Jack Altman

@jack_altman

@rrhoover you'll like this -- I was honestly shocked at how substantial launching on product hunt was for us. It drove thousands of sign ups and tons of users that have stuck with us and brought their whole teams onto the product. Another big surprise has been how willing potential customers are to help you figure out what to build. Most people are generous and really like young startups, and if people want what you're trying to build for them they will tell you what you need to build to get there.

11 share tweet・a year ago

Aileen Mayers

@ailee_mayers

@jaltma nice

Scott Levy

@sclevy · Biz Ops at Teespring

Hey Jack! My question is: what's the most important thing to focus on culture-wise when building a company in the early stages? What about as it grows?

4 share tweet・a year ago

@jack_altman

@sclevy I think one of the most important things with company building, both in the early days and as it grows, is establishing a culture of trust. Generally the best way to do this is by being as transparent and direct as possible (I think there is almost no upper limit on how transparent companies should be, except for a few HR related issues). When people aren't worried about whether or not they have complete information, they tend to focus more on their work and not on worrying about what they do or don't know.

6 share tweet・a year ago

Jacqueline von Tesmar

@jacqvon · Community, Product Hunt ✌️😻

What are the first tabs you open on your computer/phone every morning?

4 share tweet・a year ago

@jack_altman

@jacqvon always phone first (of course): email, twitter, calendar, mixpanel

Jacqueline von Tesmar

@jacqvon · Community, Product Hunt ✌️😻

What are the 3 resources that have most improved your life? (blogs, books, movies, advisors, etc)

3 share tweet・a year ago

@jack_altman

@jacqvon in the past 6 months, @saastr from @jasonlk has been a big new one for me. A lot of people write blog posts that are helpful for big picture thinking but his posts are just so concrete and I find myself using a lot of them in real practice the day or week I read them. Advisors make a massive difference. Naming the specific people probably isn't as helpful as the general point that your world view will end up being highly influencer by the people you spend the most time with / listen to the most carefully. So pick some good people that you want to triangulate yourself between and listen to them carefully!

Syed Ahmed

@tabishis · Altimus Solutions, Inc.

Do you think MOOCs will eventually replace traditional learning, specifically tech focused learning? Do you invest in products that are focused on solving problems for MOOC students?

@jack_altman

@tabishis I think MOOCs will end up with a dramatically larger share of the education pie than they currently have, but I don't think they will replace traditional or in person education entirely. I haven't before but I think it's a huge market and problem to solve.

Felipe Vásquez

@fillipvt

Hello Jack how did you decide on your pricing (Lattice)? I did a bit of graph. http://imgur.com/7FoVKv8

@jack_altman

@fillipvt pretty arbitrarily -- we looked at the pricing model of a company we respected and went with some similar. We've gotten feedback that it's confusing so we're going to move to regular per user per month model!

Thomas Stöcklein

@tomstocklein · FoundersFundersFuture.com

Hi Jack, Thanks for doing this ProductHunt AMA. I'm curious about your pricing strategy for Lattice. How did you arrive at the current pricing model? What have you guys done in terms of A/B testing and implementing customer feedback into the current pricing structure. $10/month for up to 10 users seems very affordable (maybe even priced too low?), but then your pricing jumps to $75/month for 15 users.

@jack_altman

@tomstocklein pretty arbitrarily -- we looked at the pricing model of a company we respected and went with some similar. We've gotten feedback that it's confusing so we're going to move to regular per user per month model! We haven't A/B tested pricing at all yet, but based just on the confusion around it we're going to move to a flat per seat rate.

Emily Hodgins

@ems_hodge · Community and Marketing, Product Hunt

During your career to date, you've so much to be proud of. Is there anything that you regret, or perhaps might have done differently with retrospect?

@jack_altman

@ems_hodge my first year out of college I did investment banking, mostly just because it was the thing to do any a lot of people at my school did it. I went into pretty thoughtlessly and for random reasons, and really didn't enjoy it. I've been much better at things I like doing, so instead of trying to map out a 5-10 year career plan I try to ask myself "what would I like to work on when I wake up tomorrow?" and make decisions largely based on that. My hope is that that ultimately makes me happier and more successful!

Karim Daghari

@karimdaghari · i make stuff.

Hi Jack, thanks for being with us. My questions are, as a seed investor what do you look for in a startup? (Growth? The vision? The business model? The team?), and do you have any advice for solo founders (with no history, i.e first startup) on how to approach (seed) investors?

@jack_altman

@karimdaghari broadly, I look at team, market, and product. In general, the earlier the company the more the team matters since you are betting on them to pick a good market and build a good product. I might even look at market more heavily than even team or product once there is a little traction. I think great markets can pull many companies along for the ride and if people really want what the team is building that is such a powerful driver.

upvote share tweet・a year ago

@jack_altman

@karimdaghari in terms of solo founders -- first thing is make sure you have a good support network :) startups are hard and if I didn't have @ekosz1 I would probably have gone crazy a couple times by now. In terms of approaching investors, I think it's the same deal. Why is what you're building important, why are you able to do it. Just needs some extra convincing because there's only one of you, so convince them you can recruit a great team.