Build  
Tony Fadell        

Summary

One of the best business books I've read from the designer of the iPhone and the founder of Nest, who sold it to Google for $3B

Rating: 5/5

Notes

Adulthood is your opportunity to screw up continuously until you learn how to screw up a bit less

‘Early adulthood is about watching your dreams go up in flames and learning as much as you can from the ashes. Do, fail, learn. The rest will follow’

‘The only failure in your 20s is inaction. The rest is trial and error’

Throwing yourself out there and having everything blow up in your face is the world’s best way to learn fast and figure out what you want to do next

If you’re not solving a real problem, you can’t start a revolution

Focus on the problem you’re solving for your customers, not the product

Don’t worry too much about the title at the beginning, focus on joining a high growth company

What you do matters, where you work matters but most importantly, who you work with and learn from matters

People remember persistence and contributing something of value/being helpful

Your job isn’t just doing your job, it’s also to think like the manager or CEO

In management, figure out what makes people feel valued and do more of that

Helping people succeed is your job as a manager

Storytelling is how you get people to take a leap of faith to do something new

When dealing with an asshole who’s blowing up, ask why? What’s their motivation?

You cannot work with people you can’t trust

Always be networking, especially with people outside your bubble

Before you quit a job, you need to have a story

Always think about the full customer lifecycle from buying to unboxing

To create a connection, think about the full human being, not just the immediate impact

Every product needs a good story, specifically the ‘why’

Craft stories that stick with customers and keep them talking about you

Quick stories are easy to remember (rush hour rewards)

If your company is disruptive, prepare for strong reactions and strong emotions

In the beginning, vision is more important than anything else but as you move along it becomes more about the data

Before launching a product, write a press release to see if you’re ready to ship

You will not make money with MVP and it always takes longer to be profitable

You make the product, you fix the product, you build the business

Before you commit to executing on an idea, commit to resolving it and trying it out

Keep going until you find an idea that you can’t let go

Your team is your company and your first hires are crucial

You can do without a co-founder, you can survive a little while without a team but you can’t make it without a mentor

Ever time you raise capital, think of it as a marriage

It always takes longer than you think to get funding

You can only have one customer - choose wisely (B2B vs. B2C)

When you encounter a crisis, keep your focus on directly fixing the problem, not who to blame

5 key teams/people for most start-ups: design, marketing, product management, sales and legal

The best teams are multi-generational

What you’re building never matters as much as who you’re building it with

Write down your company values and post them on a physical/virtual wall

Change is growth and growth is opportunity

Keeping your brain going is key, look for problems glossed over by others

The best sales people are the ones who maintain relationships even if it means they don’t make money that day

At the beginning, hire outside council but eventually you need to bring it in house

As CEO, you spend all your time on people problems and communication

As CEO, you don’t have to be an expert about everything, you just have to care about it

When companies marry, the cultures need to be compatible or it won’t work

Only two things matter: products and people - what you build and who you build it with

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