Video · 20 min watch

Y Combinator's Michael Seibel: You Are Nothing Until You Launch

Michael Seibel · YouTube Free Beginner

Seibel argues bluntly that talking about a future launch counts for nothing next to actually shipping something, drawing on his own experience co-founding what became Twitch. If your co-founder's version of a big launch is really a way of delaying the first real ship, this talk is a fast, direct counterargument worth watching together.

  • Plans and pitches do not count, only a shipped product does
  • The first version can be small and rough, it still counts as launching
  • Momentum comes from shipping repeatedly, not from one perfect moment

The question it answers

  1. My co-founder wants a big coordinated launch, I want to just ship quietly and iterate. Who's right?

Read with it

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  3. The permission slip to recruit users by hand, do things manually, and deliver 'insanely great' experiences to your first few... paulgraham.com Essay · ~15 min read Do Things That Don't Scale Paul Graham
  4. The origin text for the modern MVP and validated-learning vocabulary every founder now uses. Read it for the mental model that... theleanstartup.com Book · ~330 pages The Lean Startup Eric Ries
  5. Basecamp's battle-tested, opinionated system for shipping meaningful work in fixed cycles without endless backlogs, a primary... Basecamp / 37signals Book · free online book Shape Up: Stop Running in Circles and Ship Work that Matters Ryan Singer
  6. The definitive talk that reframes launching from a one-shot event into a repeatable tactic, exactly this category's thesis. YC... YC Startup Library Video · ~25 min How to Launch (Again and Again) Kat Manalac (Y Combinator)
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