David Cancel
davidcancel.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2008
David Cancel, a startup founder and executive, writes about startup lessons, positioning, data-driven companies, and books for entrepreneurs.
What HN saysHN commenters repeatedly cite his post on startup lessons learned the hard way, including its point that no repeatable pattern leads to startup success.
22HN people shared it
7linked it in comments
47stories submitted
612story points
12 years agolast shared
2008people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Startup Lessons I Learned the Hard Way4 people · 69 points · first shared 2010 · 12 comments on HN
- 2Startup Lessons from Constant Contact3 people · 27 points · first shared 2010 · 6 comments on HN
- 3True Startup Competition3 people · 24 points · first shared 2011 · 7 comments on HN
- 4How to Build a Data-Driven Startup2 people · 129 points · first shared 2010 · 20 comments on HN
- 5Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read2 people · 108 points · first shared 2009 · 21 comments on HN
- 6The golden rule for positioning your Startup or Product2 people · 17 points · first shared 2013 · 1 comments on HN
- 7Using Amazon S3 As a CDN?2 people · 16 points · first shared 2008 · discussion on HN
- 8Startups: What Really Matters Most2 people · 8 points · first shared 2012 · discussion on HN
- 9Building the Salesforce.com of Marketing (Startup Pivot)2 people · 5 points · first shared 2011 · discussion on HN
- 10Micro Experts2 people · 3 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 11Warning Signs That Your Product Sucks1 people · 52 points · first shared 2010 · 28 comments on HN
- 12Keep Your Startup Virtual1 people · 41 points · first shared 2009 · 14 comments on HN
- 13Our Startup’s Secret Weapon1 people · 21 points · first shared 2011 · 3 comments on HN
- 14Using Amazon S3 as CDN, Part 2 - Cacheability1 people · 16 points · first shared 2008 · discussion on HN
- 15Announcing ABTests.com1 people · 10 points · first shared 2009 · 6 comments on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
sudonim · 2012-04-03
Today was day 2 of being full-time for me and my cofounder. We make it easy to build automated emails and measure whether users do the thing you want them to. You can imagine my heart skipped a beat this morning when a prospective customer emailed saying Intercom rolled out (part of) what we do.
I figured it was coming, but I didn't know when. Day 2 was sooner than I had expected. I don't know who else this has happened to (I'd love to hear about it) but it definitely makes you pause to think. Intercom is doing a phenomenal job both on their blog and their product. Ultimately, on Day 2 with this feature release, I learned what is best summed up in this blog post by David Cancel http://davidcancel.com/true-startup-competition/:
"a startup only has one real competitor, indifference"
This one event could flip our plan on it's head. Instead, I'm taking it as great validation. We were right about what we're building.
iamscanner · 2011-05-16
No problem! I couldn't find it at the time, but I managed to dig up this link for you too: http://davidcancel.com/true-startup-competition/
alicia_lew · 2011-03-10
I enjoyed this article a lot, I wish someone would write a UIUX version of this. It reminds me of this article, which I have pinned up in my studio. http://davidcancel.com/3-startup-lessons-i-learned-the-hard-way/
There's nothing like a little perspective as inspiration for projects.
farout · 2011-01-22
this is exactly what David Cancel said in his post Oct 2010
http://davidcancel.com/3-startup-lessons-i-learned-the-hard-way/:
Believe me failing sucks really bad but there are no repeatable patterns that lead to startup success. None. Stop looking for one and just f*ing do it (#JFDI).
jim_h · 2010-07-26
This was posted a couple of days ago. (I knew this looked familiar.)
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1542484
Here is the direct link to David Cancel's site with the article. http://davidcancel.com/data-driven-startups/
wmf · 2008-06-05
S3's performance is significantly worse than real CDNs: http://davidcancel.com/2008/05/29/using-amazon-s3-as-a-cdn/