Ask HN: What are your favorite videos relevant to entrepreneurs or startups?

patio11 · on April 27, 2014

The best talks I've ever heard on the SaaS business which I know are publicly available:

http://www.microconf.com/videos-2013.html -- no individual hyperlinks but you want the three of them: Rob Walling's, Jason Cohen's, and Erica Douglass'. Jason's is the best if you're pre-product, Rob's if you're in "OK, so the SaaS clearly works, how do I scale it" phase. (There are another few I would recommend from Microconf 2014 but they're not up yet.)

Long Slow SaaS Ramp of Death: http://businessofsoftware.org/2013/02/gail-goodman-constant-... <-- single best talk about running a SaaS business I've ever heard

I also like the Mixergy interviews. My favorite ever is Andrew's interview with Team Wufoo. I don't believe it is publicly available anymore, as Mixergy archives are available to paying subscribers only. (Well worth the money, though I have to watch selectively because apparently Andrew can record them faster than I can find downtime to watch/process them.)

dennisgorelik · on April 28, 2014

Is there a way to download audio files of these Microconf presentations in Vimeo?

kawsper · on April 28, 2014

Last time I looked at downloading movies from Microconf, it wasn't possible. I have used the tool youtube-dl (http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/) to download movies/sounds from Youtube, Soundcload and Vimeo.

Unfortunately, Microconf have marked their videos as embed-only, which you probably need to workaround, the tools I have tried don't work.

Edit: Oh, it seems like they have opened up, you can download them with this command: youtube-dl "https://vimeo.com/72140534"

elwell · on April 28, 2014

If all else fails, 1/8 inch out of headphone jack to 1/8 inch into microphone jack, hit record, hit play.

/s/

carrotleads · on April 28, 2014

Thanks for those links.

Mixergy's founder has a easy style of interviewing and explaining things.

nate · on April 27, 2014

Clayton Christensen's Job to Be Done Analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f84LymEs67Y

It's the famous, what do people hire a milkshake for anecdote from his book Innovator's Solution.

That thinking has been instrumental in guiding me to make stuff (Draft) that people have really connected to and helped spread like crazy - all because I've spend considerable time studying the jobs people have and then tried to make those jobs simpler. It's such a simple way of thinking about it, and I think people ignore it because it sounds so simple, but then they routinely create products that are small aesthetic variations of someone elses product.

livestyle · on April 28, 2014

Agreed 100% Nate.

The aha moment really makes customer development make sense.

anthony_franco · on April 27, 2014

- David Heinmeier Hansson talks about the "secret" to making money online https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CDXJ6bMkMY

_ilv1 · on April 27, 2014

Thank you for posing this question! I'm going to love digging through these videos.

Here are mine:

From PandoDaily, Fireside Chat With Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yPfxcqEXhE

From CoinSumm.it, Bitcoin Fireside Chat with Marc Andreessen and Balaji Srinivasan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iir5J6Z3Z1Q

From The Lean Startup Conference, Marc Andreessen, Chris Dixon, and Eric Ries: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpwSzyqTG0E

And by far the one that made the biggest impression on me, from PandoDaily, Fireside Chat With Nasty Gal CEO Sophia Amoruso: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y04gnM57Sow

From that interview alone Sophia Amoruso became a huge role model for me.

compass-seeker · on April 27, 2014

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm looking forward to watching all of them, especially the Lean Startup Conference talk.

pirer · on April 28, 2014

I made a YouTube playlist of the videos on this thread, 22 hours!

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLr9dpcMyX8ls5Ry3hqCbQJ...

compass-seeker · on April 28, 2014

Awesome thanks!

gberger · on April 28, 2014

Nice! :)

rdl · on April 27, 2014

The "YC Female Founders Conference" was aimed at females interested in startups, but honestly the videos are applicable to everyone.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ-uHSnFig5PSIanlQ_x6...

josso · on April 27, 2014

For those still in college, I think Zach Holman's talk ”If Only I Knew This Shit in College” is pretty good. He describes why he thinks startups are great, what they allowed him to do, what made him join GitHub, and how to keep improving.

http://zachholman.com/talk/if-only-i-knew-this-shit-in-colle... http://vimeo.com/92087878

bennyg · on April 27, 2014

I think most of this stuff applies if you're in industry as well. Basically the gist is don't be a dick, keep improving, and here's how to tell if you should jump ship or if the company you work for is worth sailing with.

compass-seeker · on April 27, 2014

This looks awesome. Added to my plan to watch list! Keeping a playlist going for all these videos.

refrigerator · on April 27, 2014

Kevin Rose does awesome interviews with startup founders - http://www.foundation.kr

Splendor · on April 27, 2014

Along those lines there's also the Small Empires series that Alexis Ohanian did for The Verge. Here's all 10: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CE2TphJPgs&list=PLPCxoI2IU3...

compass-seeker · on April 27, 2014

These videos look great. Bookmarked.

joelrunyon · on April 28, 2014

Elon Musk on doing work when you're "not motivated" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOPgM7Sc2VQ

natejenkins · on April 27, 2014

5 Biggest Legal Mistakes That Startups Make by Scott Walker (we made 3 of these):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F_vbfiScoA

pirer · on April 27, 2014

Keith Rabois has helped build some of the most important companies in Silicon Valley including PayPal, LinkedIn and Square.

