tw-rl

15 years ago this startup had 9 employees working for free. Today it's the 2nd most visited site in the world. There are a few strategies that seperate remarkable companies from the rest. Here are 9 insights from @YouTube's pitch deck that led to their $1.65B acquisition👇

Tip #1: Make your vision actionable I love a grand vision, but if it can't be measured it can't be achieved. They want to be: ✅ The primary outlet of user-generated video ✅ Allow anyone to upload, share and browse this content Create a compelling and measurable vision.

Tip #2: Solve your own problems Steve Chen, the co-founder, took a video of a birthday party. They wanted to email the video to guests but the file was too large. That's when they thought of YouTube. Solving your own problem gives you unique insights. Focus there.

Tip #3: Good product > growth hack YouTube wasn't taking off. They posted on Craigslist saying if any attractive females posted videos to YouTube they would pay them money 😂 That didn't work. What did work is when they created community features in their product.

Tip #4: Build where the market is growing Their current stats: ✔️ 5B videos views a day ✔️ 500m hours of video uploaded a minute ✔️ 2nd most visited site (after Google) In hindsight it's obvious that a video network would be huge. Find maturing markets and build there.

Tip #5: Don't focus on the competition Competition is rarely why companies fail. Now, YouTube is valued well over $160b. Vimeo is going public in Q2 at around a $6b valuation. And 80% of daily motion got acquired for $241m in 2015. Business isn't a zero sum game.

Tip #6: Focus on your core product YouTube after all of these years still has the same core functionality. They didn't get info photos or gifs. They didn't try to copy Instagram. Continue to perfect your core product and everything else will figure itself out.

Tip #7: Know your bread and butter Advertising is still their bread and butter In 2020 YouTube's ad revenue was $19.7b (I helped contribute to that). It took 10 years to launch YouTube premium and YouTube TV. And YouTube premium is basically just an ad blocker on their videos

Tip #8: Find your people YouTube is part of the "PayPal mafia". Steve originally came up with the idea, Chad was the designer, and Jawed is the guy from YouTubes first video "Me at the Zoo". They recruited people to work for free who believed in their vision.

Tip #9: Be patient YouTube was: Founded on 2/14/2005 Acquired on 10/9/2006 That's a year a half to a $1b acquisition. This is how people portray success, but it's rarely how it happens. Take your time, and don't measure your success next to someone else.

Thanks for reading. Follow @Adam_Ha_Yes for more. I'm going to be doing Mint next! RT greatly appreciated 🙏

Takeaways #1 Make your vision actionable #2 Solve your own problems #3 Good product > growth hacking #4 Build where the market is growing #5 Don't focus on the competition #6 Focus on your core product #7 Know your bread and butter #8 Find your people #9 Be patient