Former Y Combinator CEO Michael Seibel: “Don’t be fake Steve Jobs”

“A lot of people think Steve jobs is this person to emulate but they have a false picture in their heads of what Steve Jobs was. They think that he dreamed perfect ideas out of his head and into the world.”

People look at the iPhone as an example of this. But they look at their iPhone today:

“Your iPhone today is f’ing magical. The first iPhone sucked in almost every way.”

The first iPhone had no 3G—even though 3G was a standard feature at the time. There was only one carrier so if you didn’t have AT&T, you had to switch carriers. The battery life was horrible and the screen cracked all the time. And there was no app store!

Everyone forgets this iPhone. And Michael agues that if you’re the person at your company who is saying “the product has to be this way” irrespective of what customers and everyone else are saying, you’re being “Fake Steve Jobs.”

“Real Steve Jobs released a sh*tty MVP that was revolutionary but still fairly sh*tty, and every year iterated it until you have the thing in your pocket right now which is pretty damn good. Real Steve Jobs iterates and talks to customers. Fake Steve Jobs just dreams and creates art. Don’t be Fake Steve Jobs.”

Full video: Y Combinator “Michael Seibel - Building Product” (Sep 2018)

P.S. We’ve put together a YouTube playlist with every Michael Seibel insight we’ve ever shared. You can watch it here: "Best startup advice from Michael Seibel"