Lessons from a 2-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor and 20-time board member | Uri Levine
Lenny's Podcast episode, sponsored by Mercury and Vanta, in which Lenny Rachitsky talks with Uri Levine, co-founder of Waze and nine other companies with two billion-dollar exits, about the lessons in his book Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution. Levine's thesis: entrepreneurship is value creation, and solving a problem is the simplest path - fall in love with the problem and it becomes the North Star of the journey, keeping you on course, and it makes the story compelling, because nobody cares about an AI crowdsourced navigation system but everyone cares about avoiding traffic jams, and customers who care help you succeed. His firing tactic: thirty days after every hire, ask knowing what I know today, would I hire this person - and if the answer is no, fire immediately. On fundraising, the first slide matters most because it is on screen longest, and the last slide is second. PARTIAL COVERAGE: this summary highlights the core doctrine; the PMF and exit chapters are not covered. These are Levine's own views and methods, not independently verified.
Executive Summary (TL;DR)
Lenny's Podcast episode, sponsored by Mercury and Vanta, in which Lenny Rachitsky talks with Uri Levine, co-founder of Waze and nine other companies with two billion-dollar exits, about the lessons in his book Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution. Levine's thesis: entrepreneurship is value creation, and solving a problem is the simplest path - fall in love with the problem and it becomes the North Star of the journey, keeping you on course, and it makes the story compelling, because nobody cares about an AI crowdsourced navigation system but everyone cares about avoiding traffic jams, and customers who care help you succeed. His firing tactic: thirty days after every hire, ask knowing what I know today, would I hire this person - and if the answer is no, fire immediately. On fundraising, the first slide matters most because it is on screen longest, and the last slide is second. PARTIAL COVERAGE: this summary highlights the core doctrine; the PMF and exit chapters are not covered. These are Levine's own views and methods, not independently verified.