - Press is not a scalable customer acquisition plan; it’s a catalyst and credibility builder. - It’s most effective when you have a steady cadence of news-worthy activity to report.

• Practical insights about PR firms:

- Do it yourself first; learn the process by doing. - PR firms provide access to contacts and logistics but cannot articulate your story or provide your product’s unique value proposition. - They can be expensive (roughly $5k–$20k per month) and not always cost-effective for early-stage startups.

• A cautionary note on coverage and timing:

- Early press coverage tends to be easier when you’re new and exciting; as you grow, coverage becomes harder to sustain unless you maintain a stream of meaningful, newsworthy activity.

• The Twitch/YouTube/Twitch Plays Pokemon example illustrates how press can help magnify a remarkable community phenomenon when framed correctly and supported with credible access to the story.
• Notable lines (verbatim):

> "Getting press is like a sales funnel; you talk to a lot of people and not all of them convert." > "There is no Silver Bullet for user acquisition" (reiterated in the context of press strategy). > "It's not a vanity metric; it doesn't mean you're successful; it helps you get first 100–200 customers and build momentum." > "Face-to-face meetings are best; if not, a phone call; email exchanges are easy to forget about." > "The best way to get covered is warm introductions; you should help other entrepreneurs get coverage too, because this helps you get coverage later."

• Notable lines (quotes) about specific stories:

> "Twitch was like ESPN for gaming; our goal was to be known as a space for the gaming industry to think of as an advertising/partnership hub." > "We set up the strategy so reporters who wrote about earlier founders could connect to us and help us be found in the context of a broader story."

How customers heard about Twitch/Justin.tv: through targeted storytelling around live streaming and gaming, leveraging press to place the startup in the context of a growing community rather than just as a standalone product.

• Resources Mentioned:

- Justin.tv, Twitch (live-streaming platforms) – founders and case studies used to illustrate press strategy. - Twitch Plays Pokemon (a viral event tying gaming and live streaming together) – used as a high-profile context for press. - TechCrunch, BBC, New York Times, Fortune (media outlets cited as targets for coverage strategies). - Jason Calacanis (journalist/entrepreneur who writes about startups) – recommended as a reference for press process. - Trust Me, I’m Lying (book by Ryan Holiday) – a cautionary look at media manipulation and the speed of online information spread. - Ouya (Kickstarter video game console) – example used to illustrate how novelty can drive press attention. - Tech bloggers and game industry outlets as primary channels for industry-focused stories. - Teespring Startup page (teespring.com Startup) – example of leveraging own product for publicity and community engagement.

SubtopicQ&A and wrap-up – practical takeaways and final guidance on press timing

• detailed notes / examples / explanations
• The audience asked about when to start worrying about press: answer emphasizes that press is useful for early customer acquisition (e.g., first 100 users) but not essential or scalable as a long-term strategy.
• The Twitch example and related press discussion demonstrated how press can be leveraged after establishing some momentum and a credible story.
• The final practical advice: cultivate a regular press cadence; maintain relationships with reporters; plan coverage like a calendar; have a concrete set of story ideas aligned with your milestones.
• The closing invitation to engage: contact information (email) offered for follow-up questions; promotion of an official Teespring startup tee with proceeds to Watsi; emphasis on helping others and paying it forward in the startup ecosystem.
• Notable lines (verbatim):

> "Press is a tool, not a strategy; use it to acquire early users and establish context". > "If you decide it’s worth it, maintain a regular heartbeat of news so readers don’t forget you; space your stories and maintain coverage cadence."

A key exchange about Twitch press example, illustrating how a story can gain momentum when community-driven content aligns with mainstream media interest, and how a platform can help journalists find compelling narratives with correct context.

Resources Mentioned (comprehensive list)

• DoorDash (startup)
• Sequoia (venture fund)
• YC / Y Combinator (accelerator)
• Square (payment processing)
• Google Docs (document collaboration)
• Apple Find My Friends (location sharing)
• Cream (ice cream shop on University Avenue)
• Postmates (delivery competitor)
• Seamless (delivery competitor)
• Stanford University (the founders' alma mater)
• Mac store (Chloe’s store – small business owner example)
• Teespring (startup discussed by Walker Williams)
• Twitch (live-streaming platform)
• Justin.tv (early live streaming platform, Twitch origin)
• Twitch Plays Pokemon (viral event)
• Ouya (Kickstarter console, example of a press story)
• TechCrunch (tech press)
• BBC (media outlet)
• New York Times (media outlet)
• Fortune (media outlet)
• Jason Calacanis (journalist/entrepreneur)
• Trust Me, I’m Lying (book on media and press dynamics)
• Watsi (charity linked to Teespring)
• Teespring Startup (promo page for Teespring merchandise)
• PayPal (referenced in the context of a press event)
• Kickstarter (funding platform referenced via Ouya)

Notable figures / quotes (verbatim)

• "All Began two years ago actually in a matun store." (Stanley, [0:00])
• "We launched in about an hour... we didn't have any drivers... we didn't have a backend" (Stanley, [0:00] / [10:00])
• "doing things that don't scale is one of your biggest competitive advantages when you're starting out" (Stanley, [0:00] / [10:00])
• "There is no Silver Bullet for user acquisition" (Walker Williams, [19:59])
• "H pushing a boulder up a hill" (Walker Williams, [19:59])
• "The three ways to talk to your customers: 1) run customer service yourself; 2) proactively reach out to current and former customers; 3) social media and communities" (Walker Williams, [19:59])
• "The product you launch with will almost certainly not be the product that takes you to scale; iterate quickly until PMF is found" (Walker Williams, [19:59])
• "Getting press is like a sales funnel; you talk to a lot of people and not all of them convert" (Justin Kan, [39:57])
• "It’s not a vanity metric; it helps you get first 100 or 200 customers and build momentum" (Justin Kan, [39:57])
• "Face-to-face meetings are best; if not, a phone call; email exchanges are easy to forget about" (Justin Kan, [39:57])
• "The best way to get covered is warm introductions; you should help other entrepreneurs get coverage too" (Justin Kan, [39:57])

Topics

• DoorDash
• Teespring
• YC (Y Combinator)
• Do Things That Don’t Scale
• First Users & Champion Roles
• Product-Market Fit
• Press & Public Relations for Startups
• Early Customer Development
• MVP / Speed over polish
• On-Demand Delivery / Local Business Communities