16 - Emmett Shear - How to Run a User Interview

16 - Emmett Shear - How to Run a User Interview

Author: Y Combinator and Stanford University: Sam Altman, Dustin Moskovitz, Paul Graham, Adora Cheung, Peter Thiel, Alex Schultz, Kevin Hale, Marc Andreessen, Ron Conway, Ben Silbermann, Alfred Lin, Patrick and John Collison, Aaron Levie, Reid Hoffman & more January 6, 2016 Duration: 46:27

Building product, and talking to users. In the early stages of your startup, those are the two things you should focus on.

In this lecture, Emmett Shear, Founder and CEO of Justin.tv and Twitch, covers the latter. What can you learn by talking to users that you can’t learn by looking at data? What questions should you ask? How can user interviews define or redefine your product goals?

From YC Startup Class - How to Start a Startup - Stanford CS183B

Lecture Transcript: tech.genius.com/Emmett-shear-lecture-16-how-to-run-a-user-interview-annotated

See the slides and readings at startupclass.samaltman.com/courses/lec16/

Discuss this lecture: startupclass.co/courses/how-to-start-a-startup/lectures/64045

Click to view: show page on Awesound


What began as a Stanford University lecture series has become an essential audio resource for anyone curious about building a company from the ground up. How to Start a Startup captures the full, unedited course originally presented by Sam Altman and Y Combinator, turning decades of hard-won Silicon Valley experience into a practical curriculum. Instead of abstract theory, you’ll hear founders and investors like Paul Graham, Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman, and Marc Andreessen dissect the real mechanics of entrepreneurship. They cover the messy, critical details often glossed over-from crafting a compelling idea and assembling a founding team to navigating early fundraising, product development, and growth before product-market fit is even clear. This podcast stands out because each guest, including operators like Adora Cheung, Alex Schultz, and the Collison brothers, speaks directly from their own dramatic successes and failures. The conversations are refreshingly candid, stripping away the glamour to focus on executable advice and foundational principles. Whether you're actively working on a venture or just exploring the mindset, this series provides a rare, concentrated dose of wisdom from people who have actually done it. The collective knowledge in this audio course is formidable, offering a persistent reference that listeners return to at different stages of their own journey.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 20

How to Start a Startup
Podcast Episodes
08 - How to Get Started, Doing Things that Don't Scale, Press [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:13
Lecture 8 features 3 speakers:Stanley Tang, Founder of Doordash, covers How to Get Started.Walker Williams, Founder of Teespring, covers Doing things that Don't Scale.Justin Kan, Founder of TwitchTV and Partner at Y Comb…
07 - Kevin Hale - How to Build Products Users Love [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:02
Kevin Hale, Founder of Wufoo and Partner at Y Combinator, explains how to build products that create a passionate user base invested in your startup's success.This is lecture 7 from startupclass.coLinks:Transcript of thi…
06 - Alex Schultz - Growth [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:27
Alex Schultz gives an overview of Growth for startups, speaking from a position of authority as the VP of Growth at Facebook.Lecture Transcript: tech.genius.com/Alex-schultz-lecture-6-growth-annotatedView the readings Al…
05 - Peter Thiel - Competition is for Losers [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 50:16
Business Strategy and Monopoly TheoryPeter Thiel, founder of Paypal and Palantir, discusses business strategy and monopoly theory in "Competition is For Losers".Lecture Transcript: tech.genius.com/Peter-thiel-lecture-5-b…
04 - Adora Cheung - Building Product, Talking to Users, and Growing [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:22
So you have an idea. How do you go from zero users to many users?Adora Cheung, Founder of Homejoy, covers Building Product, Talking to Users, and Growing, in Lecture 4 of How to Start a Startup.Lecture Transcript: tech.g…
03 - Paul Graham - Before the Startup [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:07
Counterintuitive Parts of Startups, and How to Have IdeasPaul Graham delivers an informative (and highly amusing) talk, addressing counterintuitive parts of startups, in Lecture 3 of How to Start a Startup.Lecture Transc…
02 - Sam Altman - Team and Execution [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:19
Sam Altman finishes up "Ideas, Products, Teams and Execution" by covering Team and Execution, in Lecture 2 of How to Start a Startup.Links:Blog post: Stupid Apps and Changing the World by Sam AltmanBlog post: Do things t…