Comment by lucho on The Power to Judge Startup Ideas · 2019-09-07T21:36:35.827Z · LW · GW

From a guy who never made it past the sanity check (yet), I really appreciate reading stuff that actually does that: add value to at least one guy (from comments I see that it also gives value to more people). So thanks for giving this away for free.

I feel like, as a first time founder, I receive mixed signals all the time. If I go through YC Startup School I'm taught about the "quantum value" one has to add to the customer, and how to be 10x better at one thing. If I read the news, I see a startup that raised $5 million to build something that is generally explained in terms of nice features or engineering achievements and not that one thing at which it's 10x better. I wouldn't be surprised if this tension unconsciously (or consciously) influences my pitches, decks, funding applications and even actions as the key to success seems to differ depending on who one talks to. Still, here, relaxing and reading on a Saturday morning, the value prop model makes much more sense to me than throwing lots of money at something that actually doesn't pass the check.

I hope that this is the appropriate place for this semi-rant, Liron, and that these two cents provide at least additional feedback to test the value prop story of Less Wrong.