04 - Adora Cheung - Building Product, Talking to Users, and Growing

What if you could sit in on the most practical business seminar ever assembled? That’s the experience offered by How to Start a Startup, a podcast that brings a legendary Stanford University lecture series directly to you. Originally organized by Sam Altman and Y Combinator, this isn't theoretical fluff-it's a direct transmission of hard-won knowledge from people who have actually built companies. Each episode features a different luminary breaking down a fundamental piece of the startup puzzle. You’ll hear Paul Graham on the core of what makes a company, Peter Thiel on competition and monopolies, and Adora Cheung on the gritty reality of executing an idea. The roster extends to voices like Marc Andreessen, Reid Hoffman, and the Collison brothers, offering perspectives on fundraising, product design, hiring, and culture. This podcast functions as a complete, sequential course. The conversations are dense with actionable advice, from formulating your initial idea and talking to users, to scaling a team and navigating the complexities of company leadership. It’s a masterclass in turning an ambition into a functioning organization, with every lecture grounded in real-world success and failure. For anyone with an entrepreneurial itch, this series provides the foundational toolkit, straight from the investors and founders who shaped Silicon Valley.