The only things that matter to a startup

6 Easy Pieces from Tycoons and Magnates

1. Product/Market Fit — Marc Andreessen

• "The #1 company-killer is lack of market."

2. Founder/Market Fit — Chris Dixon

• Have "a deep understanding of the market [you] are entering".
• "Personify [your] product, business, and ultimately [your] company."

3. Consistent Growth — Paul Graham

• Aim for 5-7% week-over-week growth in your key metric.

4. Key Metric - people really using your product — Josh Elman

• Define what constitutes "really using".
• Count how many people are doing that.

5. Compass Metric - Tobi Lutke

• Guide and align the whole team toward the compass metric.
• Drive toward it with frequent performance reports and reviews.

6. The Metric of Your Life - Clayton Christensen

• Choose your key business metric as a subset of the metric by which you measure your life.
• This will help you avoid getting caught up in marginal thinking or on local maxima.