This talk shows huge tips quite relevant for startups (the role of a COO, why transparency matters, who to hire and more)

- the article: http://firstround.com/article/keith-rabois-on-the-role-of-a-...

- the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnvUtbIy5ts

PointerReaper · on April 27, 2014

For the small startup Mike Monteiro: F*ck You, Pay Me ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVkLVRt6c1U

compass-seeker · on April 27, 2014

The title alone was enough to get me to add it to my playlist.

huhtenberg · on April 27, 2014

startup.com is a must watch for anyone day-dreaming of a startup. Not a video though, but an 1.5 hour long documentary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibuiUXOTE4M

pallavkaushish · on April 28, 2014

The awesome talk 'Do what you love(no excuses!)' by Gary Vaynerchuk at TED pumps me up every time I watch it --> http://www.ted.com/talks/gary_vaynerchuk_do_what_you_love_no...

It's specially suitable for people who want to start something of their own but aren't able to.

Another great TED video is by Larry Smith - 'Why you will fail to have a great career' --> http://www.ted.com/talks/larry_smith_why_you_will_fail_to_ha...

I love the part when he says, what would you like to have engraved on your tombstone. I always had that feeling but this guy phrased it in words for me.

ConceitedCode · on April 27, 2014

Derek Sivers talks about how ideas don't necessarily have value, but are multipliers of value. This happens to me at least once a week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgaBvEO2LYY

FourthProtocol · on April 27, 2014

Purpose - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0257019/

While entertaining in its own right, it's interesting because (some people say) the movie somewhat chronicles the history of the Internet Solution (http://www.is.co.za), the South African internet service provider co-founded by Ronnie Apteker and eventually bought by Dimension Data. Ronnie wrote the script for Purpose. He's up there with Elon Musk and Mark Shuttleworth in terms of his impact on the South African tech scene.

cjbarber · on April 27, 2014

This is a fantastic thread.

However, as someone else mentioned below, videos are terrible - too hard to scan, and far slower rates of information transfer than text.

So, I had an idea. I'm going to pay for transcription of some videos, and will share the transcripts (free, of course).

I'm choosing a transcription service now and will try and have the first one within the next 7 days.

If this is interesting to you, give me your email to help me validate it and I'll send out the transcripts over email.

Videos I'm planning on getting transcribed first:

- All of the videos in the OP

- A few more Naval videos

- A few more Andreessen videos

Link to Google Form: http://goo.gl/Hy5ob1

architbhise · on April 27, 2014

Aaref Hilaly's keynote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIsiWro-Iao

Useful for anybody building an enterprise startup that does extensive B2B sales.

kinj28 · on April 30, 2014

I love my collection of videos on app from http://www.bizpunditz.com They have library on entrepreneurship to innovation to strategy...and many more directly from industry leaders

You can view the free ones here http://www.bizpunditz.com/Library

My personal favourite is http://www.bizpunditz.com/Videos/How-to-build-a-career by Tiger Tyagarajan

sagargv · on April 27, 2014

Yesterday, I saw Guy Kawasaki's talk on mistakes that entrepreneurs make.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHjgK6p4nrw

guybrushT · on April 27, 2014

2.52 minutes of Alan Watts - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UxrdQRODuc

i4i · on April 29, 2014

My favorite, because it's so full of great stories, is the Chris Sacca interview with Jason Calacanis on This Week In Startups. Pt.1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VOQnK7O2To Pt.2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK4ezQrTqFw

davidw · on April 27, 2014

If you like that kind of thing, both the Business of Software conference and MicroConf put a lot of their videos on line.

http://businessofsoftware.org/

http://www.microconf.com/

Personally, I can't stand videos. Way too slow, impossible to scan, and generally an inconvenient way of absorbing information.

alain94040 · on April 27, 2014

Agreed, which is why I prefer http://mixergy.com, it's audio only, easy to listen in the background, and it has a full transcript for quick scanning.

davidw · on April 27, 2014

Transcripts are great, but audio suffers from the same problems as video. If you're listening to it in the background, you aren't really listening to it. Try, for instance, listening to your "significant other" in the background while you stare at the screen and then attempt to gauge their opinion of your listening!

_jss · on April 27, 2014

Personal favorite is listening to Jerry Colonna on This Week in Startups. He talks of trials and tribulations of the startup life, acknowledging the often hidden fact that we're all humans: http://thisweekinstartups.com/jerry-colonna-independent-life...

dirktheman · on April 28, 2014

Doug Engelbart showing the first computer mouse, networking, a word processor, lists, a familiar UI, hypertext, basically all the modern computer stuff. In 1968, mind you! http://sloan.stanford.edu/mousesite/1968Demo.html

Nikolas0 · on April 27, 2014

"Peter Jones How we made our Millions" is a very good one with great lessons. Jones is trying to find out the DNA of an entrepreneur by interviewing two British entrepreneurs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foWMmY3xSuk

dirtyaura · on April 27, 2014

Eric Wahlfors of Soundcloud telling 4 stories about early phases of Soundcloud and bootstrapping. Especially how they reached their core user base of electronic musicians by (accidentally) organizing the coolest parties in Berlin.

http://vimeo.com/11420397

armansu · on April 27, 2014

Chamath Palihapitiya (who led the user growth at Facebook and currently the VC at The Social+Capital Partnership) at ThisWeekIn Startups. Very insightful! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHslS0QPMSc