Lenny's Podcast · Jul 31He saved OpenAI, invented the “Like” button, and built Google Maps: Bret Taylor (Sierra)
Eleven of its 12 people were engineers, and it lost to Twitter because it polished the product and ignored distribution. At least 70% of comments were one-word replies, which led to the like button.
Tips
- Distrust the fix that matches your own superpower▶ 23:03Taylor's FriendFeed team was 11 engineers polishing product while Twitter won by bringing in celebrities.
- Get outside advisors who tell you what you don't want to hear▶ 27:48FriendFeed lost ground when Obama, Ashton Kutcher and Oprah joined Twitter in one summer, though FriendFeed was faster and stayed up.
- Pick a one-click interaction to pull low-value comments out▶ 1:26:18A teammate, Anna Yang, said a heart on every post would make her vomit.
