Former Y Combinator CEO Michael Seibel: “Don’t be fake Steve Jobs”

Wrapping up a little bit here. I like to tell the story about fake Steve Jobs versus real Steve Jobs. A lot of people think that Steve Jobs is this person they should emulate, but they have a false picture in their heads of what Steve Jobs was. They think that like he dreamed perfect ideas out of his head and into the world. And what's funny is that I think oftentimes people look at the iPhone as a perfect example of this, but they look at their iPhone today. Your iPhone today is fucking magical. The first iPhone sucked in almost every way. And they don't realize that Steve Jobs wasn't somebody who was just not iterating, who just imagineer perfection minute one. Steve Jobs was iterating at every step. So I like to remind people what the first iPhone did. First iPhone, no. 3G, back when 3G was a standard feature. So, oh, you have this great Internet browser, but you can only use it on edge, which means it fucking sucks, right? One carrier. Oh, you don't have this carrier, sorry. Switch carriers, figure that out. Horrible battery life, screen cracked all the time. No app store, you can't even download other apps. That was the first iPhone. Everyone forgets that iPhone. So if you are the person in your company who is being fake Steve Jobs is saying the product has to be this way. Because what I said, fuck the customers, fuck everyone else, fuck you. Make the product the way I want it to be. You're being Fake Steve Jobs. Real Steve Jobs released a shitty MVP that was revolutionary, but still fairly shitty. And every year iterated it until you have the thing in your pocket right now, which is pretty damn good. Real Steve Jobs iterates and talks to customers. Fake Steve Jobs just dreams and creates art. Don't be Fake Steve Jobs.