Should you go all in on AI?⚡️
Tech stack stitching, AI & mentorship - advice from a Stanford professor.
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Dispatch reader, today is your lucky day. We’re bringing you nuggets of wisdom from Bret Waters - a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, CEO, investor, and academic. When he’s not running the 4thly Startup Accelerator, he’s teaching entrepreneurship at Stanford Continuing Studies and coaching start-up CEOs at the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship.
Bret had a lot to share with us from finding a perfect startup - employee match to emerging AI tech.
A quick look inside the post:
Important life and career lessons
The ideal qualities for start-up CEOs
AI and emerging tech
The importance of mentorship
Without further ado, let’s dive into Bret’s thoughts on these topics.
3 things every CEO, Builder and Engineer Should Keep In Mind 👀
1. Never underestimate the cost of customer acquisition
Most start-ups fail, by thinking customer acquisition is easier than it is. Simply put, the acquisition cost has to be less than the lifetime value of a customer. Be realistic about your customer acquisition costs and map them out before getting started.
2. Focus on stack stitching
There is so much powerful open source software today, as well as amazing 3rd-party software available for integration. Being a successful engineer in this climate is all about leveraging and stitching together existing applications and existing code bases to deliver a truly effective product, and less about starting from scratch. Time-to-market matters, and being good at being a “stack stitcher” will get you to market faster.
3. Go all in on AI
There’s no denying AI is the next big thing in Silicon Valley. The go-to for engineers should be to understand AI and large language models, because it’s one of the most desirable skills in the job market. Users today expect every application they interact with to be “smart” and providing a personalized experience.
From Engineer to a CEO?
If your dream is to become a start-up CEO, you’ll need to become a successful leader first. When leading a team or a company, the right approach is crucial. Here are some must-have qualities for budding CEOs.
Humility. Admit what you don’t know and be humble enough to take advice from the experts.
Know your limits. Acknowledge your strengths and acknowledge when the best course of action is to outsource to somebody else.
Be a lifelong learner. You can never know too much about a subject or be too curious about learning more. Commit to continuing to learn throughout your career, no matter how successful you become.
Empathy. The idea of ruthlessness being the only way to succeed is outdated. True leaders can put themselves in others’ shoes, which helps build connections and win negotiations.
Okay, So I’m a CEO. What Qualities Do Investors Look For in My Start-Up?
Fundamentally, when assessing start-ups, it all comes down to passion (kinda cheesy, but true!). Passion makes the start-up not only more enjoyable to work for but more likely to succeed.
Passionate employees and CEOs will have the grit and determination to weather the hard times and come out on the other side.
If your passion comes as a result of a personal story, even better. That will help you make better connections in your pitch.
If an investor can tell you’re not seriously passionate about what you do, they’ll doubt your ability to trust your customers or employees to be passionate about it - and rightly so.
Passion, strong leadership, and, of course, a strong concept will help you garner the support you need.
How to Get Mentorship Right
It’s no secret that the right mentor can be a life changer for your career.
If you’re a start-up in the world of tech, there are times when you’ll feel pretty damn terrified but don’t want to admit it to your team.
A mentor acts as a safe space - a sounding board you can bounce ideas off. Someone to whom you can tell things you wouldn’t tell anyone else. Plus, if you manage to find a mentor with experience in your industry, you can learn from their mistakes.
While you’re here, wanna answer our LinkedIn poll?
AI eats Software
While AI feels scary, there are actually a lot of benefits engineers can enjoy from this emerging tech. AI will allow us all to move up the stack, so we can focus on the harder stuff and let the machines do the easier stuff.
When we can have AI write a snippet of Javascript that does X, Y, or Z, that allows us to focus on higher-level software architecture and scalability. The same goes for many disciplines, where AI will take care of the simple stuff and leave us to deal with the hard stuff.
Out of all the ‘next big things,’ many of which fade out after a year, this one looks like it’s here to stay, opening up exciting opportunities for the future.
To keep up to date with the cool things Bret’s up to, follow him on LinkedIn.